Who’s Reading Employees’ Online Reviews? Their CEOs

More chief executives are perusing anonymous online reviews of their performance on websites like Glassdoor

Career websites like Glassdoor have become regular reading for job seekers. Now chief executives are increasingly perusing their online reviews to find out what employees think of them—to evaluate policies and even to talk back.

A growing number of sites such as Indeed.com, Vault.com, Kununu and Fairygodboss let people post anonymous appraisals of their employers. A poster can comment on everything from pay and benefits to workplace likes and dislikes. Glassdoor is one of the most extensive sources of online employee feedback, displaying reviews of more than 700,000 companies and whether reviewers approve or disapprove of their CEOs.

The public-yet-personal critiques are prompting more company bosses to track and respond to reviews. In the process, they have come to treat them as a necessary evil or a useful management tool, and a performance measure akin to using stock prices to gauge investor confidence.

 ..“Where people get into trouble is if they ignore it, or they try to use it as a way to win the argument” with a negative reviewer, says Mr. Chait, who has a 95% approval rating.
.. Increasingly, outsiders are listening too. Zillow’s Mr. Rascoff and leaders at other companies say they also look at Glassdoor ratings of acquisition candidates.
..“We have walked away from dozens of acquisitions that looked good on paper and made strategic sense” because of poor reviews, says Mr. Rascoff. “It really lets you look under the hood,” he says.
.. “I need that negative feedback,” Mr. Chait says of some reviews. “As a CEO, my life is full of people saying nice things to me.”