Comments on: Anonymous Employer Reviews — Opportunity or Threat?

By: Keith Halperin

Keith Halperin — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:14:37 +0000

@ Richard: Well-said. I worked at a large client with a less-than-favorable reviews, and their was discussion on how to “game” Glassdoor. On the other hand employers-of-choice with terribly dysfunctional hiring practices don’t seem to care if the word gets out- people will still crawl over broken glass to work there….

Cheers,
Keith

By: Richard Araujo

Richard Araujo — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:36:16 +0000

I would agree overall, Kes. However what many people miss is that there are companies who don’t care about their employee experience, or won’t admit their approach to it sucks. I’ve worked for several companies whose attitude toward their employees was combative in the extreme, and they didn’t think that was wrong, changeable, or worth changing even if it was changeable. These types of employer are at more likely to try and silence negative opinions than admit their methods and management need to change.

By: Kes Thygesen

Kes Thygesen — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:32:21 +0000

Whether businesses are ready to admit it or not, there is a looking glass into their workplace. Though the threats you mentioned are true and real, the opportunities outweigh the benefits in my opinion. From a candidate experience perspective, the authenticity and visibility can add value to the hiring process. Take an employee referral program — the job candidate already knows someone within the organization and goes to an interview with a better sense of the work environment and employer brand. Thus, if hired, in most cases, everyone is much happier. The same can be said in the value of anonymous employer reviews.

By: Keith Halperin

Keith Halperin — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:59:47 +0000

If there were some well-known, unbiased, highly-respected rating organization that will not take employer advertising (like Consumer’s Union) and can’t be “gamed”, then I’d think there would be a major transparency tool for both recruiters and jobseekers. However, with high un(der)employment which is likely to continue for quite awhile whoever gets in Nov. 6, people will be less concerned about getting an ideal job and more about get ANY job…

Keith keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

By: Glassdoor.com and Other Such Sites… | Nuclear Cannoli

Glassdoor.com and Other Such Sites… | Nuclear Cannoli — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:37:58 +0000

[...] A recent article on Ere.net got me thinking and I can’t help but love and feel sorry for proponents of the idea espoused in the article. Basically it’s about transparent employer review sites, like Glassdoor.com. These kinds of sites, if they worked and proliferated, would be a great thing for recruiters, potential employees, potential employers, and HR in general. Unfortunately most companies are too fucked up and shitty to compete. [...]

By: Richard Araujo

Richard Araujo — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:10:14 +0000

Personally I don’t see these types of sites making much of a difference or impact. Companies with poor and lower than average management and cultures, which is half of them if you consider the bell curve distribution of any such metric you measure, will simply tend to either ignore or sue their way out of bad reviews. I think it would be a great idea if someone could avoid the legal issues that seem almost inevitable, but I don’t think the world at large is ready for that level of transparency into the workplace.