When learning about your company, people from the outside world trust what they hear from employees more than any other spokesperson. A recent study from Edelman confirmed this, and says not only do they want to hear from employees about how customers and employees are treated, but other issues including business practices and financial performance.
This makes sense, and it’s one reason Glassdoor is such a valuable avenue to job seekers and beyond. Our company relies entirely on employee stories to create authentic employer branding content for our clients, so I’m sold on what using real stories can do to communicate current state organizational culture. I love how Glassdoor provides its users with a forum to tell authentic stories.
Here are some ideas on how you can encourage your workforce to use Glassdoor as a storytelling medium.
1. Embrace it and promote it as an avenue.
We love companies that use Glassdoor for all of its advantages. One of our clients, the Chief People Officer at a financial services company, asked at an all-hands how many new people in the room went to Glassdoor during the interview process. As longer tenured employees looked around the room, they got the message: Glassdoor reviews are part of the decision-making process for new colleagues. Our client asked the group to take some time to write a review. Not a positive review, just a review. Encouraging participation and reminding your workforce it’s an important avenue for future colleagues is clearly one way to embrace the medium.
For those that think Glassdoor reviews are written only by the disgruntled, realize that those reviews shouldn’t be dismissed. They contain valuable information. The CEO of one of our client companies was surprised about what he read, started personally responding, and made changes based on the negative reviews to positive results (lower turnover, better overall ratings).
Another CEO told us that he wanted even those employees that didn’t work out to leave feeling great about the company. With this mentality and taking a play from Zappos, they started giving generous severance packages to those who weren’t fitting in with the culture—as it was nothing personal—and they wanted those people to take the time to find the right fit the next time. Responding to what you read and taking it seriously enough to make organizational changes is another way to embrace the medium.
2. Take it further. Please, encourage stories.
So you’re encouraging employees to be brand ambassadors by using Glassdoor reviews. Great. As a story-person, I would love Glassdoor reviews to get specific. The typical review is not helpful for a discerning candidate to get the real scoop. “Great benefits” or “poor leadership” is not helpful. “I love it here” and “I hate it here” are also not helpful. Some people are happy here and some people are not. That’s every organization. Given the lack of real examples, candidates know enough so that they’re not walking into a total disaster of a workplace, but not enough to self-select given cultural nuances.
Encouraging people to tell stories is tricky, since reviews are anonymous and the people who are currently employed and hating it are not likely going to rant specifically about things that could improve at their organization.
But there’s a way to talk about work in a meaty way, with examples, that doesn’t include your mother’s maiden name. I recently read reviews of clients we’ve worked with, whose cultures we really know, and—for every generic comment—I knew a story I had heard that better proved the point.
As an example, one of our client contacts was asked to develop and manage a communications plan for an acquisition—a giant, visible project with a quick turnaround. Even though acquisitions are commonplace at this company, there was no system in place for communicating what was going to happen to the acquired company’s employees or the acquiring company’s employees, and it had been a source of stress every time her company acquired a smaller organization. She is early in her career, new to the communications team, and had minimal training, but she knocked it out of the park. Now she’s responsible for communicating important, sensitive information related to culture transitions and acquisitions. This is just one example of how her company takes talented people and gives them crazy challenges, with limited training.
Her organization’s Glassdoor reviews consistently mirror this experience:
- “This environment is fast paced, challenging, and pushes me to do great work.” (This was listed as a pro)
- “It’s learn as you go.” (This was listed as a con)
But with the story, you can picture yourself doing the work: ‘I would absolutely hate it,’ or ‘That’s exactly what I need to jump levels of experience ahead.’
3. Share content you create using employee stories on Glassdoor.
I love Glassdoor because it’s an open platform. But, if you really want your bright spots to contribute in meaningful ways, and asking them to write something isn’t enough (and pressuring team members to do it is not an option/not in the spirit of the platform), let them tell their stories in other ways.
Glassdoor allows organizations to post content they create on their pages. So, this could be pictures, or comic strips, or videos, or an infographic. Get the story, and the storyteller’s permission to share it, and create it yourself (or ask a story-based digital agency like ours for help).
The important thing is to get your workforce talking about their experience in an authentic way to the outside world. Candidates trust their perspective, and they want to hear from them more than anyone else at your company. Encourage your colleagues to share whatever specific experiences are meaningful to them so candidates have real information to align with the right organization for the long term. And, using Glassdoor as a storytelling platform is a no-brainer. Candidates are already there, trying to get the skinny on working for you! Dale in accounting can’t wait to tell them all about how your company supported him as he studied for the CPA exam (just ask him).
