How to safeguard your reputation against disgruntled ex-staff

A scathing remark on Glassdoor or LinkedIn by a disgruntled former employee can go a long way to tarnish your company's image. With all things going online, even unhappy and unsatisfied employees are taking to social media to voice their displeasure regarding poor work conditions and low pay scales. There have been many instances where long rants by unhappy employees have ruined a company's and an employer's reputation. It's about time employers take steps to be more receptive towards employees and exit interviews so genuine concerns are addressed.

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Whatever you do, denial is not the answer when addressing issues. Start by managing your company's reputation in the online space. Respond to any negative reviews by employees or ex-employees in a respectful and professional manner. When you choose not to respond to negative reviews, you're sending a clear answer - we don't care what you think.

If you address negative feedback instantly, most often than not the posts are deleted and in some cases you may even garner a positive feedback. The more proactive you are at responding to employee reviews, the better your impression and ability to recruit the best talent.

Besides responding politely and quickly, here's a three-step guide on how you can plan on an effective rebuttal to negative reviews.

Acknowledge

Thank the individual, who posted the review, for taking time to reach out. This action doesn't necessarily involve apologizing, especially if the review contains information that is inaccurate.

Share your perspective

Read and re-read the feedback to decipher the base emotion behind it. Is it anger or disappointment? Once you have successfully identified the base emotion, do your research to prepare a counter-argument that is based on facts. Job seekers understand that there are two sides to every story. If you share your perspective as objectively as possible, you'll allow job seekers to draw their own conclusions.

Reach out

Encourage the complainant to contact you and discuss the issue. Offer job seekers advice on how they can prevent similar experiences. When you try to placate and reach out to the employee in distress, you'll gain brownie points for not losing your cool and handling the situation maturely.

Be quick on your feet and don't let employees ruin your reputation as an employer. Invest time in learning the art of responding to all sorts of employee reviews online and offline.