I was taking a look at companies and saw a fair amount of this. The influenced positive reviews do appear to have a pattern to them and are fairly easy to spot, but it skews the numbers if you were not digging that deep.
Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
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Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#12Is there any service that actually is fair? When Ubisoft makes Forbe's "Best Places to Work" I don't feel like I can trust anything to make an objective measure other than organic word of mouth and simply experiencing it for myself.
I have friends who say working for Ubisoft isn't as bad. Especially in the gaming industry. But obviously its not as good as working for a real tech company.
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#13Is there any service that actually is fair? When Ubisoft makes Forbe's "Best Places to Work" I don't feel like I can trust anything to make an objective measure other than organic word of mouth and simply experiencing it for myself.
Nothing beats knowing someone there who you know their general perspective on work so you know how to frame their input.
These sites like Glassdoor, Yelp, etc.... there's no context.
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#14Is there any service that actually is fair? When Ubisoft makes Forbe's "Best Places to Work" I don't feel like I can trust anything to make an objective measure other than organic word of mouth and simply experiencing it for myself.
Just people you talk to. And even then it depends on where they are, and their own criteria.
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#15This happened at my previous company when they had bad glassdoor reviews. Every new person through the door, was sort of forced to write a glassdoor review. They would be given a nice welcome, some schwag, sell them on the company. People inevitably wrote good reviews, alas once the honeymoon period ended, they were in for a rude shock.
There's also the potential for skewed reviews when companies offer bonuses for financial or recruiting performance
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#16You don't say! I used to work as an engineer at a truly awful little company, the worst I've been at, and when I left I gave them a scathing review. Not long after, several new reviews popped up. Here are some choice excerpts, get a load of this:
> Pros: > For anyone reading these reviews, take it from someone who has been at this company for over 10 years, some people just like to use these review sites as a sounding board for their own distorted views of a company where they obviously were let go for good and obvious reasons.
> [skipping forward a bit]
>The truth is that every company will inevitably come across a "sour grape" that was not meant to be part of that companies future. Its just a shame that instead of trying to improve themselves they waste time trying to justify their irrational beliefs and convince themselves that writing negative reviews will somehow fortify their distorted view of what actually happened during their time there.
>Cons
>Former employees that sit in dark rooms and write negative reviews in between shifts at the local convenience store.
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Then they separately put up some absurd propaganda reviews. This one was titled "Sunshine, Unicorns and GumDrops," if you can believe that:
> I have been with Snowbound for quite a long time(about 10 years) and I have been meaning to write a review. I am inclined to agree with the "like a family and home away from home” reviews. At least on my side of the office it’s the land of Sunshine, Unicorns and Gumdrops. We like to work hard but also have a good time doing it.
Then they had another one titled "Like a family", here's an excerpt~
> You aren't just a number or a body behind a computer screen. If you're going through a personal issue, …
Yeah, like when I was fired and the CTO coldly told me "We can do better than you." This is the same guy who I watched stroke a waitress's hand as he passed her a tip during a company lunch outing and tell her "You have a smoking ass."
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There's another review titled "home away from home," and another called "long time here and worth it," but you get the point.
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#17Is there any service that actually is fair? When Ubisoft makes Forbe's "Best Places to Work" I don't feel like I can trust anything to make an objective measure other than organic word of mouth and simply experiencing it for myself.
It's the natural cycle of the internet.
1. Be a nobody company
2. Utilize generous user content to build up an important knowledge-base/economy
3. People begin to trust the information in the system and come to rely on it
4. Sell-out entirely and make a lot of money letting people buy influence
5. People abandon the site realizing it has no signal anymore
(Digg, Reddit, Amazon, Glassdoor, experts-exchange, facebook, google search ~ish)
Notable exceptions: Craigslist, HN, stackoverflow, wikipedia, youtube
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#18This article kind of misses the entire point; Glassdoor and the rest of these "professional review" sites sell reputation management services to the company. They use the negative reviews to push other high margin services to the companies. The only one who should care about Glassdoor being gamed is Glassdoor executives; anyone looking for a honest and balanced review of a company workplace on Glassdoor is already getting a manufactured picture.
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#19I made a Portuguese alternative to Glassdoor (IT only), and I confirm that is a daily challenge and time consuming find what reviews are honest or not. Fortunately many HR and marketeers use their company email to create fake IT reviews, and a cross check with linkedin handle many cases. Using blockchain is also useful to guarantee that reviews are not manipulated or deleted. I don't want to create spam here, but if anyone has curiosity check for Teamlyzer.
Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees
#20Is there any service that actually is fair? When Ubisoft makes Forbe's "Best Places to Work" I don't feel like I can trust anything to make an objective measure other than organic word of mouth and simply experiencing it for myself.
It's the natural cycle of the internet. 1. Be a nobody company 2. Utilize generous user content to build up an important knowledge-base/economy 3. People begin to trust the information in the system and come to rely on it 4. Sell-out entirely and make a lot of money letting people buy influence 5. People abandon the site realizing it has no signal anymore (Digg, Reddit, Amazon, Glassdoor, experts-exchange, facebook,…
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