Many websites exist to provide reviews of what it's like to work at a particular company, such as GlassDoor.com; however, organizations must keep an eye on what's said on these websites as fraudulent claims often slip through, says Cliff Stein, CEO of ReputationChanger.com. In many cases, these fraudulent claims come from disgruntled employees and unscrupulous competitors. Nonetheless, these negative reviews can still hurt.
From a recruiting standpoint, negative reviews make it especially difficult to attract the best talent, Stein says. Despite today's tough economy, qualified candidates still have options, and they're usually skeptical to join a company if they come across poor reviews. Even if a top candidate receives a good offer, it might not be enough to balance the negative reviews. While a good offer can be powerful, top candidates also are looking for positions that will make them happy.
"Bringing in high-quality talent is what's going to sustain your business and what's going to drive your business into future successes," Stein says. "These are tight times as far as the economy is concerned, but even though it's a tough job market, qualified candidates are selective about where they'll go to work. When they see negative reviews online, they're going to be skeptical as to whether they want to make the leap to this company that's made them a good offer on paper."
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Negative reviews on these websites can even impact employees already with the company, Stein says. People tend to believe what they read, and negative reviews can sour employee morale. When employees read negative reviews written about their company but come across positive reviews about a competitor, they're also more likely to consider sending their résumés to those other organizations.
"It's a domino effect," Stein says. "Once somebody reads it, they talk to someone else at the water cooler, and pretty soon, the entire company is talking about it. These aren't conversations productive to morale."
To manage any negative reviews, a human resources department should run an online reputation campaign in which it identifies pages with these criticisms, Stein says. From there, an HR department can work with a reputation management vendor to suppress those listings. What goes on the Internet stays on the Internet, but this technique can at least knock off the listings from the first few pages of a Web search.
HR can be especially effective at managing an online reputation campaign because it knows intimate details of when workers leave, which makes it easier to identify those fraudulent reviews by disgruntled former employees, Stein says. Often, HR can recognize the verbiage from past employees as it would include detailed knowledge of the inside operations that only someone within the company could share.
"The bottom line is having negative reviews on the first few pages of the Web – whether it's in regards to recruiting new talent or bringing in new clients – will do nothing but hurt you," Stein says.
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