The way we recruit has evolved
We don’t recruit like we used to. Attracting, recruiting and retaining the talent we want for our business has changed considerably over the last decade. How we engage with our future employees is not just about posting a job vacancy. Amid stiff market competition and a shortage of skills, candidates are firmly in the driving seat. Now they have tools, like Glassdoor, to find out what it’s like to work for your company
The days of the humble job advert are over. Now good jobs come with an ever-expanding list of employee perks, from offering innovative work spaces to providing wellness programmes. Couple that with the rise of social media and extended personal networks, and employers can find it difficult to cut through all the noise. How do candidates make decisions about who to work for when there is so much choice? That’s a challenge for every employer.
Looking after your employer brand
What tactics should employers use in the race to attract the best talent?
According to Harvard Business Review, prospective employees look for several factors in their search for a new role including: feeling appreciated and valued at work, getting along with co-workers and having the company values aligned with theirs.
So, although free breakfast and monthly social events are often high on prospective joiner’s interests, they are unlikely to be the deciding factor in whether to join your organisation.
Nevertheless, when it comes to assessing a companies’ culture and values, there is nothing like hearing it straight from the ‘horses’ mouth’ to make an impact. That’s what Glassdoor, the recruiting and employer branding website, have managed to provide a platform for.
Glassdoor
Working on the same principals as TripAdvisor, Glassdoor provides a platform for existing, and former employees to rate their company. They can give an insight into the interview process, salaries, give general reviews, and an overall company rating (out of 5*s). Anonymous, externally managed and visible for all, the website is becoming an ever-prominent tool in candidates’ job search. The ability to engage directly with employees at this initial stage is a great asset and can be of enormous benefit to your employer brand.
It’s particularly useful if your brand as an employer isn’t widely known. Take Apple for example, whilst we are no experts on what they are like to work for, given our understanding of their brand, we can have a good guess about their employer values – innovation, tech leadership? But what do we know about the SME’s values and working environment in the office next to mine? The chances are that we know very little. So how could we improve this knowledge?
The benefits of using Glassdoor
- Current and former employees can give feedback on their jobs, interview process, salary and the CEO. Thus giving a unique and believable insight into what it is like to work for your organisation
- Provides employers with a platform to respond to reviews, create a company profile, including images – reinforcing your brand, values and company culture
- Demonstrates a commitment to transparency and ongoing dialog
- Used effectively it can give smaller employers an opportunity to stand out and compete against their bigger competitors
Downsides
- Glassdoor does offer a free service to employers. However, to realise the full value of Glassdoor companies pay for an ‘enhanced profile’ – giving greater access to advertising jobs and company branding. Despite this, the free service is still a worthwhile service – don’t underestimate its value
- People are more compelled to leave feedback if they feel negative about the situation. Glassdoor does minimise this risk by only adding constructive and appropriate content to the website. They suggest you allocate a senior member of staff within the business to respond to negative reviews. Sometimes that can work in your favour and turn the negative into a positive. In any case, if transparency is important to you, hearing genuine feedback, and having the ability to respond, can be beneficial to your brand
Practice what you preach
Our Resourcing team speak to candidates every day and view Glassdoor positively. It’s become an essential part of the candidate journey, as they leave one organisation to start at their next. Used properly, it can be a way of communicating your employer brand to future, current and former employees. It’s a real investment in your talent pipeline. We check it regularly, and know most candidates, whether active or passive, use it in the same way.
However, Glassdoor is only one tool in a continually evolving recruitment process. As a worthwhile investment of your time and effort (after all, YOU must encourage your employees to populate it otherwise it’s pointless) it should be part of a broader resourcing strategy. The possibility of speaking directly and transparently to your most engaged consumers – your employees – lies at the heart of Glassdoor. That is very powerful.
Next Steps
If you are trying to move away from a transactional approach to your recruitment and want to develop a talent pipeline that engages your future, current and former employees, using tools like Glassdoor will benefit your organisation.
At Shield Safety, our Resourcing team know how competitive the market is for top HSEQ talent. We understand the challenges organisations face developing their brand as an employer. If you would like advice on how to harness websites like Glassdoor as part of your wider recruitment strategy we would be happy to help.
For more information on Glassdoor or our wider Resourcing service please contact one of the team on 0161 967 9672 or email careers@shieldsafety.co.uk.
The information contained in this blog article has been created for marketing purposes and is not official guidance and should not be used as a substitute for official Food Safety, Fire Safety and Health & Safety advice. Shield Safety take no responsibility if the information in the blog article is used to form part of a safety management system or used to form part of any legal or regulatory compliance for your business. For official guidance and to engage with Shield Safety services please do call our team on 020 3740 3744 or email hello@shieldsafety.co.uk.
