Why you need to reply to all reviews on

glassdoor & indeed

Written by:

Adrian McDonagh, Founder/Chief Ideas Officer

with additional research from Becky Cellupica, Marketing & Events Executive EasyWeb Group 2017

Most recruiters and HR professionals I meet wish Glassdoor (and Indeed Company Pages) would just disappear from the internet. Perhaps we will wake up tomorrow to learn that all the reviews are “fake news” generated by 1,000 Russian bots in an effort to destabilise western economies?

Whilst day to day reality in 2017 makes me think nothing is impossible, I am pretty sure that the Russians are not behind the two bad reviews we have generated on the EasyWeb Glassdoor page (we also have 16 positive reviews). At least I can be comforted that our bad reviews have a certain style with such immortal lines as:

Working generally through a new recruitment methodology called “by the seat of your pants” pants” not to be confused with “making it up as

as you go along”.This is far better than this review, which complains about not having

the correct “amount of product” and how this is a “constant

problem” for the steakhouse where he works, but then also lists

“you can take (steal) as many steaks as you want” in the Pros

section.

You can see why most HR departments have a loathe/hate relationship with Glassdoor.

I get it. In-house recruiters are busy. Marketing departments are busy. HR professionals are busy. Everyone is

juggling far more balls than they were 10 years ago. No one was going to be over the moon with the idea of not just

one but two (when we speak about Glassdoor we also need to consider Indeed who have a similar product) websites

where your past and present employees can go to post anonymous reviews of your organisation. No one, that is,

apart from jobseekers who find these sites extremely useful, a fact confirmed by their rapid growth in audience size.

In a series of blog posts in this area, I have already talked about why you need to claim your page. This post will

cover the key reasons why everyone needs to go a step further and reply to all your reviews. Here are the 9 reasons

why this is a vitally important task:

Everyone wants inside information before buying a new product/service. A common search on Google is to write the name of the

product or service followed by the term ‘review’. Whilst this will generally throw up pages such as Trustpilot, you will also see

Glassdoor & Indeed listing very high. Ask yourself, would you be less inclined to buy a service if you could see their staff were not

highly engaged?

In a future post I will be detailing some tactics to generate more positive reviews. However, regardless of the overall score you

have you need to be replying to the reviews to help provide some balance.

1. Your Glassdoor rating/reputation will affect more than just your employer brand

2. It’s polite

If someone wrote an email or god forbid a

letter to your organisation praising/criticising it,

you would likely respond. So why would you

not want to respond to that same person who

posted an online critique of the pros/cons of

your organisation? For most people it is the

fact that the forum has changed from 1-2-1

communication to the internet, so they choose

not to respond. The fact that this critique has

been posted online for everyone to see

forever, IS the reason you MUST respond.

That, and it is also polite.

Here is an example of a great reply that is

authentic and also polite.

In the same way that a lack of a response can imply rudeness, it can also imply laziness. Glassdoor pages with dozens of

reviews and no replies, always suggests this as a possibility. However, a standard ‘cut and paste, say nothing’ response

looks even worse.

3. If you don’t it looks lazy

In fairness, the response to the right (see

here for the full review) might not reflect

laziness it could simply be a reviewer keen

to respond, but unwilling to leave the safe

ground of actually stating anything that

could resemble an opinion. However,

sometimes when you stick to the safe

ground, you are in fact taking a risk in that

the reader, and the original reviewer, might

think that you cannot be bothered.

Glassdoor is not an even playing ground. Organisations get to have the final word. Reviewer posts review.

Organisation responds to review. That is that, end of conversation. Adding to that, some 1 star reviews are written

whilst the reviewer is in an emotional state, possibly at 3am when they have come back from the pub, where they

post what is essentially the equivalent of the early morning text message to your ex after getting dumped, you know

the sort of thing….

4. You have the final say

There is no clear formula for telling if an ex-employee was intoxicated when they posted a review. However, the

shorter the review and the less punctuation applied, increases the likelihood…..

The vast majority of reviews, whether they are good or bad, are balanced (Pros and Cons) and offer some insights that

management can choose to take on board or not. Even bad reviews can give you the chance to make some reasoned and fair

points, that as next reply highlights “We certainly aren’t for everyone, but many people have built successful careers”.

5. You can show your company to be engaging with Glassdoor and having a transparent

approach to feedback

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