Continuing in the spirit of culture and values, I wanted to look further into how companies perceive themselves. Some say how amazing they are and what they do is ground breaking, that culture is king. However, when we look at current or ex-employees for a lot of businesses, they tend to say something completely different.

For example, a business of over 300 people mentions on their website as part of their values being “inclusive” and “doing the right thing”. However, their Glassdoor score is 2.6 out of 5. Many reviews talk about the work environment being terrible. One review even reads "Avoid like the plague, absolutely toxic environment." Not as inclusive as first thought perhaps.

On the contrary, a business of 4,500 staff globally has a rating of 4.7 out of 5. Pretty impressive. It’s probably no surprise to them that many of their staff mention about company transparency and openness with employees, when one of their key values states that they share (almost) everything with their staff.

As leaders in businesses you need to think about how these reviews over X amount of time will affect your ability to hire the best people to your business.

These days sites like Glassdoor have a major impact on how jobseekers research potential employers, particularly Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996- ages 24 to 39 in 2020) and Gen Z’s (anyone born from 1997 onward). Both of these demographics make up the mainstay of the workforce for the immediate and long-term future.

They’re visiting your Glassdoor profile not only to read reviews and comments, but to learn about your culture, your values, benefits and opportunities for career progression. They are also looking for jobs and looking for opportunities to come and work for you. A Glassdoor profile is a shop window for your brand, and job seekers who have taken the time to find out more about you before they apply are more often than not going to be higher quality candidates.

Glassdoor holds a growing database of millions of company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary reports, interview reviews and questions, benefits reviews, office photos and more. Most of this information is shared by those who know a company best, the employees. The site allows you to see which employers are hiring, what it’s really like to work or interview there according to employees, and how much you could earn.

Of course, Glassdoor’s transparency and integrity is vital, and has to make sure it is not being used for fake or malicious purposes by disgruntled ex-employees. It is my understanding that they do very well in order to stop fabrications being posted. Switched on companies work at proactively encouraging favourable reviews and are able to respond to negative comments. Glassdoor’s ratings and results are very real and demand serious thought given to them and actionable responses.



If you have not got a Glassdoor page set up, or if you have and there are some scathing reviews from current or ex-employees, maybe now Is the time to address some of the issues before it starts to discourage the best crop of talent applying for your roles and attracting them to your business.