The Workplace Rating Site Problem

Workplace rating sites are supposed to be places where current and former employees submit reviews and comments about their workplaces. The idea looks great on paper: get reviews from current and former employees, boost the workplace's reputation, and collect valuable feedback. Problem is, that's not how it goes. There are several reasons why popular, public workplace rating sites do not work, but these three reasons are the most critical:

1. They give inaccurate results.
2. Anyone can post on these workplace rating sites - for any company, at any point in time, with no verification that they actually worked there. Fake reviews and spam are a common plague on these sites.
3. People who have something bad to say are much more likely to seek out the site and post that negative review (perhaps five-times as likely or even more). This results in negative reviews being drastically overrepresented in the workplace results, and those negative reviews can be posted over and over again by angry ex-employees because there is no function in these sites that reliably prevents a person (maybe a former employee or maybe not) from posting multiple reviews.
4. Even when those reviews are from real employees, the rating system is not precise. "Precise" in a rating means that it can accurately represent the employees feeling about the workplace. But these sites typically ask for the reviewer to provide a 1 to 5-star rating. Given this system, the vast majority of reviewers leave either 1 star or 5 stars. This does not provide an accurate representation of employee feelings and it leaves out an enormous amount of detail.
5. They give unhelpful or inauthentic feedback. Workplaces want feedback on what's working and what needs to change. But employees on these sites often leave unhelpful or inauthentic feedback that is not actionable. Negative feedback commonly states general feelings like "I hate the office" or vague statements like "unfair treatment of staff." Positive comments typically do not have much useful info, saying only "Great job" or mentioning a few perks, and it is evident that employees sometimes feel pressured to leave positive reviews. These kinds of comments are not useful to leadership in building a better workplace.
6. They don't provide any method for meaningful responses. Workplace rating sites don't give workplaces a way to act on what employees are saying. All they can do is post a reply, which is typically a form response about "we're sorry, please reach out to our employee experience team via email" or "we're glad you like working here." This system does not properly acknowledge employee comments and it does not enable actual resolution.

Because of these shortcomings, workplace rating sites create an inaccurate, unhelpful picture of each workplace, and they don't even enable employers to meaningfully act on what they see there!

The Better Way with Amazing Workplace

Amazing Workplace's platform was built alongside our company vision of a world where every workplace is amazing. We know we can only make that happen with accurate, actionable, honest feedback and with ways for employers to meaningfully act on employee feedback. That means doing things differently from the workplace rating sites:

1. Accurate results from real employees. All Amazing Workplace reviews are from verified, current employees. With our Smart Survey platform, workplaces can quickly and easily invite employees to our world-class survey experience. The simple, easy-to-follow survey process yields precise data about employee experience across 12 critical workplace areas and hundreds of other data points. Our advanced technologies create thousands of measurements that are then crunched to create a simple, but highly accurate picture of how happy employees really are about their workplace. We publish the results on a dedicated company webpage alongside more than 1.2 million other workplaces. No fake reviews, spam, or revenge posts here.
2. Honest, actionable employee feedback. Amazing Workplace designed its Smart Survey System in a way that it is impossible for an employee's identity to be connected to answers provided. Using Amazing Workplace's survey to gather information provides a safe space for employees to communicate openly without fear of punishment. This makes employees comfortable posting constructive and detailed comments instead of the general gripes or vague praise that they post on the rating sites.
3. Real response to comments. Most comments on workplace rating sites are unhelpful, and those sites are filled with meaningless exchanges of comments and rote responses. Amazing Workplace does not even publish employee comments until the participating workplace has had a chance to look at them. Our Employee Comment Management System enables a coordinated, real response to what employees are saying. Even better, Amazing Workplace opens the door to improving and maintaining workplace happiness over time. Workplaces can choose to jump in and get their detailed results through our Magic Insights system. They can review, respond, and plan what to do next to make their workplace happy!

We help workplaces develop a full workplace happiness program where they can Ask, Listen, Understand, and Take Action. Take the first step and get the Smart Survey for your workplace!