What are your employees saying about your organization? Are you aware of and keeping ahead of your employer reviews on Internet job sites? If not, listen up – what is being said about your company online may be impacting your ability to attract and retain top talent.
I recently was shown a series of reviews by employees at a community where my mother lives. Rumor had it that the new leadership team (after 3 years in place) was receiving terrible reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed, two sites where employees look to find jobs. Here is a sampling of the employee reviews:
“Management is horrible. Morale on campus is very low, staff worked tirelessly during the height of pandemic & even now, but it’s apparent the Team Members feel unappreciated & management is nonexistent.”
“Management does not care about employees, only about their bonuses.”
“Any promotions or higher percentage raises are given based on favoritism, not work ethic or anything that involves the job at hand. Lazy favorite employees get the same percentage as the hard-working employees. Management will target individuals and ride them until they either quit or are fired. Many great employees have left due to the toxicity.”
Ouch!
After each response, someone from the company makes the statement, “Thank you for your feedback. We take all feedback involving our community seriously as we strive to create a positive workplace experience for everyone. We are so happy you are satisfied. If you would like to share more information, please contact us at [contact email address]. Thank you.”
I am not kidding! This is how the company responded to the three examples above. Obviously, they must have an automatic message that gets added when someone gives a review.
Now you might say, “Oh, those are just some disgruntled employees.” I’m not so sure. On one site, there were 43 reviews, and management received an overall rating of 2.7 out of 5. On the other site, there were 15 reviews, and management received an overall rating of 2.8.
This made me wonder what employees at our clients’ offices were saying about their companies, so I did some research and found that most of our clients received management ratings in the 4.0-5.0 range.
What is the difference? I only know what our clients do; I don’t know much about the community leadership that I referenced above. Our clients, first and foremost, believe that “the companies with the best talent win.” What this means is that our clients don’t just give lip service to their investment in attracting and retaining the best talent. They ask for and listen to employee feedback. They build internal programs to support employee growth and development as well as career advancement. Their leadership teams are committed to their own ongoing personal and professional development and provide the money, time, and resources to foster that in employees as well. They are not perfect by any means. They may from time to time lose a key employee who didn’t feel heard or a potential hire who went to a competitor. They have difficult employee issues. They must deal with performance issues and address employee concerns. What makes them different is the attention placed and time spent on staying on top of the culture, assessing employee engagement, focusing in on developing their top talent, responding to the feedback, and tweaking the internal systems that are in place to keep employees engaged, satisfied, and fulfilled.
So, I ask, “Do you know what your employees are saying about your company?” If you don’t, we encourage you to find out. Google “employee reviews on [insert company name and location].” If what you find isn’t what you had hoped, call us, and we’ll strategize with you on some action steps you can take to turn the reviews around.
Theresa Gale
PRINCIPAL, TRANSFORM, INC.
