In today’s competitive hiring landscape, it’s more important than ever to know what current and former employees are saying about your organization online. The publication of company employee reviews has exploded recently on sites such as Glassdoor, Indeed and Google Business. Employers proactively must address negative comments and find ways to elicit positive feedback.
Although the entertainment industry believes there’s no such thing as bad publicity, the same rule does not apply in long-term care. In fact, a Glassdoor survey indicates that 70% of job-seekers consider online company reviews when making career decisions.
Your organization should focus on these three areas when it comes to employees’ online company reviews:
- Monitoring reviews.
- Increasing the number of positive reviews.
- Acknowledging and publicly addressing bad reviews.
Because there is overlap in those areas, develop an overall online review plan. The plan should include the following considerations:
- A schedule for checking reviews and comments on several sites.
- A plan for responding to all feedback — good and bad.
- A strategy for obtaining more positive comments.
First, list three to four sites where your organization receives the most reviews. Then check online comments about your company weekly. Many sites allow you to sign up for notifications when a new review has been given, making the monitoring process even easier.
Employees will unerringly identify your company’s best and worst practices in their reviews, so regularly monitoring reviews will allow you to identify trends and note any commonalities. Paying attention to what others are sharing about your organization can only help you.
Bad reviews, even if they are inaccurate, can be extremely difficult to remove from the digital world. Therefore, to boost your overall rating and push the negative feedback down the page, develop a strategy to increase positive reviews.
Suggestions include connecting with family members who are eager to praise your community or asking current employees to take a moment to share their work experience. For current employees, it may help to offer an incentive, such as being entered into a raffle for a prize. Make the process easy for them by including a direct link to the online review platform.
When you receive a review, it is imperative that you respond — to each one.
First, acknowledge the review. If the review is negative and it’s appropriate, offer to work with the commenter to solve the problem offline. Avoid any confrontation on the review site. Publicly addressing a negative review shows potential job-seekers that you care about the overall employee experience and are interested in all feedback. If you can resolve the matter, politely request an updated review.
Glassdoor also offers this recipe for success in employer branding for happy employees:
- Be honest in your interactions and keep your promises.
- Be transparent in all your communication.
- Be willing to hear feedback and act on the information given.
- Be a trustworthy leader.
Your current and former employees are telling your brand’s story, and their satisfaction is essential to attracting top talent. By proactively and intentionally monitoring online reviews, you’ll be better positioned to tell your brand’s story how you want it told.
Kendra Nicastro is the director of business development for LeaderStat, a national healthcare recruiting and consulting firm offering total workforce solutions.
The opinions expressed in each McKnight’s Senior Living marketplace column are those of the author and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Senior Living.
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