Every year in early December, Glassdoor announces the annual Employees’ Choice Awards for the Best Places to Work. For the winners, it’s an exciting time. And for those who didn’t make the list, it brings up questions – most commonly: why didn’t my company make the Best Places to Work List?
So we’ve compiled a list of the top 5 reasons your company may not have made the list this year – plus “the fix” for each. Obviously there’s no way to guarantee a spot, but your focused attention to addressing each of the following issues is the best way to improve your employer brand, energize your employees and attract top talent.
1. Your employer profile is not up to date
Keeping your company information up to date is critical for showing candidates you’re engaged. Update the basic information job seekers are looking for and set up reminders to periodically update things like company size and standard metrics. Serving up these pieces of information in an easy-to-access format is critical to keeping their attention. It also serves as a filter for job seekers who aren’t the right fit to self-select out of applying for your jobs. After all, if someone isn’t willing to commute to your office location or your company size is too big or small for their liking, better not to waste everyone’s time.
The fix: To update your logo, click on your current logo, located at the bottom left hand side of your cover photo. Select the camera icon that says “Update.” You’ll be taken to a window to pick the file you want to use. Select “Choose.” Adjust the positioning and select “Save.” To update company information, select the pencil icon. Edit the fields displayed, then select “Save” to implement the changes.
2. You don’t have enough reviews
Potential candidates want to see lots of candid reviews about your company. And it doesn’t matter if they’re all positive. They’re on the hunt for the real story. They’re not easily impressed by the perfect company culture content all tied up with a neat bow; they want the good, the bad and the ugly thrown into the mix. It is this mentality to uncover more that has led companies like Glassdoor to become a popular choice for candidates’ search for the truth. And this is exactly why several categories on this employment branding report relied on data from sites such as Glassdoor, including employee reviews, candidate experience, accolades, CEO ratings and more.
The fix: The first step in initiating your employee engagement campaign is encouraging reviews. You can request more reviews from employees through the Glassdoor Employer Center once you have your Free Employer Account. From the Employer Account, go to Review Management > Request More Reviews. Then just fill out the “From” and “To” email address fields, subject line and email content. We’ve even written the request emails, which you can copy, paste and customize quickly and easily.
3. You aren’t responding to reviews
One of the best ways to amplify your employer branding story is to respond to Glassdoor reviews. Nine out of ten job seekers find the employer perspective helpful and 62 percent say their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review (Glassdoor U.S. Site Survey, 2016).
The fix: Before you go on a responding spree, meet with employer brand decision makers at your company to determine a formal reply strategy. Key questions to keep in mind when developing your strategy include: 1. Who will respond? 2. What is your tone for responding? 3. How often will you respond? The answers will not only help frame your responses but will also help you develop a consistent reply cadence. That said, be flexible! Even with a documented framework and filter for your responses, each review should be handled on a case-by-case basis. Above all else, make authenticity your priority. If you’re responses seem canned, all your work will be for naught. Inauthentic responses can shortchange your commitment to transparency and won’t be effective in changing candidate perceptions about your company. Here’s a checklist for responding to reviews!
4. Your company mission isn’t clear
Companies exist for a reason yet many of their employees don’t know what that reason actually is. According to a recent survey by staffing firm Robert Half International, one-third of CFOs said their employees weren’t that aware or not at all aware of the company’s overall objectives. “It’s like sending a football team out to play without having a playbook,” says Brett Good, a senior district president at Robert Half. “When you get everyone on the team to understand what the goals are they become much more effective.”
The fix: It’s critical to develop and evangelize your company mission. At the end of the day, how effectively the mission is communicated to the workers boils down to the leadership. “Great leaders keep the communications flowing to all members of the team so that the organization doesn’t stall,” says Laura Kerekes, Chief Knowledge Officer at Think HR, the human resources company. “Otherwise, instead of working together to get the organization ready for growth, employees might be getting themselves ready for new opportunities outside of the organization.” According to Kerekes, when communicating about the business plan and goals, managers have to not only focus on addressing the what, when and how, but more importantly the why. The why is what most employees want to understand and it’s often the one thing management leaves out of their communications with employees.
Once you beef up each of these items – 1. company information; 2. candid reviews; 3. thoughtful responses to reviews; 4. clear company mission and values – the right candidates will self-select, bringing you high-quality employees who are deeply motivated to work in the exact environment that is unique to your organization. With those employees in place, your employees are satisfied, productive and inclined to give the kinds of reviews that are considered in our proprietary methodology for choosing the Best Places to Work. It’s tough, but it’s possible – and the payoff is enormous.
