How to Respond to Negative Glassdoor Reviews as an Employer

To respond to a negative Glassdoor review, claim your free employer account, read the review for what it says about your workplace, and post a courteous reply that thanks the reviewer, addresses the specific concern and explains what you are doing about it. Don't try to identify the reviewer, don't threaten anyone, and follow up internally.

Glassdoor reviews are read mainly by people deciding whether to apply to you or accept an offer. Glassdoor's own Employer Center guide puts it simply: responding shows candidates how your organization handles feedback. Your reply is part of your employer brand as much as your careers page is.

Why Glassdoor reviews need a different approach

A customer review is about a transaction. A Glassdoor review comes from current or former employees or interview candidates, and Glassdoor's Employer Center guide describes employee reviews as anonymous. The reviewer may still work for you, so the way you respond is also a message to your current team.

The same guide says reviews and responses that don't follow Glassdoor's community guidelines will not appear on the site; for what the guidelines cover today, check Glassdoor's current Community Guidelines. A review you simply disagree with is not a violation, so the realistic options are a good reply, internal change and, for content that breaks the rules, a report.

Step by step: replying to a negative review

1. Set up access. Glassdoor's step-by-step guide for employers says you need a Free Employer Account or an Enhanced Company Profile to respond, and that responses can address company, interview and benefit reviews.
2. Read the review twice. Separate specific points, such as pay, workload, management or the interview process, from general opinion.
3. Check the issue, not the person. Look into the policy or practice the review describes. Don't try to work out who wrote it.
4. Draft the reply in a document first, as Glassdoor's guide suggests, so you can check spelling, grammar and tone.
5. Post it. The guide describes posting from the Community Reviews section of the Employer Center or from your company profile, with a limit of 5,000 characters. Each response shows the date it was posted and your job title, so make sure your title is correct.
6. Follow up internally with whoever owns the issue, and update your reply later if something changes.

What to write: structure and examples

Glassdoor's guide recommends what it calls the three As: acknowledge the problem rather than offering an empty apology, articulate your position with facts, and advise future candidates on how to have a good experience. It also suggests thanking the reviewer, addressing concerns honestly, avoiding corporate jargon and offering to continue the conversation offline.

Example (illustrative), employee review: Thank you for taking the time to share this. Concerns about workload and communication from managers matter to us, and we're sorry this was your experience. We have started [specific change, for example regular team check-ins] and are reviewing [area]. If you'd like to talk about it, you can reach our HR team confidentially at [HR email] or through [ethics hotline]. [First name], [Job title]

Example (illustrative), interview review: Thank you for the feedback on our interview process. Waiting a long time without an update isn't the experience we want for candidates, and we're sorry. We now [specific change, for example send every candidate a status update after each stage]. If you have more to share, please contact [recruiting email]. [First name], [Job title]

Glassdoor's guide says responses may include contact information and relevant links, such as internal policies or an ethics or compliance hotline. That makes it easy to offer a confidential channel without asking anyone to reveal who they are. For more reply wording you can adapt, see our negative review response examples.

What to avoid in your reply

• Identifying the reviewer. Glassdoor's guide says not to include the name of the person you believe wrote the review. Hints such as a team, a shift or a departure date do the same thing.
• Threats. The same guide says not to threaten the writer with legal or other punitive action.
• Personnel details. Don't discuss anyone's performance, discipline or reasons for leaving in public.
• Point-by-point arguments. Correct a clear factual error once and calmly; arguing over every line reads as defensive to candidates.
• Copy-and-paste replies. The same paragraph under every review tells candidates nobody read them.

Glassdoor moderates responses after they are posted, under its Community Guidelines and Terms of Use, according to its step-by-step guide for employers. A response that doesn't follow them may be removed, and Glassdoor says it emails you if that happens. The reviewer, in turn, receives an email when you respond.

Don't try to unmask or punish the reviewer

Even if you are sure who wrote a review, acting on that belief is risky. Glassdoor's page on protecting user anonymity says its immediate response to a request to reveal a reviewer's identity is generally to decline, and that employers aren't allowed to ask employees to show them reviews or confirm that they've posted. Internal hunts for the author also damage trust with everyone who hears about them.

There is a legal dimension too. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees' right to engage in concerted activities for collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection (29 U.S.C. 157), and Section 8(a)(1) makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in exercising those rights (29 U.S.C. 158). The Act's definition of employee excludes supervisors, independent contractors and some other groups (29 U.S.C. 152).

Whether a particular review counts as protected activity depends on the facts, and other laws may also apply, so talk to an employment lawyer before taking any action against an employee over a review. This article is general information, not legal advice; consult a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction. Our article on whether a business can sue over a bad review covers the general legal picture for reviews.

When a review breaks Glassdoor's rules

Glassdoor's Employer Center guide says reviews go through a two-touch content moderation process that includes an automated review, and that content which doesn't follow its guidelines won't appear on the site. Check Glassdoor's current Community Guidelines and Help Center for what can be reported and how before you flag anything.

Report only what genuinely breaks the guidelines. Disagreeing with a critical review of your management style, pay or culture is not a reason to report it, and a reply serves you better.

Before you report, save a dated screenshot of the review and write down which guideline you think it breaks and why. Keep the explanation factual and about the content, not about who you suspect wrote it. If many critical reviews appear in a short period, for example after layoffs or a news story, treat it as a possible crisis and follow your online reputation crisis plan rather than replying to each one in a hurry.

Turn the feedback into internal action

One negative review can be an outlier. The same complaint in several reviews over a few months is a signal. Tag each review by theme, such as pay, workload, management, career growth or the interview process, and compare the themes with exit interviews and employee surveys.

Share the themes with leadership and the managers concerned, agree on what will change and set a date to check again. The tagging method in our guide to analyzing customer reviews works just as well for employee reviews. Once something has changed, a short update to your earlier reply shows candidates that the feedback was heard.

Finally, make checking Glassdoor part of a regular routine rather than something you do only when a bad review is forwarded to you. Our guide to what brand monitoring covers explains how employer review sites fit alongside customer reviews and other mentions of your business.