Glassdoor, a job site, has unveiled a new study providing statistical evidence that its “give to get” policy reduces extremely negative and extremely positive reviews across Glassdoor. The give to get policy requires a user contributes content to Glassdoor (e.g., reviews, salary reports) in order gain access to all the rich information about companies. Unlike online review sites without this type of data collection method, the study shows that when company reviews on Glassdoor are collected via the give to get policy, they are more evenly distributed across the 5-point ratings scale, providing a more balanced look at companies. In fact, when we look across all reviews published on Glassdoor, 73 percent of employees say they are ‘ok’ or ‘satisfied’ with their jobs and companies.
The study, Give to Get: A Mechanism to Reduce Bias in Online Reviews, is based on a sample of more than 116,000 company reviews submitted to Glassdoor between 2013 and 2016. To understand how Glassdoor provides more balanced reviews, it compares the difference in distribution of star ratings for people who faced the give to get policy with a statistically matched control group that did not face the policy.
“This study gives strong, statistical evidence that Glassdoor’s reviews are more balanced because the policy creates an economic incentive for people to contribute to the online community, who may otherwise opt out. It should help quell misconceptions that employees only provide really positive or really negative opinions about companies on Glassdoor. The data show that’s not the case — Glassdoor’s give to get policy creates a more balanced picture of companies,” said Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor chief economist.
Give to Get Policy Encourages Balance
While research supports the idea that many online review sites suffer from polarization bias, Glassdoor’s give to get policy reduces this bias. The give to get policy statistically reduces the likelihood of extreme 1-star reviews by 3.6 percentage points and 5-star reviews by 2.1 percentage points. Further, it increases the likelihood of more moderate 3- (2.6 percentage points) and 4-star reviews (2.9 percentage points).
Beyond increasing the likelihood of more moderate reviews, Glassdoor’s give to get policy creates more evenly distributed ratings across the 5-point scale. When comparing reviews collected when faced with the give to get policy to those collected voluntarily (the control group), this study finds an increase in more moderate 3-, and 4-star reviews collected via the give to get policy.
Glassdoor’s Millions of Reviews & Insights Help Employers Hire More Informed Candidates
Glassdoor is powerful because it pairs all of the open online jobs with 33 million reviews and insights for more than 700,000 companies to help people find a job that fits their life. This results in a more informed, higher quality candidate. Hiring decision makers believe the immediate benefits to interviewing informed candidates are an improved candidate experience, reduced time to hire and improved hiring manager satisfaction. When an informed candidate gets hired and becomes an employee, the benefits to an organisation become more profound. Four in ten (42 percent) of hiring decision makers report that hiring informed candidates leads to both improved employee retention and increased productivity.
Paul Gray is an entrepreneur and digital publisher who creates online publications focused on solving problems, delivering news, and providing platforms for informed comment and debate. He is associated with HRZone and has built businesses in the HR and professional publishing sector. His work emphasizes creating industry-specific content platforms.
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