I attended an HR and Change conference this week, facilitating a session on social engagement with some of my colleagues from the Engage For Success movement. I’m currently a part of a special interest group as part of the movement, looking at the role of enterprise social networks on engaging employees. As part of this session I led a table discussion with a diverse group from across the HR landscape.
The discussion centered on to the growing influence of employees on company reputation. Long gone are the days when companies could keep a lid on how it feels to work there: with the advent of sites such as Glassdoor (think Trip Advisor for companies) the cat is out of the bag on what it’s really like to work in your company. Glassdoor is my trump card for persuading companies they need to focus on engagement and take it seriously. I can present the business case and evidence until I’m blue in the face, but as soon as I talk about Glassdoor and explain what it is, suddenly people sit up and take notice… And immediately whip out their smart phones to check out their own company. When they see that there is a “rate the CEO” function the room often falls silent, mouths are open and there is a genuine look of horror and fear on some faces.
However I believe Glassdoor and similar services shouldn’t be seen as a threat but an opportunity. It just shows how we still treat our employees in a completely different way to our customers. Businesses clearly know it’s a good thing to continually check in with customers, understand their experience with the company, and how they’re feeling. Anything that can help keep your finger on the pulse of customer sentiment is viewed as a good thing rather than a threat. Companies aspire to be top of Trip Advisor because they are proud of what they do, the service they deliver, the food they cook… But when it comes to employee sentiment the go-to reaction is to try and place a gag order on employees rather than say “We’re really proud of how it feels to work here and how we treat our employees and we want them to shout about it.” As I said there is a huge gap in both reaction and approach between customer experience and employee experience.
Of course not all companies have this reaction – the good ones, those who genuinely believe in employee engagement and the impact engaged employees have on the business are happy for employees to contribute to sites such as Glassdooor. These same companies annually enter the best companies list or great place to work list. I have one client who is seriously considering getting rid of their (expensive) annual survey and just asking that employees go onto Glassdoor whenever they feel like it to let the world know how they feel about working at their company. Glassdoor and similar sites have yet to really take off in the UK but I have no doubt they will. Even as little as a year ago when I talked about Glassdoor in my training courses very few people had heard of it, now at least half the room has if not more. So how about we use the opportunity to get our house in order now, to develop and build a workplace that people are proud to be a part of. If we do the right thing, sites such as Glassdoor will no longer have the power to silence a room and instead will be viewed as a way to let the world know why your company is THE place to work.
If you want to hear how I can help you with employee engagement in your own company you can request a callback here.
Emma
