Millions of job seekers rely on Glassdoor's reviews and other user-submitted content to find jobs and companies they love. At the same time, employers also rely on the critical feedback to improve their company cultures, team dynamics and hear from the entire organization. The latest Glassdoor research shows that nine out of 10 job seekers find the “employer perspective” useful and six in 10 say their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review. For these reasons, it’s important to respond to reviews thoughtfully.
Here are 9 insightful reviews we found plus the responses from employers that wowed us even more!
TransUnion
“Excellent work-life balance with top-notch benefits. The management team really seems to care about their employees. You may have to work late/from home sometimes when the company needs you to, but that is balanced with the ability to work from home when YOU need to; its a fair trade.” —Current Software Developer
Company Response:
“Hi there, happy to see you're able to use our technology to work when and where you need to. We've spent a lot of time investing in our collaboration technology to ensure you have the flexibility you need. Thanks for your feedback and hopefully your experience at TU continues to be positive.” —Mohit Kapoor, CTO
HubSpot
“It’s great that you want HubSpot to be parent-friendly, but don’t forget about those that aren’t parents or those that don’t want to be parents. Investing in our future starts with helping us with our retirement. Not increasing the 401k is lame. We are not on par with other companies. Everything else is great! But this piece is missing and even a little more would make a difference.” —Current Employee
Company Response:
“Thanks for the review and the feedback--we aren't forgetting about the 401k, it's the only benefit we increased two years in a row before this year. So the choice isn't "families" or "401k"--we did the 401k and pension increase the two years before so in Year 3 we decided to change it up. Rest assured we haven't forgotten about it as a benefit, we just hadn't change our family leave in years, so it was time to revisit that this year then revisit 401k and pension in years to come. Hope that helps clarify--as someone without kids, I can certainly relate to people feeling like we chose "family" over other options, but the reality is we are trying to navigate a path forward that is fair and inclusive to everyone--hope that helps for context, please feel free to ping me directly if you want to chat further. Thanks again for taking the time to write up a review.”—Katie Burke, Chief People Officer
Quotient
“Quotient has been a wonderful company starting out. Several things worth pointing out are within the overall atmosphere. Since Quotient is a small business, it allows the management team to easily help everyone get acquainted with the overall job feel. My fellow team members have been wonderful helping me get setup in my developer area. Quotient does fun and interesting things such as having a large celebration once a month for all employees with birthdays that month. The hiring process was wonderful and easily streamlined. All expectations were made clear throughout the entire process. I look forward to making a full career at Quotient by achieving the expectations placed in front of me.” —Current Junior Developer
Company Response:
“Okay, I just got up off the floor. Think I passed out for a sec when I read your comment about the hiring process being "wonderful" and "streamlined." Are you sure you have the right Quotient? We tried to make it less burdensome while maintaining compliance. Maybe we've nailed it. Thanks for noticing. BTW - If it's all the same to you, we'd like to consider this a "New Teammate Review." Great to have you on the team! PEACE!!” —Jodi Lare, CEO
Zillow
Employee Review:
“They treat you like a person, not an employee. That's reflected in the benefits and how management approaches employees, no yelling and screaming about challenges, just collaboration and ideas. The office environment is very fun, and expansive (can only speak for Seattle). It is a very challenging company due to the pace and ingenuity around every corner, which is awesome. If you apply yourself, you'll go somewhere. Yes, office politics exist, but generally, it's a meritocracy.”
“It's hard to write cons because I genuinely enjoy the company. But first off, if you're a recovering alcoholic, STAY AWAY, or have your sponsor on speed dial. Unsecured booze is in every corner of EVERY floor, stashed in closets, in every fridge with teams taking jello shots in public kitchens. It's very hard to deal with in sobriety. Almost every event has booze, morale events are at bars, gifts are generally booze etc. Be firm in your sobriety or do not work here.” —Current Employee
Company Response:
“Thank you for your thoughtful and balanced review. It is great to hear your positive experiences. I would love to discuss your concerns further, please reach out to me at dans@zillowgroup.com . We work hard to maintain a respectful work environment and humor at others' expense is not in line with that. All activities, but inside and outside the office, that include alcohol are completely voluntary. We also have resources and support for anyone battling addiction. Your observations and concerns help us better understand how we can improve and I welcome the chance to discuss them live. Thanks for everything you do at ZG.” — Dan Spaulding, Chief People Officer
Autodesk
Employee Review:
“I’ve met some of the most talented people ever during my time at Autodesk. It's also given me the opportunity for both lateral and upward career development. And, it really is inspiring to be exposed to the creative and sometimes world-changing things our customers design and make with our software.”
“Autodesk like many tech companies conducts org changes very frequently, it's not uncommon to shift between groups or find yourself with a new boss every 1-2 years. It's also highly matrixed, so to be successful you need great navigation, collaboration and influencing skills. If neither of those sounds appealing to you, look elsewhere.”—Current Employee
Company Response:
“Thank you for your review! We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience working at Autodesk. We strive to create an open culture at Autodesk and value feedback so that we can become an even better company.” —Talent Brand & Social Media Manager
E. & J. Gallo
Employee Review:
“There are endless opportunities to explore and advance your career at Gallo. [However, there is a] lack of diversity at highest levels of the organization. Workplace diversity can lead to increased revenue, reduced costs, greater innovation, and increased employee engagement, productivity, and commitment.” —Current Director
Company Response:
“Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful review. We are so fortunate to have leaders like you who are passionate about Gallo. With regards to your “advice to management,” we certainly appreciate and value your feedback. We take pride in our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion, and would love to continue the conversation with you. Please feel free to reach out to me directly or via feedback@ejgallo.com. Thanks again for all you do and I hope to hear from you soon.” —Human Resources Leadership
Madwire
Employee Review:
“Madwire is an extremely fast-growing company and a wonderful place to work! The CEO truly cares about each individual, welcomes creativity, and leads by example. The culture at Madwire is the best I've ever worked for and everyone is authentic and loves what they do. Training processes are great and really help people to feel comfortable in each position. The managers are always willing to help and will take time out of their day to dedicate to helping you if needed. Because Madwire is growing so rapidly, there are a lot of changes that happen fairly frequently, which can be stressful for some.” —Current Lead Social Media Manager
Company Response:
“Thank you! Appreciate the feedback. Change is constant for sure around here! With regards to hiring, with on-boarding 30+ people per month currently there's usually 300+ interviews involved with that. So it's very time consuming, which is why we've shifted to the group interview process, etc.. recently which has been working great and will allow us to scale without consuming so much of everyone's time. The initial group interviews have also proven to help the "stars" stand out much more than before which was an un-intended benefit from this process change.” —Joe Kellogg, Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Nestlé Purina
Employee Review:
“Overall a great place to work. Great maternity leave policy. I wish the company were more flexible on PTO for new hires with many years of experience. Paternity leave policy is lacking, 2 weeks should be minimum time off in my opinion. I wish flextime/work-life balance options didn't vary manager to manager for the same job. Within my group it seems like you are negatively judged for taking advantage of these opportunities even when you are working your hours and getting your work done perfectly well.” —Current Employee
Company Response:
“We appreciate you taking the time to provide us with feedback and we’re happy to hear your pleased overall. It sounds like we have some work to do in the PTO space, however. Note the recent changes in salaried PTO as a result of a recent competitive analysis of work/life benefits – we’ll continue to analyze if we’re providing completive benefits to our associates and make adjustments along the way. You also mention our maternity leave as a “pro”, know that the Parent Support Policy is applicable to all primarily caregivers including male associates and adoptive parents. Again, we appreciate your feedback and hope that you feel empowered to take advantage of all the benefits you’re provided – they’re just a small way to say ‘thank you’ for your hard work.” —Human Resources
Fast Enterprises
Employee Review:
“Great compensation, benefits, company events, etc. Opportunity to move somewhere new. Opportunity to meet people from all over the world. If location matters to you, this job may not be for you. While they have some attractive locations, it's basically a roll of the dice whether or not you will go to one of them. Work/life balance could be better. The overtime is paid, which is great, but if you are looking for 40 hrs a week and free weekends you might want to look elsewhere.” —Former Implementation Consultant
Company Response:
“Thank you for your review. We are pleased to see that you enjoyed working with FASTies and exploring new places with the company.
Regarding your comment on location, you are correct, employees do not have complete control over their work location. No more control than any consulting company does in selecting its clients. Our business is modernizing government agencies. The projects are massive undertakings that generally go through a competitive bidding process. We don’t control what agencies “go shopping” for a new system at any given time, and no “win” is ever guaranteed. It is important that candidates understand this when considering a position with FAST (or any consulting company) and we make every effort to explain this in our recruiting process.
One of the benefits of our success in the industry has been the growth in our client base, and thus the number of locations we do work. This gives us more opportunities to match our Implementation Consultants to locations that appeal to them. Internally, we have implemented tools to give employees a means to communicate their preferences to our staffing coordinators, and a greater say in where their next adventure will be. Finally, it’s important for FASTies to understand that a location’s “attractiveness” is in the eye of the beholder at a given point in time. There are people who love California, New York City, North Dakota, Mississippi, Finland, Malaysia and there are people who don’t. Generally, who we look for are people who set aside preconceptions, and approach new people and places with an open mind and sense of adventure.
Regarding you comment that “Work/Life balance could be better”: Leaders are often the ones who work not only the smartest, but also the hardest. FAST is the leader in this industry. We hope that FASTies are proud to be part of something special and unique, and that they recognize that their hard work helps keep us on this path. Someone for whom a 40-hr standard work week, and 100% predictability are the priority may not be a good match with FAST. That said, we recognize work/life balance is important to sustaining our success” —HR
(Read the rest of the response here!)
