Companies in one way or another strive to hire, develop, motivate the best candidates and employees so that they succeed and become an integral part of the business. Therefore, it is very unpleasant when someone writes negative comments in social networks or on other Internet resources after leaving the company. And not only unpleasant, but sometimes dangerous, despite the fact that only every sixth former employee is not too lazy to write a negative review.
Reputation is built over the years, and you can lose it very quickly. In one of the studies on this issue, figure in 70%. That is how many respondents said that they would be very wary before applying for a job in a company if they read a negative review about it.
And if such reviews came across some, then they would completely cease to consider it as a potential place of work. And they would do it even if they were unemployed.
Thus, one must be extremely vigilant when it comes to former employees and whether what they say about your online business. Its wide development has actually created an excellent platform with which to make claims and harm the reputation, and therefore the business itself.
Where are negative reviews posted?
The Internet provides a lot of opportunities where you can get even with a former employer. First, these are professional social networks. One of the most famous is LinkedIn. This is just the perfect place for candid posts and comments, since the network is geared towards finding a job.
Secondly, reviews are also written in ordinary popular social networks, such as Facebook, using hashtags like #hatemyjob. They also use various groups and communities in social networks, the corporate account of the company. Before the advent of social networks, structured information and reviews about employers could be found on specialized resources. They are still in use today. This is third.
I will not advertise them, just type in the search engine black list of employersand you will see them immediately. At the global level, the most well-known resource is Glassdoor. According to experts, a few negative comments can do real damage to your reputation if you do nothing.
Classification of negative reviews
In my opinion, it is worth paying attention to the types of reviews. I have come across this classification:
- objective feedback (perhaps the most dangerous, since a person clearly describes everything, without unnecessary emotions, which, of course, convinces the reader);
- emotional feedback (usually not without lies, but it has a good effect on emotional natures);
- fake review (usually competitors can deal with such reviews);
- trolling (Anyone can do it, usually for fun, but this doesn’t make it any easier for the company).
What to do if there is a negative review
The worst thing that can be done is it's going off the railsby reading the comments of a dissatisfied employee, and try to deal with him emotionally. It's okay to be angry, but it's not wise to let your emotions take over, even though some quit employees can be jerks. Of course, it is necessary to respond to the comments of the former employee, if they are to the point. Start by thanking for the feedback, even if it's negative. When answering, use neutral language, in no case get into a skirmish and state your vision. What else? Make it so that positive reviews appear, not fake, but sincere. By themselves, they rarely appear, because good things are not always written about, even if the company deserves it. The more positive feedback, the more disjointed and out of place the comments of a disgruntled former employee will seem.
What can I do to avoid negative reviews?
I recommend building a process offboarding. I recommend reading the blog post “Offboarding: Green Dismissal”. By the way, one of the elements of offboarding is exit interview. It allows the employee to speak out and thereby reduce the risk of writing a negative review to a minimum. In general, the best remedy is prevention, i.e. maintaining a healthy atmosphere in the company. If a conflict has happened, then you need to work with it, and it is better to respond to criticism while the employee is still working. Well, it is important to strive for the positive, for example, to develop the right corporate culture and employer brand.
Should candidates pay attention to negative reviews?
Maybe you shouldn’t read reviews at all - you never know who and for what reasons can write them. In the classification of reviews, I noted that they can be fake or subjective, or even just ordinary trolling. It is believed that reading reviews can not only mislead the candidate, but also greatly lengthens the job search. Some candidates, after reading reviews, lose confidence in almost all companies, and then begin to lose faith in the ability to find a good company, as well as in themselves. What can I say in this case? Everything is good in moderation.
And we decided to conduct a little research and find out what users of the Praca.by portal think about this. The survey was chosen as the research method, in which 1226 people.
Text: Valery Kichkaev, author of the Praca corporate blog, read also: What is happening in the labor market in Belarus и How to politely turn down a job candidate.