I'm traveling to San Francisco today getting ready to host the live stream of the Glassdoor Summit on Friday - you can sign up for free access to the live stream here.  That live stream will feature me and Tim Sackett wearing green jackets like we're at the Masters and providing color commentary of the proceedings and doing interviews with speakers, attendees and hangers on alike.

I did a webinar last week on how Smart HR pros are realizing that they have to be "in the game" regarding company reputation sites like Glassdoor.  The main premise, which I still think is correct, is that HR pros are conditioned to hate sites like Glassdoor - because they associate them with the ranting, recently fired employee that's just taking brutal pot shots at their company.

But Glassdoor has grown up, and your employees are now used to rating everything in their lives as consumers - Amazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Hotwire - just to name a few.

That means that even if you do nothing as an HR pro, the volume of reviews going up on your company is increasing, and they are without question more balanced and fair.

HR Pros still have a mental block, and I'll tell you what it is:

3.2

Wait, what?  

3.2

That number represents what I'll call and average rating for a company on Glassdoor.  3.2 out of 5, and that's where the problem is for most HR pros.

We've grown up thinking we can manage the impression that candidates have of our company, and tell everyone we're a 4.2 out of 5 - pretty damn good.

Nope - as it turns out, most of us are a 3.2.

#ugh

The fact that rating is the reality actually means HR pros and recruiters need to engage on Glassdoor more.  It used to be obvious that the people commenting on Glassdoor were the disgruntled.  We could still say we were great, and most people would believe it.

3.2

The game on Glassdoor now, I think, revolves around getting people in your most important positions - the ones you recruit the most - to give fair, balanced, but good reviews.  Then you've got to put on your marketing hat and figure out creative ways to aggregate those reviews and market them to targeted candidates.

Use the 3.2 as a starting point, then lead them to the "4" ratings and convince candidates that the "4's" are from people like them.

Or you could just let people see the 3.2 and think that you're average.