Is it wise to trust employer review sites?

We have all seen a really interesting job advert from a company or heard a company name and immediately jumped online to find out more about them; what do they do, where are they located, do they have other roles I can apply for, what do people think of them?

Upon your search one of the first pages that pops up will most likely be a third-party company review page – e.g. Glassdoors. As a society ever increasingly searching out reviews for services and products, why not search your potential future employer? So, we scan the reviews, check the star rating, delve deeper to see what “supposed” past or current employees think about the company they work for.

Now, what happens if you see a bad/negative review; Will you not apply? Will you not attend an interview with them? Will you bypass them completely? If so, have you just limited your own career opportunities?

So are these reviews to be trusted….here are 5 reasons why company reviews may not always reflect the employer:

1. Employee verification

Such pages cannot verify that the individual leaving the review has worked for the company. Anyone can leave a review for any company! They may have never worked there, they could be a disgruntled customer, competitor or relative to an employee. They might have been there for a week or worked at a completely different site. Would you trust it?

2. Changing environments

A post on these pages could have occurred months, years or a decade ago. Companies are continuously changing, staff come and go, employees develop. An opinion at one time may not reflect the current situation of the company. Things may have deteriorated or improved but rarely will we analyse when or why a review was written. Companies are continuously striving to be better and stand out amongst others so dwelling on past situations doesn’t help them to improve.

3. Bad news > good news

“On average, a happy customer will tell three people about their experience while an unhappy one will tell more than three times that”

Relate the above quote to your everyday life; If you go to a new restaurant and the food is amazing, how likely are you to write a review to that effect? But if you find a hair in your food or, to refer to my favourite TV show “Friends” – if the waiter carries the breadsticks in his pants – then you are going to take the time to complain and warn others not to eat there! The same goes for company reviews. Employees leaving unfavourable evaluations may have not had a good interview or left under less than happy circumstances beyond immediate company control. They may not have been the best fit for the role/company but likely to blame others for this.

4. Open to interpretation

Review posts can range from a few words to lengthy paragraphs. The comment may not have lots of detail so when you read the company has reduced the number of holiday days or not giving pay rises, ask yourself why? They may in fact have changed an unproductive policy or are not increasing pay in order to fund a new venture that will benefit staff in the long run. We never know the full details so reading between the lines is not always a great idea.

5. Opinions

Most importantly these opinions are opinions and everyone is different. As a child my mum told me beetroot tasted great. I tried it for myself and immediately spat it out! Only from trying it I had developed my own opinion which is clearly very different to my Mum’s.

At VRS we implore you to go and see for yourself!

Talk to your recruiter, submit an application, attend an interview, meet the staff, see the site, find out everything about what role you will play within the organisation. Be informed and form your own opinion. Now with all the information you can decide – is this the company for me?

Eager to search new opportunities? visit us on www.vrsrecruitment.com or call us on 01619764000

We are always keen to hear your thoughts in the comments!