Webinar Recap: How to Become a Best Place to Work

We don’t need to tell you, being on a Best Places to Work list is a really big deal. In particular, Glassdoor’s annual Best Places to Work List is based entirely on employee feedback, so it’s a true testament to your company’s commitment to its workforce. Companies that win the Employees’ Choice Awards receive a toolkit to display the award on their career sites and Glassdoor profiles, giving interested candidates the extra confidence to look for open roles and apply. With so many companies jockeying for places on awards lists, many people ask us how they can apply. The short answer is that there’s no application process, because it’s a data-driven list based only on the employee reviews found on Glassdoor. The long answer is that there’s a lot that goes into it, and some actions you can take to set your company up in the best position to be considered. In our recent webinar Get in the Running for Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work 2017: What You Need to Do Now, Glassdoor Employer Communications Manager, Lisa Holden, shared the methodology behind the list, and a list of things you can do to get in the running. Requirements and evaluation period While Glassdoor reserves the right to improve methodology year on year, the methodology from the year prior can help you understand the basics around how the list is put together. Last year, the U.S. list was divided into two categories: Large Companies, with 1,000 or more employees, and SMBs, with fewer than 1,000 employees. Large companies needed at least 75 Glassdoor-approved company reviews in the evaluation period. SMBs needed at least 25 Glassdoor-approved employee reviews to qualify. For Canadian and UK companies, the requirement was 25 approved reviews, and in France and Germany it was 20. These reviews needed to appear during the eligibility period, which ran from Nov. 3, 2014 to Nov. 1, 2015 last year. A Glassdoor-approved review is one that meets our community guidelines and remains on the site. Two important guidelines should be noted:

• We remove content if we have evidence that users were incentivized to or coerced into leaving it.
• We believe in the principle of anonymity and free speech — everyone has a right to voice their opinion and be heard without fear of retribution, censorship or other unwanted attention.

This means that while it is acceptable and even desirable to encourage reviews, it’s never acceptable to require employees to write reviews. And because we value anonymity—it’s what gives our users the confidence to be honest—an individual should never be asked to prove that he or she wrote a review. We also limit reviewers to one employee review per year per company, and will eliminate reviews if we catch attempts to game the system by posting reviews from multiple accounts. What we look for For those who have offices in multiple locations, reviews are evaluated based on where the employee leaving the review is located, so you could be on a list in multiple countries. For example, Expedia and Google landed on both U.S. and UK lists in 2016, while both Apple and Salesforce landed on the Canada and U.S. lists. Beyond the number of reviews, the proprietary algorithm takes into account the quality and consistency of reviews. To prevent gaming, Glassdoor does not reveal complete details of how these factors are taken into consideration. http://%5BEMBED:%20iframe%20src=//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/F1SFBr7bnv09Jt%20width=595%20height=485%20frameborder=0%20marginwidth=0%20marginheight=0%20scrolling=no%20style=border:1px%20solid%20#CCC;%20border-width:1px;%20margin-bottom:5px;%20max-width:%20100%;%20allowfullscreen%20/iframe%20div%20style=margin-bottom:5px%20strong%20a%20href=//www.slideshare.net/Glassdoor/get-in-the-running-for-glassdoors-best-places-to-work-2017-what-you-need-to-do-now%20title=Get%20in%20the%20Running%20for%20Glassdoor's%20Best%20Places%20to%20Work%202017:%20What%20You%20Need%20to%20Do%20Now%20target=_blankGet%20in%20the%20Running%20for%20Glassdoor's%20Best%20Places%20to%20Work%202017:%20What%20You%20Need%20to%20Do%20Now/a%20/strong%20from%20stronga%20href=//www.slideshare.net/Glassdoor%20target=_blankGlassdoor/a/strong%20/div%5D[/embed]

It’s not about your rank, it’s about creating a positive place for employees

  In the excitement of striving for a goal, it’s easy to lose sight of why you’re doing it. For that reason, our award methodology is about putting employees first, and why we don’t allow companies to apply. Engaging in Glassdoor is not a requirement to qualify for our Best Places to Work list. Not every employer that makes the list is already engaged with Glassdoor. In fact, typically the list represents about a 50/50 split between customers and non-customers. Striving to improve your rating on Glassdoor should not be just about improving ratings or profits, however. It’s about making your company a place people want to work, a place where they feel supported and their careers are going to grow. To learn more about the traits of Best Places to Work winners, download our eBook, The DNA of a Best Place to Work. To get started on building your culture so that you can find your company on one of our lists next year or in the future, here are things you can do now: 1. Look at the quantity your current reviews. Do you have enough to qualify based on your company size? How many more reviews would you have needed to get in the running last year? 2. Identify trends in your reviews. Do the reviews reflect your current working environment? What are employees saying that’s not being addressed? What are you getting right? 3. Use Glassdoor data to set a baseline. Look at rating trends over time. Can you correlate sentiment with changes in your company? 4. Invite feedback. If you don’t have a ton of reviews or the conversation is being driven by past employees, it’s time to launch an engagement campaign to solicit feedback. Actively reach out to employees and invite them to share about their experience. You can do this in a variety of ways: at all hands meetings, in email signatures, as part of your onboarding process. Explain how valuable feedback is for your organization’s growth and ability to attract new top talent. 5. Monitor and respond to feedback. Set up alerts so that you see reviews coming in. Create a plan for how you’d like to respond, both internally and on Glassdoor. If possible, get your leaders involved in responding. Executives and department heads should be alerted to insightful or sensitive reviews and respond if necessary. 6. Implement a feedback loop. Use your reviews as a source of actionable insights. Maybe a specific job group or location within your company is experiencing turmoil but another is thriving. Use these insights to strategize on how to engage employees by investing in their growth and supporting work/life integration. If you’ve seen your culture improve, and your Glassdoor rating has gone up, take time to celebrate! Making the list is not what’s important; creating a better workplace is. Recognizing your achievements and learning as you go is what matters most. [recommended_posts]