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Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

wsj.com

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Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#41

Post by telecuda »

momentmaker wrote: post #10

Glassdoor was acquired by Indeed which was acquired by Japan's Recruit Co. Ltd. So keep that in mind.

Therein lies my gripe with Glassdoor.

Once we started hearing Glassdoor mentioned by candidates during interviews, we created a Company Page then shared it with current employees. Yes, we got a few positive reviews, then immediately staff started receiving daily recruiting emails along the lines of, "You could make $10,000 more at the same job in your city. Apply here."

As the employer on the account, we of course were not getting these emails. It's not that I have an issue with employees getting solicitations - it's the natural process - it's just a bit deceptive to employers who think creating a company page is all positive, then immediately their staff gets recruited harder.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#43

Post by [deleted] »

sonaltr wrote: post #39

A few friends of mine work for a company that most would consider terrible. I know for a fact that when ex employees do leave bad reviews, they have a line to call Glassdoor, and get it taken down under promise of buying a new subscription or renew existing subscriptions. I know this because it's one of my friend's responsibilities - He does this on a monthly basis (based on the whims of the owner) The main use of Gl…

[deleted]

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#44

Post by jiveturkey »

nooo ... you don't say ... unthinkable!

this has been well known for so long. but yeah, it deserves to be exposed. unfortunately, it's behind a paywall and outline.com isn't working (did wsj C&D them?), but my guess is they are not comparing the business to yelp.

glassdoor == yelp.

so this is completely expected and actually the desired behavior.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#45

Post by rchaud »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #17
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #6

Is 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,…

Nicely summarized. I see this pattern playing out so frequently that I'm at the point where I'm starting to think no one bothers creating content or communities without an eventual commercial angle that ruins the intent of the first iteration.

In terms of your notable exception, I'd say Indiehackers (now owned by Stripe) is still quite good. But perhaps that's because Stripe appears to be pretty hands-off at this point, and of course that could change.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#47

Post by mindcrime »

My approach to Glasdoor reviews is similar to my approach to Amazon reviews... ignore the positive reviews, and focus on the negative ones. Now, "absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence", but a large number of negative reviews is a strong "stay away" signal. A small number of negative reviews is, more or less regardless of the positive reviews, a "neutral" indicator to me.

Re: Companies Manipulate Glassdoor by Inflating Rankings and Pressuring Employees

#48

Post by pjc50 »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #17
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #6

Is 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,…

I feel that youtube is on the edge here; still lots of good information, but under heavy pressure.
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