Personal Quaterly 1/2022

9 01 / 22 PERSONALquarterly with face-to-face communication with someone you personally know. On the contrary, employer reviews are often anonymous, making it harder to evaluate the credibility of the source. For instance, applicants might think that a positive review is writ- ten by a recruiter, or that a negative review is written by a dis- gruntled applicant not getting the job. The power of employer reviews might lie in their numbers: some of our research sug- gests that if there are many reviews with a strong consensus among them, employer reviews can have a powerful impact on applicant attraction. PERSONALquarterly: Employer reviews are outside of an organization’s control. However, are there ways in which organizations can benefit from employer reviews with regard to recruitment? Greet van Hoye: First of all, organizations should be aware that employer reviews exist and can have an impact on their attrac- tiveness as an employer. They should monitor what reviews are posted about them and use this as valuable feedback to improve their recruitment and employment practices. Second, even though third-party employment branding is outside of company control, its outcomes can still be used deliberately by organizations in their own employer branding. For instance, if a company consistently receives positive ratings, they could mention this in their recruitment communication or even pro- vide a link to the positive reviews on their own job site. This increases the credibility of their own employer branding and recruitment efforts. Third, organizations do not need to wait until an employer review appears. They could take matters in their own hands and provide ample opportunity for their em- ployees and applicants to provide feedback in an anonymous and safe way. This allows them to proactively address any con- cerns that might arise, decreasing the odds of negative emplo- yer reviews being posted publicly. PERSONALquarterly: Some employers encourage or even urge employees to give a rating. Setting aside extreme cases, what do you think about these practices in general? Greet van Hoye: Overall, I am a strong proponent of authentic employer branding. Companies should start with their cur- rent employees and realize their desired employer brand there. Then your employees will become your ambassadors and your external employer branding and recruitment efforts will be in line with and reinforced by employees’ word-of-mouth. Once your internal employer brand is established, I think it is good practice to encourage your employees to become ambassadors and involve them in your recruitment. Ask them to share job vacancies, refer applicants they know, testify in employee testi- monials, attend job fairs, participate in the selection process, etc. Typically, ambassadors operate in their own name and not through anonymous employer reviews, which increases their PROF. DR. GREET VAN HOYE Ghent University, Department of Marketing, Innovation and Organisation Ph.D. in I/O Psychology E-Mail: Greet.VanHoye@UGent.be Greet Van Hoye ist Dozentin für Personal- und Organisations- management an der Universität Gent und Co-Autorin des Buchs „The Battle for Talent“ (2021). Ihr Spezialgebiet ist Employer Branding. Sie beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie Unternehmen mit einem attraktiven und unverwechselbaren Arbeitgeber­ image talentierte Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter gewinnen und halten können. Van Hoye forscht unter anderem über das Thema, wie die eigenen Mitarbeiter in die Rekrutierung einbe- zogen werden können.