Responding to employee comments on sites like Glassdoor

(Hi! This is going to be my first blog post on LinkedIn, so please let me know what you think.)

First and foremost, I think we need to clarify what sites like Glassdoor are for and who uses them.

 Glassdoor is basically Yelp for employment. It lets “consumers” of a “product” to tell us their own experiences so we can get a general view of the quality, taste, ambience, etc. So just like Yelp can tell you if you’re likely going to enjoy eating at a restaurant, Glassdoor can tell you if you’re probably going to like working at a company.

 (This means that the primary function of Glassdoor is to signal to talented candidates “Hey! Come work here!” – which means, good ratings, robust profiles, and meaningful responses are important!)

Also, the data shows us that it’s mainly millennials that are going to use online reviews to make a decision. And millennials are our first generation to grow up with the internet so they have a more honed radar for detecting inauthenticity in responses – so keep them in mind and above all, keep it real!

Here are some quick guiding principles (in no particular order) I’ve used in the past that have been effective:

•  Act quickly! Many employers get 100s if not 1000s of hits a day, so every response left unattended to will be seen by countless visitors.
• Get guidelines: be quick but don’t rush in! Get general guidelines from HR/Marketing/Legal/Compliance that allow you to nimbly respond, only escalating the complicated reviews as needed (otherwise you're sitting for days without a response posted while different departments nitpick responses before you post them).
• Identify the core concerns (whether they are good or bad): I’ve seen too many responses that don’t actually address the content of the review. Sometimes the reviews are jam-packed with concerns, so choose 3 priority items to address.
• Find the truth: Once you have identified issues, LOOK INTO THEM! If your response is “thank you for bringing this to our attention, we will look into it” no one is going to believe you and it looks inauthentic. After finding the facts, only then draft a response.
• Grateful: the response should be genuinely grateful no matter what the content of the review is. All feedback helps guide you to build a better culture, so you really should be grateful.
• Map out a plan of action: after you’ve identified the concerns and found the truth, tell them what you are going to do about it. People like solutions, not empty platitudes.
• Point out the good: Reiterate the good your company does, but not in a defensive or bragging way.
• End on a happy note. Responses should never be condescending, passive-aggressive, or dismissive. (Although sometimes the reviews are so off-the-wall that you just want to slam it to the reviewer.)

Here are a few more helpful tips I’ve learned along the way:

• Comments on Glassdoor can be seen as official notices from employees of potential malfeasance or violation of labor codes – this means get HR involved from the beginning on all negative reviews that talk about work conditions or how an employee was treated.
•  Make sure your benefits section is updated with the good stuff! Millennials probably don’t care about 401(k) matching as much you think since their retirement years are 40+ years away. Let us see the good stuff! What is going to make my day-to-day spectacular? If you don’t have anything to compelling to put here, then that’s an important conversation you need to have internally about your EVP.

• Culture is a main attractor of younger talent – make sure you are posting vibrant pics and videos that clearly SHOW us who you are.

• Each response is a part of your story, of your culture. So make sure that you have determined what kind of tone you want to send and what image you want to present through your responses. Are you quirky and fun? Are you serious but warm?

• Use the responses! Honest feedback is a precious commodity so use it to make real changes in your organization.

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If you’re still interested my point of view, here’s a more in-depth example:

When we are trying to attract talented individuals, we have to think of our employment as a product we want them to consume. Why would they come work for you over anyone else with similar positions open?

Since your employment is a product, let’s look at an actual consumer product to get us thinking in the right direction.

Let’s say a consumer complained on a site like Amazon that their ePad tablet doesn’t charge all of the way and randomly deletes music files.

 “I bought this ePad 6 months ago and it only holds half the charge and dies after 2 hours of use!!! And for some reason it keeps randomly deleting my music and I have to download the files again. After all that I paid for this to get quality, I could have just gone with a budget tablet for half the cost!!!”

 So let’s say I am looking to buy an ePad and I see that this reviewer is having a difficult time with it. (ePads are a significant investment, so I want to absolute sure I’m making the right decision here!)

 Then I read the response to the review from the ePad manufacturer that says:

  “Thank you for letting us know your ePad wasn’t working correctly, we’ll look into it. We apologize for the inconvenience.”  

 This response doesn’t address the concern and the person is still left with a broken ePad. What does this signal to me as a potential ePad customer? Am I more inclined to want an ePad?

 I’m more likely to think favorably of the ePad if I saw a response that acknowledges that action has been taken and offers a resolution to the consumer.

  “Thank you for letting us know about your issue. We actually met with customer support who analyzed all of our XYZ data and this issue hasn’t come up with other customers yet, but it’s still important nonetheless and we’re going to keep an eye out. Here’s what we can do for you – please email [email protected] with your model number and we will immediately ship you a new ePad with a return envelope for the old one. We really appreciate customers like you letting us know about these issues so we can continue providing exceptional products and services. Thank you again for taking the time to help us create a better product!”

Now let’s move on to a generic complaint about an “employer product” you tend to see in a lot of environments.

 “My boss plays favorites and he’s been promising part-time employees more hours for months now and we still haven’t seen a change! The only thing good about this place is the pay.”

Example response:  

“Hi! This is Manager McManage* and I oversee ABC Department and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to review us. We take providing a supportive and fair environment very seriously at Generic Corp. so every review (good or not-so-good) helps us continue to ensure that we are providing this. After meeting with HR and reviewing our scheduling policies, it does look like 20 hours is the standard average schedule for our part-time employees. We absolutely encourage anyone who would like more hours to apply for one of our full-time positions (always opening up in our major markets! Just visit genercorp.com/careers).                                           

Additionally, and as you mentioned in your comments, we do pay $14 an hour, which is X amount higher than the average in the market so we are proud to be able to offer not only great pay but we are excited to announce that we have implemented an additional incentive plan! Now employees have the potential to earn even more above their base pay!  Once again, thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experiences with us and we hope that you always feel comfortable bringing your concerns to your manager, HR or any other leaders within the organization.”  

 (*It’s good to reach out to actual managers when appropriate/possible and have them help you author the response.)

 This response is meant to illustrate a point so it’s a little longer than most of your responses will probably be. Just keep in mind that savvy employees (the kind we’d all like to hire) do their research! So invest in your online presence!

 I hope you enjoyed reading!