As a Recruitment Director in a technology company, I have seen a big increase in the use of Glassdoor. Having worked with Glassdoor for many years now, I know, now more than ever, especially where recruiting salespeople is concerned, that a huge proportion of candidates are likely to research online reviews before applying for a job or accepting an offer. We also know that people are more likely to apply to a company that comes recommended by the people that work there. What this adds up to is a significant amount of influence on the key people that you need to attract, which is why we as a company decided to engage with job seekers coming to the site. There is an evidenced trend where, in 2018, if a company doesn’t have an ‘engaged employer’ profile on Glassdoor, then they start to stand out, and not in a good way.
In the online review society we live in, it is important to offer transparency to employees past, present, and future. By investing in Glassdoor as a partner, we have been able to provide Colt employees with a voice, offering authentic content that forms part of our EVP. Working with our brand ambassador community, we have positioned Glassdoor as part of the candidate attraction strategy. Landing our brand on relevant pages, integrating widgets with the new careers site, and embedding Glassdoor/social media messaging as part of our onboarding and induction programme. We also ensure we monitor reviews and respond accordingly, taking on board any feedback to help shape our candidate experience. We want prospective applicants to know what it’s like to work at Colt. That way they know that’s is not just the job, it’s also the culture of the business that is right for them too.
Our average company rating increased from 2.8-3.7 in the UK over the last 12 months.Our followers increased by over a thousand and monthly page views went from 5.8k a month to over 14,000, a massive 141% increase. We now have an industry-leading position among competitors in the telecoms industry globally, our CEO and confidence ratings are up there with the best I have seen. Add to this an enhanced number of visits to our company profile that we tracked to show direct applicant conversions.
It’s important to point out that these results are not from coercing or persuading employees to promote the business. It’s been about letting people know the platform exists, educating hiring managers as to its importance, while in tandem the business has been focusing on its people agenda to genuinely make Colt a better place to work.
We are now officially one of the Best Places to Work in the UK, ranking higher than household names such as Gartner, SAP and GE. Thanks to Colt employees past and present engaging with Glassdoor, we have been recognised as one of the UK’s top 50 employers, which in itself is a testament to the journey Colt is on to become an employer of choice.
It’s not just about image though. We find that as a result of making this information available online, combined with the reviews that our employees voluntarily put on the site, the candidates we see coming through have done their homework and have taken the time to read up on us and our culture. You, therefore, tend to get candidates that are well prepared and have the right expectations about why they are there and what we are looking for. This keeps our hiring managers happy and is better for the business!
So, my advice for any recruiters sitting on the fence is: Definitely embed glassdoor as a compelling core part of your candidate attraction strategy. There is a lot of debate out there about how to use Glassdoor ‘on the cheap’. And yes, you can achieve some results initially, but by truly partnering with Glassdoor you can better engage with your audience. The ROI is there for the taking. What I would say though is that you also need to invest resource and time to use it properly. Make it a two-way conversation and ensure that you offer up an authentic, transparent window of insight. The tools and analytics are invaluable when fine-tuning both your internal and external perceptions.
We are looking to build upon the success so far and look for Glassdoor to complement our talent attraction more globally. We have invested in bespoke profiles for UK, Germany and France which we may look to extend to other countries, including the US.
At the end of the day, Glassdoor’s reach is powerful – Glassdoor provides a platform of insight that isn’t engineered by marketers or branding agencies. Glassdoor is honest and open, providing transparency and building trust.
Craig Hunter is the Global Recruitment Director, CCO at Colt Technology Services. Colt aims to be the leader in enabling customers’ digital transformation through agile and on-demand, high bandwidth solutions. The Colt IQ Network connects over 800 data centres across Europe, Asia and North America’s largest business hubs, with over 25,000 on-net buildings and growing.
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