Over the last few weeks a number of guests on the podcast have mentioned that they have been included in Glassdoor’s Best Places To Work list and I’m sure many of you are interested in finding out more about what this actually means.
My guest this week is Lisa Holden , Employer Communications Manager at Glassdoor. I spoke to Lisa to find out how the Best Places To Work list is put together and also to understand more about the growing correlation between employee voice and employer brand.
In the interview we discuss:
• The origins of Best Places To Work
• Debunking some common myths
• What are the common traits that propel employers up the list
• Why the relationship between employee voice and employer brand is so important
• The vital importance of transparency
Lisa also talks us through some of the more surprising inclusions in the list and gives us her thoughts on future trends
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Transcript:
Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
Support for this podcast comes from Glassdoor. Today, job seekers are doing their research before applying for jobs, and they’re doing it on Glassdoor. Glassdoor is the trusted and transparent place where 34 million engaged job seekers are going to research potential employers and where smart organizations of all sizes are going to recruit the best and brightest talent. Ready to get started on Glassdoor? To unlock your free employer account, Simply go to www.glassdoor.com employers. That’s www.glassdoor.com employers and fill in the free account form.
Matt Alder [00:01:04]:
Hi everyone, this is Matt Alder. Welcome to episode 86 of the Recruiting Future podcast. Before we start the show, some great news. In order to make it easier for you to listen to your favorite episodes of the show, you can now download a Recruiting Future podcast app for your smartphone or for your tablet. The app is available in the Apple and Google Play app store. Just search for Recruiting Future. So onto this week’s show. In the last few weeks, a number of the guests I’ve interviewed have mentioned that they’ve been listed in the Glassdoor Best Places to Work list. My guest this week is Lisa Holden, Employee Communications Manager at Glassdoor. I spoke to Lisa because I wanted to find out how the Best Places to Work list is put together and to understand more about the growing correlation between employee voice and employer brand. Hi, Lisa, and welcome to the podcast.
Lisa Holden [00:02:05]:
Hello. Thank you for having me.
Matt Alder [00:02:06]:
My absolute pleasure. Could you introduce yourself and tell everyone what you do?
Lisa Holden [00:02:12]:
Absolutely. My name is Lisa Holden. I’m the Employer Communications Manager here at Glassdoor, and I’ve been with the company for going on five years now. And my entire job has been around managing communications when it comes to the employers who use Glassdoor, making sure that they understand how our lists and awards are put together, and making sure that they understand how to make the most of their employer brands across our site. And in my time at Glassdoor, I’ve certainly worn a lot of hats. I work very closely in the media relations department, but I also do a lot of content creation and I have a lot of calls like this with folks like you who are clearly influential in this space and help to give employers a better understanding of how the market of recruiting and employer branding is changing. So I’m excited to be here today.
Matt Alder [00:03:06]:
Now, I’ve had a number of guests on the show recently, heads of resourcing, heads of talent acquisition who’ve all won sort of various Awards in your best places to work. Could you tell us a little bit more about what is Glassdoor’s Best places to work?
Lisa Holden [00:03:26]:
Sure. So we started Glassdoor in 2008 with the goal of helping people everywhere find jobs and companies they love. And we did that by offering a platform where people could share anonymous reviews about what it was really like to work at the companies that they were currently at or they had formerly worked at. And that platform allowed people to make more informed and smarter decisions about where they applied for jobs and ultimately decided where to work. And so, as you can imagine, we were sitting on a tremendous amount of data about these organizations. And we thought to ourselves pretty early on in Glassdoor’s history, we should really make a list where we’re honoring and highlighting the best of the best and the workplaces that really shine above the rest in the eyes of employees, which is kind of the group of people who know best. And so the Glassdoor Best Places to Work list was born. And this list started with highlighting just a handful of companies that had incredibly high ratings on Glassdoor. And it has grown. We now do a handful of different lists in a handful of different countries. So we have two lists here in the US for both large companies, which are defined by companies which have 1,000 or more employees, and SMBs, which are less than 1,000 employees. That’s the U.S. we also have Best Places to Work lists in the UK Canada, France, and Germany, all highlighting the best places to work in those areas based on feedback from people who are based in those areas.
Matt Alder [00:05:04]:
Now, sort of looking at the companies who have kind of ranked highly in this year’s Best Places to Work, what sort of traits do those companies have in common? What’s the common ground between them? What is it that’s kind of propelling them up the list?
Lisa Holden [00:05:23]:
Sure. So. So a few common traits here are, you know, first, actually, I want to give you a fun fact, which is that I get a lot of questions about common myths about the Best Places to Work list. And so a lot of people assume that you have to be a large company to be on the list, which, of course, as I explained to you, you no longer do. Another one is that you need extravagant perks in order to be featured. And you need to, you know, give people things like they’re allowed to bring their dogs to work or unlimited vacation and things like that. That’s not really the case. And finally, that you need to be in tech, and that’s not necessarily true either. We find that the majority of the companies that make this list are not tech companies, but the things that they have in common. The common themes among these companies are things like having a clear path for advancement. So organizations that make it clear what you’re doing now and what you should be doing in the future, what there is room for you to do in the future at this organization. And that really comes from the next theme, which is transparent leadership. The idea that the C suite at the organization is very clear about where the company is going, what success looks like, and what problems exist and how they’re going about solving them. Finally, a unique culture that aligns with the mission is the next trait. And all of these traits are pulled from the Glassdoor reviews themselves. So when we put together the list, we’re actually. It’s not just about the numerical rating. We’re actually reading the reviews and finding out what people are saying about these organizations and what really resonates. And those things are what bubble up to the top.
Matt Alder [00:07:11]:
So I guess this is really interesting. In terms of employer branding, how important do you find the employee voice in terms of the attractability of somewhere to work? What kind of effect does this, this feedback have on employers?
Lisa Holden [00:07:25]:
Well, I’m glad you asked that question, because it’s fascinating how much emphasis employee voice really has when it comes to your employer brand. There’s a company called Edelman that puts out a trust barometer every year, and they basically ask consumers to rate how trustworthy various. Various sources are when it comes to their perception of different brands. And something that they found that was very interesting was that employees rank among the most trusted influences when communicating about their company’s engagement and integrity. And just to note here, employees actually rank above the CEO above the company’s corporate website. And so when you’re thinking about how you make assessments on companies or where to eat at a restaurant or. Or which hotel to stay at, you really want to hear it from the people who have been in the same position as you, who have eaten at said restaurants, stayed at said hotel, and worked at said company. So it really makes sense that in the survey data, they found that Employees Voice ranks head and shoulders above some of these resources that we’ve always considered to be more traditional sources of information.
Matt Alder [00:08:43]:
You mentioned at the start that you don’t have to have amazing employee perks to appear on this list. Do you get a sense from the research about what actually is important to employees?
Lisa Holden [00:08:57]:
Absolutely. So Glassdoor’s chief economist, Andrew Chamberlain, did some very interesting research about a year ago where he looked at companies that have very high ratings for overall satisfaction. And then he looked at the workplace factor ratings that go along with that to see where they lined up, basically. So on Glassdoor, you can rate your company for overall satisfaction and you can also rate various workplace factors including things like culture and values, senior leadership, career opportunities, business outlook, work life balance and compensation. And what was so interesting that he found was that when he looked at companies with very high overall ratings, they didn’t typically also have high ratings for compensation and benefits. In fact, compensation and benefits was. Towards the end, the things that really stood out and really made a difference when it came to overall satisfaction were top three were culture and values, senior leadership and career opportunities. And that makes sense when you think about the common themes that the best places to work have in common, because they’re things around leadership, communication, transparency, and feeling like you have the opportunity to grow. And that is what aligns so closely with satisfaction.
Matt Alder [00:10:19]:
I know a number of companies and certainly some employers that I, that I work with are, you know, see the value of this and are sort of very keen to, you know, to move up to the rankings and, you know, get, get, get, get this kind of get on the list and, and get these awards. They don’t really know what the levers are to improve the sort of feedback that employees, employees are leaving about them. What, what can companies do to improve their ranking, as it were?
Lisa Holden [00:10:49]:
Absolutely. So the first thing that I always tell organizations is that this is not a list that you can apply for. And that’s a really important thing to keep in mind because in essence, you could appear on the Glassdoor Best Places to work list without ever having heard of Glassdoor. But if your employees are the ones leaving reviews on the site and they’re complimentary of your organization, that’s all you need to make the list. And so it’s sort of, it’s good news and bad news, I guess. But the only thing that organizations can and should do to set themselves up in the best position to be considered for this list is to encourage employee feedback. And from there, once you’ve encouraged employee feedback and you have enough data for us to consider for the purposes of this list, that’s when you can start to assess your own data. And you can look at what people have said over the past year, what locations they’re in, what, you know, departments and things like that, if they choose to share that, and you can begin to take an active role in engaging with that content. And what I mean by engaging is a couple things. One is it’s important to encourage employees to leave feedback, but it’s as important or more important to engage with that feedback once they’ve done so. Because if you’re asking them for something and you don’t do anything with it, you’re sort of dropping the ball there and you’re. And you’re not likely to get more feedback coming in with a steady stream if people don’t feel like what they’ve said matters. And so make sure that once you get that feedback, you’re communicating back to your workforce. Hey, we’ve received a lot of feedback and we’ve noticed these key themes come up. And so we’re really glad to celebrate that. You know, our leadership seems to be very highly rated and it looks like we have room to improve our work life balance, for example. And so here are the steps we’re going to take to do that. So engaging with that is very important, but it’s also important to. So that would be an example of internally engaging with it and communicating with your workforce. But it’s also incredibly important to engage externally as well. And what I mean by that is responding to the reviews on Glassdoor. And what a lot of employers find is that responding to reviews publicly can be very helpful because it’s not just about the reviews, reviewer in question, the person who left the review, it’s about everyone who reads that review and more importantly, reads your response. So if you are able to get, just get a free employer account on Glassdoor, you don’t need to be a customer to do this. You can respond to the reviews that you have out there and really add your employer voice. And that is incredibly important. We survey our users all the time and one thing that we recently found was that 62% say their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review. And I find that that’s quite important because they’re not saying their perception improves if they like the response or if the response clarifies things for them. Simply seeing a response improves perception for 62%. And we also found in this same survey, our own users, we found that 90% say it’s important to work for a company that embraces transparency. And again, 90% value the opinion of a company. So as you’re looking at your overall brand strategy and you’re hoping to improve your brand on Glassdoor, make sure that you’re engaging your employee voice and your workforce, because as we said, that’s so important. But also make sure that the employer voice is there as well. Engaging with that employee voice both internally at your own organization and externally for potential candidates to see.
Matt Alder [00:14:47]:
Now, I’m sure that people listening who perhaps haven’t seen the companies on the list might have some preconceptions of who’s won or who’s kind of ranked highly. What companies are included in the best places to Work that people would perhaps find surprising to see there?
Lisa Holden [00:15:10]:
Oh, sure. Well, I can tell you the number one company is Bain & Co. And that is on the U.S. list. The U.S. large list. Bain & Co. Is not an easy place to work. This is an organization that hires a lot of Harvard grads and Ivy League students, and they expect a lot from the people at this organization. We actually had a member of The Bain & Co. HR team speaking at our Chicago Best Places to Work roadshow, and he talked a lot about how committed people are to the organization because they’re kind of cut from the same cloth in a sense. I mean, these are incredibly hard workers who put everything they have into their job. They’re kind of type A in a lot of ways. And they’re all part of a culture that supports that and supports one another. So when we think about those key themes of feeling like there’s a clear path for advancement, transparent leadership and unique culture, I mean, Bain really embodies that, and we see that in the reviews themselves. Another, the number two company which ends up being the number one in tech is Facebook. And Facebook is a company that, again, no easy ride to work here. It’s a tough one. But they have incredibly transparent leadership. It’s very common knowledge that Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, holds weekly town hall meetings where anyone can come and ask him any question. And that really sets up the organization to be incredibly transparent. The third company on the US Large list is Boston Consulting Group. And this is a company where, like, being a consultant can be really hard. We know that, and we see that in reviews about consulting jobs. You know, you can feel very isolated. You can feel like you’re more part of your client’s team than you are at your own organization. And Boston Consulting Group manages that really well. The reviews talk about great career progression, opportunity to learn and importantly, be collaborative within the culture, which is. Which is so important as well.
Matt Alder [00:17:22]:
So a final question, kind of a prediction, I suppose. 12 months, you know, next year, obviously you’ll be, you know, pulling, pulling these awards together again. What, what would you expect to see? What do you think the trends are going to be in employee experience over the next 12 months?
Lisa Holden [00:17:42]:
Very interesting question. Well, you know, I’ll tell you, this will be my 6th best places to work list when it comes up in December. So I’ve been doing this for a fair amount of years now, and I’ll tell you that the themes don’t change that much. We tend to see companies get really high marks for culture, high marks for leadership and management. We see a lot of reviews that go back to people feeling like they understand what’s going on at the organization. Transparency and collaborative cultures are always big. So, you know, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t anticipate the themes changing that much. And I think that can be, that can be helpful insight for organizations who kind of feel like, okay, we know we’re in an awesome place to work, but how do we get on this list? You know, keep doing what you’re doing, keep encouraging employee feedback, and make sure that you have enough data to be considered for our list. And so Glassdoor really has a clear picture of what your organization is really like, and we can tell a congruent story. I’ll tell you, one of the things that we look for in our methodology when we are determining the winners of this list is consistency. And so that’s not to say that if you have a fluctuation in the kind of reviews you’re getting, you’re disqualified. That’s not what I’m saying at all, but rather if we notice points of inconsistency that can affect a company’s overall score. So make sure you have enough data to tell a congruent story. And as long as your organization is one of the best of the best and is doing everything it can to embrace employee feedback and constantly look for ways to improve, you’re doing everything you can to be set up to be on this list. And companies that make it will probably have some of those same themes next year.
Matt Alder [00:19:39]:
Lisa, thank you very much for talking to me.
Lisa Holden [00:19:41]:
My pleasure. Matt, thank you so much for having me on.
Matt Alder [00:19:45]:
My thanks to Lisa Holden. You can subscribe to this podcast in itunes on Stitcher or download the show app on your smartphone. Just search for recruiting feature in your app store. You can find all the past episodes@www.rfpodcast.com on that site. You can also subscribe to the mailing list and find out more about working with me. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next week and I hope you’ll join me.
