— by Sandy Poston

With over two decades of Manufacturing experience, Sandy Poston joined American Recruiters as Independent Franchisee and opened the Johnsonville, South Carolina office in 2022.Sandy has a stellar track record in the world of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management and has put together an impressive list of achievements that consistently propelled her career to new heights and led her to serve in key roles with world-class organizations such as Honda Motor Company, Ltd., RBC Bearings, Inc., and ABB’s Electrification Business.

Does your organization make a point to review the comments published to sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and others?

Well, if not, you may want to rethink your habits. In our ever-growing digital world, information is readily available almost anywhere, anytime, for anyone. And in today’s job environment, you can be sure candidates want to know everything they can before they decide to be hired by a new employer. What they see, can quickly be a deciding factor.

When a potential employee is looking at a company to see what it would be like to work there, one thing they look at is the company reviews. This is likely the only “first-hand” information they will receive unless they know someone who already works there. This can be crucial for retaining the right talent. As a former job seeker, I admittedly have turned down otherwise enticing offers because of the “poor culture” or “overreaching management style.”
These comments don’t usually have too much of an effect if there are an equal number of positive reviews, but getting bogged down with negativity can ruin your chances of getting the top talent you need. And if your organization doesn’t make a habit of reviewing and engaging, I’m willing to bet, a high turnover rate is on your list of issues to solve.

Of course, it’s best to only have happy employees who adore their employer, but we all know that adage, “you can’t make everyone happy all of the time.” So, here’s what you can do to minimize the not-so-great and maximize the employee love:

Do This:

• Try some of these tips and soon, you’ll see that this little task can add up to a big payoff:
• Check weekly to address and honestly defend any negatives.
• Be sure you are professional and polite in your rebuttal (or humble agreement).
• Don’t be afraid to ask for suggestions and offer solutions.
• Use examples of positive change going on or being planned.
• Ask different people at different levels to respond, so it doesn’t seem ‘scripted’.
• Specifically, ask for employees to add a review to celebrate a positive event.

Don’t Do This:

• Don’t concentrate on the negative only. Celebrate and expand on the postitive.
• Don’t allow negativity to be contagious.
• Don’t make their concerns seem unimportant.
• Don’t write a novel – Keep it Simple Silly (KISS).
• Don’t make excuses or place blame.
• Don’t ‘cut and paste’ responses.

My final word of advice: do not allow what I call an “us/them” culture! Whether mostly salaried types, or mostly hourly workers, and ESPECIALLY if a good mix of both, don’t allow a fence between the two groups.
If you are a leader and you have ever started a sentence with “they just don’t see”….or “we as leaders”…..STOP. Just stop it now. Because you can bet employees exchange on the floor sounds like, “They only care about”….or “as long as they.”
Inclusive references like “our”, or the “Company’s Name team”, unify goals and decisions (good or bad). Having been “on the floor,” in “leadership,” and now as a seeker of talent for my clients, you always want employees to have you as top of mind and in a positive connotation when they are deciding if they would work there.
So, while you may not ever be able to make everyone happy all the time, keep in mind another adage, “it’s the little things, that can mean the most.”

Happy Manufacturing My Friends!