Career websites such as Glassdoor have become regular reading for job seekers. But The Wall Street Journal reports, CEOs are increasingly perusing online reviews on sites like Indeed.com, Vault.com, Kununu and Fairygodboss to find out what employees think of them, to evaluate policies and even to talk back.
The public-yet-personal critiques by current and former employees are prompting more company bosses to track and respond to reviews. In the process, CEOs have come to treat them as a necessary evil or a useful management tool, and a performance measure akin to using stock prices to gauge investor confidence.
In the past three years, Zillow’s CEO Spencer Rascoff has responded to some 70 reviews on Glassdoor and has a 95% CEO approval score on the site. His company was co-founded by Rich Barton, the same entrepreneur who also helped start Glassdoor.
Like Rascoff, some of the most active CEOs on Glassdoor enjoy high ratings.
“Getting caught up on recent @Glassdoor employee reviews of @zillow,” he tweeted last fall, adding afterward: “Reviews were almost all good lately. But a few things we need to work on.”
Some CEOs use responses simply to show they are listening. For instance, when a worker at Nagarro, a division of Germany-based IT company Allgeier SE, complained about undermining colleagues, Nagarro CEO Manas Fuloria replied: “Your experience is your reality and we must fix it. Do reach out.”
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