We live in a world where transparency is king when it comes to workplace culture. People today, more than ever before, have not just many options when it comes to their career choices – they have information. Companies can no longer attract great talent on the basis of their revenue or products and services alone.
Case in point – a recent LinkedIn survey revealed that, according to jobs seekers, a company’s employer brand (what it is like to work at the company) was more than twice as likely to affect their job considerations than what the company actually does. Think about that for a minute: what matters most to prospective candidates these days is not that the company has great products or had a great year financially, but that they are aligned with the culture and their potential colleagues. The availability of information out there for candidates is at an all-time high. One of the biggest resources for job seekers, whether active or passively looking, is Glassdoor.
You can’t ignore Glassdoor
Companies can no longer ignore Glassdoor, because Glassdoor forces us to re-think company culture and retention strategies. Forward-thinking organizations embrace Glassdoor and proactively engage their employees to take part, as an effort to both attract and retain employees. I see a ton of value in this, even when the review or feedback is less than positive. I read all of the reviews we receive and respond personally whenever possible. We also often discuss as a company at our all-hands meetings that we view Glassdoor as a positive way to share feedback and encourage everyone to write a review - good or bad - as long as they are being honest. The way we see it, if our team is being honest about working at CloudLock in their reviews, it will help candidates considering us an employer to either self-select in or out.
Today is a big day for us in terms of Glassdoor. We reached a milestone of 50 reviews and a five star rating – the highest possible rating on the site. I am incredibly proud of this achievement, not just because of the rating itself but because our employees, past and present, took the time and had enough pride in our company to write a review of their own accord.
We do have a wonderful culture here, but by no means do I think we are perfect. We really appreciate the feedback we receive – even in the “cons” section – and I personally respond to as many reviews as possible. More importantly, we incorporate this feedback into our leadership meetings on ways we can improve the experience of working at CloudLock for our employees. In my opinion, this kind of feedback can be more powerful than any employee survey, as the ability to be anonymous and not mandated truly does result in some great feedback and insights.
The secret to a great company culture is great people. Everybody at CloudLock is incentivized to stretch and grow. We truly believe everybody is better now than they were before they joined CloudLock. We each improve individually and as an organization, which is then compounded with great talent in one place. Great people don’t just want to join something that is good, they want to join something that will continuously get better. That is why our Glassdoor presence and response is so key.
We are very proud of this achievement today, as we are still very much in growth mode as a company, with less than 150 employees globally. The fact that we have 50 reviews reflects that, much like someone would be proud of their favorite sports team or college they attended, our employees are equally as proud of working at CloudLock. It gives me great pride personally to know that we are delivering the best possible career opportunities for our team. Today we celebrate 50 reviews at five stars and look forward to what the next 50 reviews will bring and what we can learn from them.
Key takeaways
- Awareness and transparency. To get your teams involved with Glassdoor, the first step is to let them know it is something that you as a company deem important. When you wear your reviews with pride and listen to your employees (past, present and future), they will appreciate that you are truly transparent for the sake of improvement rather than self-interest of recruiting or public image.
- Don’t push. Let your team know that while you would appreciate it if they wrote a review, by no means is it mandatory. If you ask, instead of push, you will most likely get a better and more honest response.
- Encourage honesty. Let your employees know that whether they love your company or have some concerns, an honest and genuine review is what really matters. This will help attract the right people for your company and have the wrong fits self-select out if the feedback is accurate and honest.
- Learn from and respond to the reviews. If you have been successful in encouraging honesty, then you can really glean a lot of great feedback, even from negative reviews. There are opportunities here to get some feedback and input that you would never see on mandated internal employee engagement surveys. Use this feedback and learn from it to correct the go-forward course. Responding to reviews on Glassdoor also shows potential candidates as well as existing employees that you are listening – which is always a good thing.
