This advent calendar presents 24 Doors with practical suggestions from Potentialpark's research on how to improve the candidate experience. With a link to a free research presentation and event tickets at the end.
Competition drives Employer Branding forward. The harder it is to fill certain positions, the more worthwhile to invest into better communication.
Given their significance to candidates, review platforms have now become a key element of Employer Branding strategies.
In Door 18, we debunked three common myths about review platforms, while Door 19 offered a deep dive into candidate behaviors and expectations on platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed.
Today, we tackle a crucial question: how can you improve your review score?
The path to 5 stars: the bad news and the good news
Here's the hard truth: the only route to a better score on review platforms involves:
Being a better employer.
Creating more candidate-friendly application processes.
Improving communication with potential talent.
The downside? There's no quick fix.
The good news: the fact that there is no shortcut validates your work as an Employer Branding specialist. When your company's score goes up, you know you have done something right. And none of your competitors can cheat themselves past you.
While transforming your company culture and attractiveness (point 1) is more of a long-term endeavor, there are immediate steps you can take to enhance points 2 and 3.
6 practical tips for review management
Claim and complete your employer profile: Utilize review platforms and job boards to showcase your Employer Value Proposition (EVP). Present who you are and what makes you stand out as an employer, thinking from the perspective of someone less familiar with your company.
Respond to reviews: Engage with both positive and negative reviews. Avoid copy + paste replies. Instead answer in a way that shows you actually read the review and care for the feedback. This approach is time-consuming, I admit, but has proven powerful. Probably precisely because it can't be faked and demonstrates genuine commitment and engagement.
Learn from negative reviews: Use repetitive complaints as a learning tool. Whether it's about culture, management, hiring processes, fairness, pay, or the workplace environment, identify and address these mismatches in expectations, either by implementing changes or improving communication with candidates. Nothing hits your score harder than employees who leave in frustration.
Offer a contact point: Make yourself accessible by providing a contact email or phone number on your career site and in responses to critical reviews. Review platforms usually don't allow for public discussions. When you open other channels you show commitment to people's concerns.
Request reviews naturally: Avoid blanket requests for reviews. Instead, ask for feedback at natural junctures - like post-recruitment, at the 100-day mark for new hires, or upon an employee’s exit. This encourages authentic, meaningful feedback rather than forced, insincere praise.
Prevent unhappy applicant experiences: Poor recruitment practices and lengthy, uncommunicative processes can lead to negative reviews. Enhance the transparency of your recruitment process and maintain regular communication to build trust and prevent frustration.
Review platforms add an element of authenticity to the job search: they reward employers who make an effort. So in my view, they are not only the candidate's friend. They also serve as a strong argument for more Employer Branding efforts. Another reason why the voice of the candidates matters in everything you do.
Get the study: Would you like to receive the results of Potentialpark's new Talent Comm 2024 study in a few weeks? Sign up on the Potentialpark website to secure free data and get tickets to Potentialpark's Summits.
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