5 Ways to Evaluate Online Reviews of a Company
If you decide to use online sources to inform your search for a healthy work culture, get oriented using five measurements of a review.
Reading online reviews from customers and employees can make you feel like you've done your research about a workplace culture. But the people who left those reviews might leave you feeling nervous because whether you're meeting a stranger in person or online, that strangeness brings a little uncertainty.
When you look to online reviews for guidance, you're handling a wild card. Those anonymous reviews don't come with feedback on their quality or credibility, making it difficult for you to know what you're working with. Faceless strangers are your source, whether they've posted their pics or not, and their reviews of companies often look like breadcrumb trails that lead nowhere—or into the land of unanswerable questions. Are they real? Did that really happen? Should I follow their advice?
In this situation, context is a guide that will give you perspective. If you decide to use online sources to inform your search for a healthy work culture, get oriented using these five measurements of a review.
The chronology of reviews. Are the reviews you're reading recent (the past year or so), or are they older? Reviews are frozen in time on the internet, but real live companies aren't. Just as people grow and mature, companies will often adjust when they get a lot of negative feedback or lose customers.
Trends in reviews. Do you see groupings of older negative reviews that are followed by groups of positive reviews? If a company got a lot of negative reviews in the past from employees or customers, they may have resolved the problem and earned some positive feedback. Of course, the reverse is also true. So look for the big picture, which will help you to avoid solely focusing on the credibility of one really bad or good review—because there's just no way you can be really sure.
Company stats. Are you researching a small company with minimal or no reviews? Don't assume they're not doing good things. Maybe they just haven't done enough work—good or bad—to provoke a response from customers or employees. After all, many customers and employees don't take time to give online reviews.
Reviewer stats. Can you learn anything about your reviewer? This one's especially important when considering reviews from employees, which usually state the reviewer's position in the company. A lot of bad reviews coming from only one department in the company might mean the problem is localized. So if you can learn how the reviewer fits into the company, you can get a better sense of whether there might be a company-wide problem that will be hard to avoid once you're there.
Human behavior. Are you confused by the contradictory picture you're getting as you read reviews? Anonymous customers and employee reviewers have real-life relationships with companies, and they want those companies and the public to listen to them. So people who care enough to post are usually ones who feel strongly about the experiences they've had. Keep this in mind if you're not sure how to weigh the credibility of online reviews which hold wildly polarized descriptions of the company. Because if you find yourself wanting to believe the good stuff but being horrified by the bad reviews, it can be helpful to remember that, to some extent, this tension is to be expected.
Online reviews can make you feel like you trust an employer—or don't—before you even meet them. So evaluate those reviews before you apply or interview. And don't forget to ask follow-up interview questions if you have any concerns.
Are you looking for a job right now? Check out our Job Board. We work with a variety of businesses, and we post new job openings weekly.