Glassdoor’s New Feature Will Let Employees Review Their Company’s Diversity and Inclusion Situations
In the midst of America’s racial turmoil, Glassdoor introduced a very timely addition to their platform.
Glassdoor has always been one of the most valuable websites for job seekers who are not just looking for employment but are also after professional fulfillment, growth, and satisfaction. By being a great source of employer reviews, they are able to paint a unique picture of businesses which can be very different from how they present themselves to consumers.
Its latest update to its services is its new feature that allows employees to elaborate on the diversity and inclusion policies and schemes of their employers. Through this, employees can rate and review the kind of treatment companies give based on ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other kinds of minorities.
As the review platform has always aimed to help make businesses and organizations to be more transparent, this new feature would be an excellent source of information for a lot of employees and even consumers. Lots of businesses can claim to foster inclusive and diverse work environments only to be exposed for lying later on.
According to a survey conducted by The Harris Poll, job seekers and employees trust actual and previous employees of companies to know and understand the state of diversity and inclusion in their workplace. Current and previous employees can best assess how diverse and inclusive a working environment can be.
As 76% of job seekers and employees today say that diversity and inclusion are important factors for choosing an employer, such details are crucial to be uncovered. Aside from this, Glassdoor also sees this new feature as their way of lending a hand in “achieving equity in and out of the workplace,” as said by their spokesperson, Scott Dobroski.
The need for this feature became apparent to Glassdoor when the poll also reported that job seekers and employees still experience disparities that have a lot to do with their race or gender in the workplace. A large portion of their users also asked for more insight in terms of diversity and inclusivity at various companies. These topics rose up to 63% after the murder of George Floyd, so there’s definitely a demand for information. These, and the racial unrest that is still currently taking place in the USA, convinced them of the necessity of such an addition to their services.
Luckily, Glassdoor recognized the clamor for such information and their huge role in providing the best space for such discussions. They saw their “responsibility as a platform and as an employer to help drive equity in society,” and recognized their capability in helping create more equitable workplaces.
It has to be noted that job seekers and employees are qualifying their statements of preference of companies that genuinely value and practice inclusivity and diversity in their team culture. The poll number shows that nearly half of Black and Latinx folks in the job market have quit jobs after experiencing (first-hand or otherwise) discrimination at work. Their numbers are significantly higher than their white counterparts. Moreso, about 32% of job seekers say that they will not want to apply for a company that doesn’t have a diverse workforce.
Glassdoor recognizes that they have the platform and resources to make a change in this area, so by launching this new feature, they’re hopeful that they’ll make a societal impact.
How the Diversity and Inclusion Rating Works
The Diversity and Inclusion rating feature is added as the sixth workplace factor in Glassdoor’s review pages. Using a five-point scale, employees can rate how satisfied they are with their inclusivity and diversity situations in their workplaces.
It might seem like much but the Diversity and Inclusion rating can have a huge impact on the perception and image of many companies. This simple detail will say a lot about various businesses and organizations and they won’t even be able to cover it up.
In the first few months of the feature’s rollout, over 4000 Glassdoor users already rated the D&I standings of their employers. During the feature’s stealth mode, some employers already used the product. Among the companies that were rated, Google, Accenture, Amazon, and Apple have the highest ratings.
Aside from the D&I rating, Glassdoor now also allows users to share their demographic information, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, parental status, disability status, and a lot of other personal details voluntarily and anonymously. These details will provide more information about the ratings and reviews, providing more credibility.
More Improvements in the Works
In addition to these, Glassdoor is also planning to display company ratings, workplace factor ratings, and salary reports among other crucial data in the future. They hope that such a move will equip employers with the information they need to create and maintain more equitable work environments.
They also intend to create a Company FAQ resource where job seekers can quickly find the answers to the most commonly asked questions about a certain employer. It will include diversity and inclusion and the responses will be from the reviews left by employees. This will provide easier access to the information that most folks deem to be crucial.
Founder, Editor-In-Chief // A native Angeleno. John studied engineering at UCLA; founded Schmoozd, an offline social tech networking event in LA with 30,000 subs; ran a startup accelerator (StartEngine). Worked for several major brands like Toyota, DIRECTV, Hitachi, ICANN, and Raytheon. A mentor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Entrepreneur School, Dr. David Choi. And advises a dozen local LA startups building amazing tech in various industries; and invested in some. // Let's Connect: john@lastartups.com
