Launching employer reviews on our market-leading job portal has been a tempting idea for quite some time. The central objective of the project is to support a better match of candidates and companies by the means of providing meaningful insights about work environment and company culture in the same place where people are looking for jobs.

The feature increases the engagement of users with the platform, provides unique content, and creates potential new revenue streams.

Ländlejob.at is the leading job portal for the region of Vorarlberg, with an average of 2,500 job ads online — all of them paid. Whereas people are already used to rating and reviewing products, hotels, shopping experiences, etc., reviewing an employer is not as common in the market yet. Also, companies are not used to being rated in an environment where they look for new employees.

Evaluation and judgment of employers happen all the time in personal talks with co-workers, family, and friends. With the launch of employer reviews on the platform, ländlejob.at encourages transparency in the job market by making these evaluations visible and giving the companies a chance to react publicly to them.

To be fair and avoid fake content, the feature is available only to registered users. Reviews must comply with certain rules and standards, and companies can reply to the reviews for free.

Serving its purpose

Apart from the valuable insights into company culture, the feature brings some positive effects with it. First is the engagement with the platform. The feature attracts users who are not actively engaging in a job search at the moment and can rate current or former employers and check reviews for other companies as well.

It also provides a solid basis for new revenue streams. Shortly after the launch of the feature, new employer branding products were pushed to the market. Based on the reviews, sales reps can target their offers specifically to the pain points of the client’s culture. Also, clients who are skeptical about the feature are provided information about how to handle reviews and how to improve their presence on the portal.

The unique nature of the content has a positive effect on search engine rankings well, which adds positively to our brand recognition. Also, the feature itself is a non-traditional topic in advertising for the job portal, which attracts new users to the platform.

Overall, the companies’ reactions to the feature were positive. The feature was activated for more than 3,000 companies, and almost none of them complained. Almost 1,000 reviews have been submitted since the launch. Due to a thorough communication concept, companies were also prepared to receive negative comments, although the majority of the feedback was positive.

There was a positive effect on traffic and on registrations: 6% of new registrations in the first six months derive from the review feature.

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