You may have heard of it, you may have not –but the fast-growing website Glassdoor.com is taking online job hunting and employer recruiting to a whole new level. Much like the employment-oriented networking site LinkenIn, Glassdoor allows an employer to find strong candidates, and strong candidates to find an employer –all via online postings. Seems easy, right? Well Glassdoor doesn’t stop there.
With access to the website, Glassdoor provides job seeking candidates the ability to write and review: company critiques, salary reports, CEO ratings, interview questions and styles, benefits packages, and even what the office environment is like. All of these assets are both “free and anonymous” to the job seeker. So what’s the catch, you ask? Glassdoor has a simple “give-to-get” model –you give us something, we give you something. In order to obtain an account at no cost, a candidate must first give a review on a former or current employer –this can be on the company itself, the salary structure, or the interviewing experience. Seems like a small price to pay for the access to an informational database of 8 million+ professional companies.
Glassdoor is a win-win situation for those seeking employment. Looking for a new job? Search the site –with listings broken up by industry, it tells you exactly how many openings are available within your field and where they are located. Have a personal vendetta against your former “son-of-a” boss? Go write a bashing review. Tell the world how much your job sucked just in spite. Regardless of the motive, candidates can accomplish about any employment driven goal by going to this site.
So what about the employers seeking employees –is it as beneficial to them?
Like people seeking employment, companies are also offered a free membership on the site, allowing them to: update company information on their profile, access analytics on candidate activity, and most importantly, respond to reviews. Remember that disgruntled employee that bashed YOU, the CEO of ABC123 Technologies, on Glassdoor.com? You, as the company, have the opportunity to respond to John Doe about his complaints and defend yourself and your company in the public eye.
The question is SHOULD you, as a company, reply to these comments, whether accurate or false? We could get into a whole new topic on this, but in short, we say YES. If you don’t stand up for your own company, who else will? You can’t rely solely on positive reviews, although those are nice to have.
Despite the fight against negative feedback, there are several positives to having a company membership at Glassdoor.com. It can be a very powerful tool for finding new candidates and for posting new job opportunities within your company. You can place ads on competitor’s pages, see who’s viewing your company page/postings, and improve your brand awareness by targeting direct audiences. Unfortunately, this posting party comes at a price.
In order to get access to all of these fundamental tools, you must sign up for the “Enhanced” membership option that Glassdoor offers. What’s that going to run ya, you ask? That answer was a little hard to track down, as their website dances around the “pricing” section by including “Build your own package” and “Contact Sales to get the best price for your organization.” In reference from Forbes.com, we found that Glassdoor charges somewhere between $6,000 and $100,000 annually, depending on the size of your company. YEP –you read those 0’s right. Additionally, only 3,600 of those 8 million+ companies are paying for membership.
If the shoe fits, wear it, right? At the castle of Glassdoor, Cinderella companies can find their perfect glass slipper-fit employee –just remember that is might come at a cost.
Get hired. Love your job. It’s that simple, right? We’d love to know! If you have experience using the site, as a job seeker or a company seeking, what has been your experience with the fastest growing recruiting site –a Cinderella story or just a made-up fairy tale?
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