Article: The TripAdvisor for Jobs & Companies

Talent Acquisition

The TripAdvisor for Jobs & Companies

Are companies ready to compete in the world of peer review e-commerce?
The TripAdvisor for Jobs & Companies
 

Job seekers can gain access to a lot more information about the employer and leverage their network to get help get their resume noticed

 

Are companies ready to compete in the world of peer review e-commerce?

The world of e-commerce where the opportunity to compare quality of varied products and services have become a norm extends to the job world as well. The demand for greater transparency and information in making better career decisions has made access to employer details free, open and available for all interested. And this is further accentuated by the entry of social media in everyday life.

Founded in 2007, GlassDoor began as a social platform for job interview questions and reviews, office photos, career advice and enhanced employer profiles. Its service extended to provide a search technology that helps job seekers browse and preview job postings in a much more effective manner that allowed people to actually learn more about what it is really like to work there by providing instant, in-depth details about companies directly from each listing. In 2012, GlassDoor introduced a Facebook integration that allowed users to log-in using their Facebook ID and also show who one is connected to in each company. The launch of ‘Inside Connections’ opened the opportunity for job seekers to discover who they already know at companies through their existing Facebook network. Today, GlassDoor provides access to millions of job listings along with a free insider look into what it’s really life to work at 2,20,000 companies across 190 countries.

Job seekers are able to gain access to a lot more information about the employer and leverage their Facebook friends’ network to identify people who can help get their resume noticed or even get personal advice. Why is this different? Let’s ask a simple question – how often do we question the endless promises that companies or brands make through their formal communication channels? It is natural to call those ‘made-up’ or ‘orchestrated’ and holds no real meaning. Employers tend to talk more and more about their employer brand and use social media to sell authenticity – do we buy that? But we do surely tend to believe feedback we receive from peers and others who have experienced a similar product or service. So if I want to travel to a new place, I would trust Tripadviser.com to give me far more valuable information than what that destination ad campaign has to say.

The tool shares consonance to what the new-age talent population seek today - candid feedback and transparency in every aspect of their work and life. Thus, a site that allows employees to anonymously rate their employers and provide information like work culture, salary etc. about the company for non-employees to use is a welcome change. For job seekers, this is a perfect place to research about a potential employer, to know more about what its current and former staff had to say about them.

GlassDoor has been a rage in North America where majority of employers are now quite happy with how GlassDoor ranks them. 67 percent of the companies listed on GlassDoor are satisfied or happy about their rating on the site. While this is undoubtedly a welcome change for job seekers, are employers in India ready for the magnified level of transparency that GlassDoor brings along? The talk in town is that social media in the workplace is more a concern for many organizations that worry about controlling conversations on social platforms like Twitter or Facebook. And in a scenario where organizations have not yet crossed over to accepting even candid conversations of employees on the social platform, are they going to be ready for peer review site?

The reality of course is that such social tools seldom leave much choice for employers – if they job seekers are already excited about it, there is little chance that employers can ignore its adoption and not stand to miss out. While GlassDoor is a pioneer, the concept has replicated by many others like Vault in the US, Ratemyjob in Canada and WorkplaceFit & JobAdvisor in Australia. At present, GlassDoor has the first mover advantage and sees up to 10 million unique visitors per month worldwide. The virality of the concept will soon see other players entering the Indian market – but are employers in India ready and mature enough to survive in a peer review set-up where all company information is so out in the open?

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, Watercooler, #Social Media

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