Take Control of Your Online Identity

Last week, WorkHound and HireRight co-hosted a webinar about taking control of your online identity. You can access the webinar here.

Online Review Outlets are easy to access and free. Workers can log on instantly to share a recent episode or to “warn” others about their employer or a previous employer. The comments are raw and unfiltered. When a driver moves on, they have the opportunity to publicly unleash dirty laundry on Glassdoor and Indeed and Twitter and Google reviews. 

But managing your online reputation is important because 83% of job seekers rely on company reviews to decide whether or not to apply for a job. This is huge and unsurprising! We make decisions about small online purchases at the advice of online reviews, why wouldn’t we do the same for major life moves, like job changes? 

The fact is: your online reputation is simply your reputation. Gone are the days of simple word-of-mouth. You might have worked hard to build a great culture over the past 50 years that you know exists because you see it every day. 

But these days, online reviews can tarnish that reputation. Because the review exists online, your company can be perceived negatively before someone ever reaches out to talk to you. 

If we don’t control the message, the reviews win the day. 

Reach out to the WorkHound team to gain a better grip on managing your online reputation and in the meantime, we’re glad to answer the questions of attendees on yesterday’s webinar with HireRight. 

What do you do if driver feedback is just a blatant lie?

First, don’t stay quiet. As we mentioned in the webinar, “no comment” is still a comment. No comment allows for assumptions and drives you farther away from the trust your company needs to achieve to retain and recruit drivers. So, address their comment with data. Find opportunities within your company to open transparency in addressing driver concerns that might not be legitimate. And then, look for company advocates among your drivers and work with them to positive feedback opportunities. Are they willing to leave feedback to counterbalance negative reviews? 

Lastly, many review outlets are willing to work with companies to assist in managing your brand. If the feedback isn’t just a lie, but is also libelous or abusive, report the comment. If it’s proven to be one of those things, the review outlet might be willing to work with you to remove the comment from public access. 

My company does an annual survey, but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference in feedback online, why? 

Well, an annual survey just isn’t fast enough. A lot can change for drivers in one year, let alone one day. We recommend carriers ask drivers how they’re doing on a regular, weekly cadence. This will help carriers catch issues in real-time and de-escalate concerns that can become major and end up online. 

What is the best way to get feedback from drivers without needing to take immediate action?

We always recommend responding. In fact, feedback shouldn’t be requested if you aren’t ready to take action on it. Oftentimes immediate action can be small. Drivers will express needs at their terminal or a need for better communication. If you ask for feedback from drivers and do nothing with it, you run the risk of damaging relationships and breaking their trust. Check out this resource on WorkHound.com about how to be ready for employee feedback. 

Leaders at my company say they’d rather not see the negative feedback so they ignore comments online, how do I convince them that it matters? How do I change their mind? 

Driver feedback is a gold mine.  This is their life. Drivers are the closest to the work, and we can learn from their experiences. And to top all of this off, it is a gold mine when it comes to data. 

Drivers see opportunities for improvement, they have ideas to improve the company, and they can help identify trends that are hard to see from a cubicle. And let’s face it: with a shortage in drivers and industry-wide high turnover, it’s time to take their feedback seriously.

When you do have a happy driver and they leave positive feedback – they, in turn, are bullied or bothered by the driver with the negative perspective. Therefore, our drivers tend not to leave positive feedback. Any idea on how to combat that?

This is a tough question because it goes deeper than just the scenario they’re leaving feedback about. It’s a cultural problem. There’s pessimism here because drivers are lacking faith. One possible plan of attack could be addressing the negativity by taking action. Listen to the concerns in the negative responses and evaluate how it’s possible to take action. 

Or, you could consider a different route altogether. WorkHound specializes in anonymous feedback. This strategy delivers feedback directly to you and allows drivers to speak their minds anonymously without the fear of retaliation. 

If you’re ready to learn more about how to take back your company’s online narrative, schedule a consultation.