#EconTalent Glassdoor and Employer Branding

It's just after lunch and Diarmuid Russell from Glassdoor has been leading a session on employee branding in a social media world.

He kicked off by mentioning Sir Clive Woodward's suggestion from the morning that it should be everybody's responsibility to be involved in social media.  One of Glassdoor's surveys suggest:

• 78% of people use social media as part of recruitment
• 41% (13% of millennials) thinks it is important to stay in a job for at least 5 years
• 77% of millennials value culture and fir with prospective employer
• 76% of people change their perception of an employer when it is actively involved in responding to comments.

Most people in the room suggest they do check their company reviews on Glassdoor, though Diarmuid still explained it for at least one attendee who didn't know what it is.  Basically it's about putting the power to make decisions about employment into the hands of the people - based on the fact that people today trust the opinions of people like them rather than experts and company websites etc.  In fact two thirds of applicants are more sceptical about claims made by employers than they were three years ago, and that rises to 65% for millennials.

This supports the increasing focus on transparency implicit in Glassdoor founder's three laws of the web:

We also looked at Brandon Hall's definition of employer branding as a combination of reputation and image.

• Image - an employer's public portrayal of the various elements of its unique employee value proposition - from the language used in job postings and advertisements to the message conveyed by recruiters across various channels and mediums.

• Reputation - the combined sentiments of candidates, employees, customers and clients (past, present or future) regarding an organisation's viability as an employer of choice - usually (but not always) based on first-hand experience.

In todays' environment of transparency, Glassdoor helps employers manage, or at least inform, their reputations, which together with image provides the employer brand.

Glassdoor also supports employer branding through a free employer account, providing great analytics for companies:

Also see:

• Pay transparency - on Glassdoor and in your organisation too
• What's Microsoft UK doing right? (Glassdoor Employees Choice Awards)
• Why men won't ask for Shared Parental Leave

Also see my first post from the conference: Charlie Mayfield on digital talent challenges

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