Acquiring Positive Employee Testimonials

One of my clients has a staff turnover problem. COVID, niche markets, geography, and overall economic challenges diminish opportunities to find/keep good employees.

GlassDoor and Indeed aren’t helping.

Most companies understand these two websites allow employees (past and present) to provide anonymous employer reviews. They’re also forums for delivering advice to management.

Employers are rated 1-5, providing insight into company culture.

A recent survey observed 95% of job seekers consider these insights important.

Sounds great…only it’s human nature for staffers to complain and rare to commend their supervisor for doing a good job.  

Lacking positive employee feedback, many organizations harvest lower rankings than they deserve. Prospective employees conclude it’s not the best place to work.

The natural solution: ask current employees to write reviews. They’re happy, can speak honestly, and will raise those ratings.

Only directly asking for reviews implicitly asks for POSITIVE reviews…and can backfire. Employees typically feel pressured, angry, or suspicious of your motives. They’ll probably ignore the request, or worse, write bad reviews.

Tempted to write fake reviews? Job review site filters automatically detect and delete them. 

Instead, here are a few strategies to achieve your objective:

·       Craft an email (or internal newsletter) message saying “Many job seekers read employee reviews to identify places they’d like to work. Authentic reviews from workers like you, listing pros and cons, can help us appeal to top candidates in this competitive labor market. Please consider contributing your honest feedback.”

·       Time your request around positive employee milestones and key company moments. Try immediately after training/orientation, work anniversaries, promotions, or within two weeks after special events.

·       Companies earning positive press or awards make people feel good about working there. It’s a good time to ask for candid employee reviews.

Spread requests over time so the platform’s algorithms won’t be suspicious of too many positive reviews appearing simultaneously.

Positive reviews soften the blow of any negative comments you’ll get. Respond quickly to all reviews (good or bad) thanking contributors for their honesty, showing you understand, and explaining how issues are being addressed.

Don’t argue or be defensive. Show management is paying attention to encourage other employees to post their opinions.

Employees, like customers, need to be heard. It’ll improve the current work atmosphere and encourage prospective employees to join you.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
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