Want to attract top talent? Improve your web presence. An Indeed study reveals that an inadequate online presence provokes “automatic” distrust in 70% of job seekers (that number jumps to 84% among Millennials). Before you brush that off, consider that it would also cause about 69% of job seekers to actually doubt your job opportunity was real and, as a result, they wouldn’t apply.
Your web presences starts with your company’s website but, these days, it includes so much more. Gone are the days you can set up a decent brochure-worthy website and forget it. Other online areas like job review sites are critical to your reputation. About 45% of workers told Indeed online company reviews are one of the most important factors when deciding whether to accept a job offer.
And guess what? Bad reviews can be better than no reviews at all.
“Less than a third of respondents said they [distrust] a company with a negative online reputation. This number pales in comparison to the respondents who said they would automatically distrust a company with no online reputation information (70%),” explains Paul Wolfe, SVP of Human Resources at Indeed. “So not being talked about is much worse in the eyes of job seekers than a few negative reviews, which are—after all—a fact of life.”
What changes the tide, though, is in how companies respond to bad reviews. No response, again, is bad for business. Nearly three quarters of Indeed’s respondents said seeing responses from employers to negative reviews is critical in neutralizing their negative effect.
The bottom line: Don’t ignore your online brand. Keep your website fresh, pay attention to what job seekers are saying about you online, and respond in a way that turns conversation into an opportunity to impress.
One more thing: Seek out a staffing partner who does the same because, when it comes down to it, their reputation is your reputation.
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