Archive for July, 2008

Glassdoor.com update includes new filtering, sorting tools

Posted by • July 30th, 2008 • Leave a comment
Deloitte Ratings by Location

Ever wondered which Deloitte office is the best to work for?  Or which Google location is happiest?  Last night we updated Glassdoor.com with new features that make it easier to sort and sift through the more than 48,000 reviews on over 11,000 employers on our site.

For those of you that have been coming back to see the latest reviews for your company, you’re probably well aware of how hard that can be, so we’ve added the ability to sort reviews by date, overall rating, and date + helpful.  That last sort allows you to see the most recent reviews that have been flagged as helpful by other users, another feature many of you were requesting.  But we didn’t stop there – we also allow you to filter reviews by keyword, overall rating, location, and job title.  Want to know how many Microsoft employees in Redmond mention “bureaucracy”?  Now it is simple and easy. (and the answer is – about 10% !)

Here are some interesting charts I’ve put together this morning as I stroll through the data:

Deloitters in San Jose are the happiest, with an overall approval rating of 4.38.  The lowest?  New York City, with an overall rating of ...

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Schwab Employees Offer Advice to New CEO

Posted by • July 23rd, 2008 • Leave a comment

Charles Schwab employees can no longer ‘Talk to Chuck‘.  Today, it was officially announced that Charles Schwab, co-founder of the Charles Schwab Corp. is stepping down as CEO after more than 37 years of building a financial empire.

According to Glassdoor.com, Schwab ranked moderately with a 67% CEO approval rating based on feedback from employees over the past few months.  So who do we talk to now?  Walter Bettinger.

Bettinger will serve as president and chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors effective Oct. 1, 2008.  (Note that Charles Schwab will retain his position as executive chairman of the Board of Directors.)  Although he is no stranger to running a major corporate entity, we thought Bettinger could use some advice based on the feedback of employees regarding what is working well and areas he should improve as he takes over the reigns:

Best things about working at Schwab:

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What’s the Best Kept Secret of Top Wage-Earners: Salary Transparency

Posted by • July 21st, 2008 • Leave a comment

Here’s a great example of how transparency around salary and compensation in the workplace can be a terrific tool for negotiation for both employees and employers ripped right from the headlines.   Earlier this week it was reported that UBS AG will increase compensation for financial advisers in its wealth management business.  UBS has been losing talent to a competitor with a more attractive compensation package.

If you run in “big bank” circles, news about compensation and who’s offering what travels fast, furiously and freely. Why?  Because everyone stands to benefit from the information.  If you’re talented you want to make sure you’re getting the best deal. Equally, the banks want to remain competitive and recruit and maintain top talent.  This is even more important in today’s competitive economy than in recent history.  Ask yourself why these rules should only apply to the top wage-earners at the most elite firms?  There is no good reason.  No matter what industry you call work, the basic principles of competition and fairness are in play. Salary negotiation is a key component of that process.  Glassdoor is the only site that offers free salary information on a per-company basis.  And, unlike other sites, Glassdoor breaks down ...

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Why the doors should be kept wide open

Posted by • July 11th, 2008 • Leave a comment

Apparently, we aren’t the only ones interested in what can and can’t be said by former employees.  A recent post on The New York Times’ Shifting Careers blog examines just that in a Q&A with a top employment law partner at the firm Bryan Cave in New York.  The post examines what, if any, recourse can be taken by an employer if a current or former employee posts their experiences with the company online.

Q. This is a free country. Aren’t ex-employees free to write or say whatever they like about their former employers?

A. People are certainly entitled to voice their opinions about their former employers, even if those opinions are not very flattering. I represent employers, and in the majority of instances when they see something online, I try to get them to calm down and look dispassionately at the facts and who will even read the postings.

But if a disgruntled former employee goes further and accuses a former employer of violating the law or defrauding customers, for example, those statements could likely be considered defamatory if they are not true. Employers also have rights if former employees post leaks about a former employer’s business strategies or other ...

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Top-Rated Glassdoor.com CEO Diane Greene Ousted

Posted by • July 9th, 2008 • 2 Comments

With the news this week about Diane Greene’s removal as CEO of VMware, we found it really interesting to see how notable CEOs are faring in the eyes of the employees.

According to employees who have posted on Glassdoor.com, Diane Greene had one of the highest CEO ratings at 84% (for those companies with more than 50 reviews), just behind Apple’s  Steve Jobs (90%), Intuit’s Brad Smith (88%) and Google’s Eric Schmidt (86%).   And as Kevin Maney of Portfolio points out, among the employees active on Glassdoor she was more popular than the parent company’s CEO (EMC’s Joe Tucci) who’s approval rating is in the middle of the pack at just 73%.

The VMware executive upheaval is one of the most gossip worthy events to have occurred in technology as of recent.

Below is a snapshot list of top 10 rated CEOs according to employee. The CEO approval ratings again are based on feedback from well over 50 employees per company.

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Rejection Can Be a Good Thing

Posted by • July 8th, 2008 • Leave a comment

When we launched we made a commitment to screen every review. Why you ask? We know it’s a lot of work, but we’re only as good as our content and thus we feel it’s an important part of protecting our community. There are a few sites out there where anything goes (i.e., rant about your work, your manager, and/or you’re your frustration with life in general), but we’re not interested in being another one of those. We want Glassdoor.com to be something much bigger (and in our opinion, much better). We want our community of employees, job seekers, and employers to come together to really elevate the level of discussion about careers and workplaces.

To date, we’ve pulled an average of 1-2 of every 10 reviews because they were found to be in violation of our Community Guidelines, which considers issues like profanity, personal attacks, etc.  These guidelines are here to set clear expectations for our community and serve as the foundation for our review screening process.  For most of the users who post reviews, these are a non-issue.  But for those who may be wondering why your review isn’t available, chances are your review crossed a line. ...

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Moving “Sneak Peeks” beyond tech…

Posted by • July 2nd, 2008 • Leave a comment

Still not sure if Glassdoor has something for you…well we have opened the door even wider.  We promised that our community would grow beyond the focus of high-technology companies such as Cisco, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Today we added three more sneak peek companies for some of the largest accounting, finance and consulting companies: Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase and Accenture.

Check them out:

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