At O2, we started conversations with Glassdoor in 2016 around how we could work together — this was due to our media buying agency, Sparks, who put us in touch as they believed it might be a good opportunity for us.
Within Resourcing, we knew at that time that Glassdoor was becoming very popular and that most job seekers would tend to look at the company profiles on Glassdoor to find out what it would be like to work with certain employers.
Being completely honest, the initial reaction from our Senior Leadership Team was one of uncertainty and they were not entirely sure of the benefits of being an engaged employer on Glassdoor. We subsequently had lots of conversations around the benefits and reasons why the Resourcing Team felt that this would make sense for us to do this.
Our purpose in O2 is to make everyday personal experiences that count for our customers, but it also applies to our people. We have three values within O2: bold, open and trusted. Therefore, if internally we live and breathe these values, then externally, transparency around who we are, what we do and what it is like to work here is just as important. Glassdoor helps us with this as we use our enhanced employer profile to showcase what it is like to work at O2, giving information around our benefits and culture, being able to post company updates that highlight all of the work that we do, utilizing videos and blogs, posting our current job opportunities as well as responding to reviews. We believe that by having this, then candidates will be better informed, engaged and prepared if they come along to an interview with us, but it also gives them the opportunity to deselect themselves if they feel that we are not the right “fit” for them.
[Related: 6 Quick Things You Can Do to Take Your Glassdoor Presence to the Next Level]
I look after our Glassdoor page, and I have found it easy to use as we have the support of our account manager and we have monthly and quarterly calls where we go through performance and stats on how our page is performing and hints/tips and advice on what else we can do. Within the employer center, there are resources that you can use that are helpful as well.
The analytics you can get are really useful to see how candidates are being driven to your page, along with demographic and gender information, age range and education. One element we love is the competitor analysis where we can compare how we are performing against our competitors in terms of ratings and if there are areas that we might need to improve on, so we find this really insightful.
The tips I would give any employer whilst using Glassdoor is to have lots of great content around your company. Really showcase what your company does and use videos and high-quality images. Have a strategy around what you want to achieve, and invest the time in it because if you don’t, then you won’t get the return on investment. Another really important point is when you respond to reviews, make them personal — don’t just reply with a standard generic response. If you take the time to make it personal, it makes them feel that you are truly interested in what they have said and that you are thankful for them to have taken the time to leave their comments and advice on your page.
My advice if you were to try to convince your CEO/Senior Leadership to get on board is to let them see the activity that is happening on Glassdoor. Show them your competitors’ pages, and highlight what they are doing on Glassdoor that you might not be doing. Glassdoor for us is mainly an engagement tool to showcase our brand and within less than 12 months, we were highlighted as being part of the Top 50 Best Places to Work UK, for which we are extremely proud, so the possibilities and opportunities are there if you spend the time and focus on it.
Lyndsey Marshall is a Resourcing Business Partner for O2. This article was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse. Reprinted with permission.
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