How genuine are Glassdoor company reviews?

[HealthyProtein]

For those who are not aware this is a company review website.

How genuine are Glassdoor company reviews from your experience?

[northernladuk]

Why does the review of a company matter to a contractor?

What use is a job search to a contractor?

Gotta change your thinking fella.

[sal]

Why does the review of a company matter to a contractor?

It had helped me decide between 2 other wise more or less identical contract - same rate, commute, role

Looking at glassdoor reviews indicated that one of the ClientCo treated their employees poorly, offering low pay - this means low morale, high personnel turnover and low skill level overall. And this information affected my choice. Although as a contractor you are not directly affected by this, the atmosphere at the office makes a difference.

@OP As in any other review site - it's mix of real and fake reviews, so take it with a pinch of salt.

[northernladuk]

It had helped me decide between 2 other wise more or less identical contract - same rate, commute, role

Looking at glassdoor reviews indicated that one of the ClientCo treated their employees poorly, offering low pay - this means low morale, high personnel turnover and low skill level overall. And this information affected my choice. Although as a contractor you are not directly affected by this, the atmosphere at the office makes a difference.

@OP As in any other review site - it's mix of real and fake reviews, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Must have been towards the more identical if you looking at (and believing) the reviews of employees at a client helped your decision which contract to take. Personally this would be way way down my list of critera for a decision but each to their own. The best gig I've had was at a company that appeared to be a bit of a mare for employees (and wasn't when you got there).

[TheFaQQer]

Looking at glassdoor reviews indicated that one of the ClientCo treated their employees poorly, offering low pay - this means low morale, high personnel turnover and low skill level overall.

Salary in itself is not necessarily a motivating factor - for example, some charities pay quite poorly (relatively) but still attract good, happy staff.

High personnel turnover and low skill level seems perfect for bringing in a freelance consultant to help improve that situation.

[CoolCat]

Like anything else they can be gamed

So need taking with a dose of reality

[sal]

Must have been towards the more identical if you looking at (and believing) the reviews of employees at a client helped your decision which contract to take. Personally this would be way way down my list of critera for a decision but each to their own. The best gig I've had was at a company that appeared to be a bit of a mare for employees (and wasn't when you got there).

It was way down my list as well and wasn't the sole deciding factor, just one more item on the pros/cons list. I wouldn't turn down a contract based on glassdoor reviews...

Salary in itself is not necessarily a motivating factor - for example, some charities pay quite poorly (relatively) but still attract good, happy staff.

High personnel turnover and low skill level seems perfect for bringing in a freelance consultant to help improve that situation.

There are exceptions to every rule, but generally paying low salary means the employer doesn't care much about the staff, which means that they usually don't care much about their tech, which means old neglected tech to work with.

Unhappy permies are hard to work with unless you are working on an isolated bubbled project you will have to rely on them for your work. It might be good for long lasting invoicing, but not good for my mind. But to each their own.

[l35kee]

Like every review site out there, the people who have bad experiences are more likely to rant about it than those who have a good experience.

[l35kee]

There are exceptions to every rule, but generally paying low salary means the employer doesn't care much about the staff, which means that they usually don't care much about their tech, which means old neglected tech to work with.

That's not true, even with the exceptions caveat.

What is low. Some companies with offices not in city centres pay less even if they are only 30 mins out. It means employees locally based save a hell of a lot of money and time. Some put benefits over cash. Events, pension, offers, holidays etc. These are all things that could mean lower salaries, but some employees value them more.

What else, perhaps the company likes to promote internally and train their staff. This usually means people are "lower paid" according to the market, but generally more satisfied because they are actually moving up the ladder, earning skills and experience.

One of places I worked in had a fantastic internal promotion policy. They were relatively dynamic too, so staff had the flexibility in a lot of cases to pick the tech they wanted to use. Also meant they could look at cutting edge. The staff were relatively lower paid. They weren't a small place either.

Salary isn't everything for permies. For us, it is more important obviously. That's one of the main reasons we moved to contracting (calling bs on anyone who says it wasn't a factor).

[sal]

That's not true, even with the exceptions caveat.

What is low. Some companies with offices not in city centres pay less even if they are only 30 mins out. It means employees locally based save a hell of a lot of money and time. Some put benefits over cash. Events, pension, offers, holidays etc. These are all things that could mean lower salaries, but some employees value them more.

What else, perhaps the company likes to promote internally and train their staff. This usually means people are "lower paid" according to the market, but generally more satisfied because they are actually moving up the ladder, earning skills and experience.

One of places I worked in had a fantastic internal promotion policy. They were relatively dynamic too, so staff had the flexibility in a lot of cases to pick the tech they wanted to use. Also meant they could look at cutting edge. The staff were relatively lower paid. They weren't a small place either.

Salary isn't everything for permies. For us, it is more important obviously. That's one of the main reasons we moved to contracting (calling bs on anyone who says it wasn't a factor).

Like I mentioned in my first post in that specific case the low salary was coupled with general poor responses from people that worked there. So it wasn't your suburban utopia. Not sure what kind of permies you are in contact with, but for most of my permie friends and the people I work with, the salary size is very high on the list. I never did say it's the only factor.

As for the last bit - you can call BS as much as you like. I didn't move to contracting for mainly for the money, but for the flexibility and more or less immunity to office politics.