If you are making an offer to a prospective new employee they are five times more likely to turn it down if you have a bad reputation than if you have a good one. So says a study by Corporate Responsibility Magazine. Your online reputation makes a difference as to how prospective employees regard you.
In this article, I’ll be considering what difference your reputation makes to your hiring goals and what you might do about it. If you are responsible for hiring or your corporate reputation, you might be surprised by how important this is for recruitment.
Read on to learn how your online reputation affects your hiring goals.
Online Reputation
Businesses have always had a reputation. Reputation was about what people said to each other about you. If they had a great customer experience they told their friends and neighbors.
If people had a bad experience they also told their friends and neighbors. Word got about and a bad reputation was formed.
Now, reports about people’s experiences of businesses are spread across networks. They can be instant and repeated many times. They are accessible by everybody and you don’t even have to know the person providing the review.
Employer Reputation
Just as customer reviews of products and services have transformed corporate reputations so employers must now recognize they have an employment reputation. This reputation is formed on social media, job websites and on purpose-built employment reputation sites.
Try doing a search on Twitter for your business? Check Indeed for your company review. Glassdoor holds millions of company reviews as well as other information of interest to potential employees.
Are you surprised by how much information is out there? Are you concerned about what it says about your business and how prospective employees might regard you? If you feel pleased with what you find has it occurred to you how fragile this may be?
Managing Your Reputation
Your online reputation can make a major difference to all aspects of your business. Organisations that are switched on to this recognize the need to have a reputation management strategy and apply it to suppliers, partners, customers, and employees.
For example, if you’re selecting a user experience design consultant it would be sensible to have a set of ux design interview questions that help you screen out any risk to your reputation. By the same token, it is wise to have a strategy to manage your employment reputation.
What Difference Does It Make?
Having a good online reputation means positive perceptions. You get more applications and candidate searching for vacancies. You may reduce your recruitment costs, have less employee turnover and you may even be able to attract people and pay lower salaries.
What Can You Do About It?
There are two main opportunities for managing your reputation. One is reactive and the other is active.
Reactive management is about responding to the online reviews. If people are discussing your organization get involved. Join the conversation.
Encourage and acknowledge the positive comments. Respond to the negative comments. People at least feel listened to and you have a chance to show that you are willing to engage with feedback, constructively.
Active management is more strategic. Work on the culture of the organization so that its values and behavior are worthy of the reputation you aspire to. This is not a quick fix but it is the only sustainable way of delivering a great reputation.
To learn more about managing your reputation click here.