Employer ratings: increasing use by applicants and lack of activity from employers - no response? No application!

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Berlin, November 27, 2018 - Do you use employer rating platforms such as kununu or Glassdoor to find out more about employers? "This question is currently answered by 48.2% of applicants with" Yes ". In a February and March 2017 survey, Softgarden surveyed the figure is still at 45.7%, which means that the share has increased by 2.5 percentage points in just over a year.

Employer reviews: no response? No application! / softgarden survey shows increasing use by applicants and lack of activity on the part of employers / applicants want employers who actively deal with evaluations. (Infographic: Softgarden)

Text comments particularly appreciated
On employer evaluation platforms, applicants can view the overall evaluation or the evaluation of individual criteria such as the working atmosphere or manager behavior in stars, as well as detailed comments in text form. The more detailed the assessment, the more helpful they find applicants. Detailed comments from employees in text form were found by 81.2% to be "helpful" or "very helpful", while the overall rating in stars was 59.7%. 72.2% find detailed comments from applicants "helpful" or "very helpful", compared to 46.0% for the overall rating in stars.

How employers deal with reviews
On some platforms, employers can visibly participate, for example by posting a paid employer portrait and contrasting the "unofficial" evaluation with an "official" version of the company as an employer. Or they get involved in the reviews by publishing statements on comments, thanking for feedback or commenting on the criticism. Applicants appreciate both forms of presence, but the visible handling of criticism is in the favor of applicants: 78.1% find it "helpful" or "very helpful", and 64.2% when placing a portrait.

Criticism of uniformity: "No USP"
In their comments, the participants criticized the lack of employers' presence on evaluation platforms: "There are rarely portraits," notes one participant. Applicants also find the company profiles published there to be unrealistic or too uniform. The portraits "often consist of hollow phrases," writes one participant, another says: "They are all alike. I don't see any uniqueness in any of them. Because of USP."

Feedback? Wrong!
The survey participants also criticize the lack of response by employers to the criticism voiced by employees or applicants on the platforms. "There is rarely any feedback here," observed one participant. Another writes: "In my opinion, employers do not respond enough to criticism, which I think is important because it shows the appreciation of the employer." As with the portraits, employers' reactions also criticize uniformity: "The answers sound standardized" or "Copy-and-paste does not leave a good impression," the comments said.

No reaction? No application!
If employers "look bad" on the platforms, this has consequences: "There is nothing worse than a profile of an employer on which almost only negative reviews are visible and no reaction. I have often been against such bad reviews from employers no longer advertised there, "reports one applicant. But what should employers do from the applicant's perspective? From the applicant's perspective, there is a clear corridor of desired action. The majority of applicants find three measures "good" or "very good".

Active handling is required
The visible reaction to the criticism received received the greatest approval at 82.3%, followed by the publication of an employer profile (67.5%) and the regular feedback activation of all employees and applicants (55.2%). Applicants are much more critical of the targeted activation of positive employees for feedback on employer evaluation platforms. This measure receives only 24.1% approval. A passive stance meets with clear rejection, in which employers simply let things go without doing anything. Only 8.9% agree with such behavior, 66.4% find it "bad" or "very bad".

Dealing with evaluations as a critical success factor for recruiting
"In our experience, how employers deal with evaluations also determines the scope and quality of applications - especially in highly sought-after target groups," reports softgarden managing director Mathias Heese. "Employers should therefore promote neutral feedback and use the feedback received for improvements, deal with criticism visibly and enter the market with a recognizable employer profile."

The detailed version of the action tips for employers as well as all results of the survey are available in the form of a white paper for free download on the Softgarden website: https://go.softgarden.de/studie-arbeitgeber- Evaluations-aus-bewerbersicht