The Glassdoor Best Places to Work Roadshow kicked off last week in San Francisco to a packed house of employers looking for answers to the question: How do I make my company a better place to work?
Glassdoor VP of Marketing Steve Burton reviewed the common traits of prior winners on Glassdoor’s coveted
Best Places to Work list. Internally at Glassdoor, we call our Best Places to Work list the Employees’ Choice Awards because employees decide if their company is worth the honor or not.
Google’s employees, for example, submitted 3,000+ reviews in order for them to be named the #1 spot this year. Simply put, employee feedback does matter.
As Glassdoor selects Best Places to Work Winners, there are three things we look for:
- The consistency in employee feedback
- The quantity of employee reviews
- The quality of the employee reviews
It’s true! Employees are the key to being selected as a Best Place to Work. They are the ones who are going to change your company for the better and be your employer brand advocates. Are you listening to what they are saying? Embracing
transparency means
really listening, responding and tracking. At Glassdoor, we pay attention to our own reviews and have notifications in place to let us know anytime new reviews are posted.
Pro Tips: Set up review notifications by unlocking your profile with a
Glassdoor Free Employer Account. Make writing reviews on Glassdoor part of your interview process, onboarding, sales kick off, and annual review. Lastly, respond to reviews whether you agree or disagree. Every bit of feedback matters and you need to welcome it all. Job seekers want to hear from you!
Three questions to consider
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- What is your company vision and does it inspire you?
- Do leaders understand perfection is not the goal?
- Are you being transparent and listening to your employees?
Feedback should start on day one
Joel Ballezza from
Expedia (#22 on our 2015 UK Best Places to Work list) noted the importance of soliciting and responding to feedback on day one to make Expedia a better organization. Engage with leadership, have a plan in place from the outset for feedback, and be authentic. In short, to find out if you’re doing a good job, ask.
Culture matters
Katie Burke from
Hubspot emphasized its culture and why it matters. In fact, Hubspot has a three-word policy internally:
Use good judgment. They don’t micro-manage employees, but hire awesome people and inspire their awesomeness by using good judgment in all they do. While other companies put up posters and talk about perks, Hubspot knows that the work and making it meaningful is far more important.
What defines making your company a great place to work? Hubspot makes excellence aspirational every day. Hubspot is proactive with their employee culture and it pays off in doing so. Customers say it’s why they invest in Hubspot products and business.
Finally, if you read one doc on culture, make sure it’s the
Netflix Culture Code or the
Hubspot Culture Code.
Close the loop
Kevin Nanney at
Jobvite talked about how creating an amazing employer brand starts with your career site. It needs to have color and a story. Pick what will be compelling to people, so they stick on your website and won’t click-n-go. Mobile is also critically important: 43% of job seekers use mobile to search for jobs, while 59% of recruiters say they haven’t invested in a career site on mobile. See the disconnect? Having a mobile optimized experience pays off and helps your employer brand, closing the loop with job seekers.
Purposeful recruitment branding
Traci Scovel from
Genentech emphasized the power of a meaningful brand. If you enjoy Best Place to Work status, don’t become complacent. Have it inspire you to do even better the following year. Leverage your employees and reinforce your brand through social storytelling. It’s the recipe for success!
Manage your employer brand
Glassdoor Director of Brand Strategy Alison Hadden wrapped things up with an overview of how Glassdoor can help employers enhance their employer brands and recruit quality candidates. Of note, candidates are using Glassdoor at every step of their job search, and it’s now the fastest growing site in the recruitment space.
Finally, if you aren’t managing your employer brand, someone will write the story for you. The key to success is to monitor what’s being said about you and start managing your
employer brand today!
