Poor hiring practices are starting to bubble up for employers, and not in a good way.

A growing number of people are airing their grievances about badly conducted hiring experiences, which are a turn-off to other candidates, according to data from platforms like Glassdoor.

On Glassdoor and Indeed, job seekers who had poor hiring experiences are dropping “Yelp-like feedback,” about certain companies, giving written reviews and numbered ratings that can be hard to turn around, said Neil Costa, founder and CEO of HireClix, a recruitment marketing services company.

“If it’s a downward trend, it’s just like getting a C on your midterm. It’s hard to bring your average up over time,” Costa said.

Some of those poor practices include ghosting, or starting the interview process with candidates then cutting off all communication without an explanation. There’s also love bombing — where candidates are showered with praise only to be lowballed with a salary offer or title not aligned with their experience. Hard-to-navigate careers pages or hiring portals are another issue irking job seekers, along with lengthy take-home assignments.

Ex-employees have long turned to sites like Glassdoor to write scathing reviews about employers they feel mistreated by, having worked there for a period. That’s always been a red flag for job candidates who do their research thoroughly. But people are now writing bad reviews about how employers conduct interviews, which is equally damaging for an employer’s brand and could turn off others before they even apply, shrinking talent pools and hiring teams’ chances of finding the right person for a role, recruitment professionals say.

Negative hiring experiences and an overall lack of trust can lead job seekers to apply elsewhere, like to competitors instead. But there are some ways HR leaders and others can maintain a positive employment brand and improve their reputation regarding their hiring process.

First, they need to really evaluate their own value proposition and what they are selling to prospective candidates as expectations and values have shifted widely post-pandemic, Costa said. “I think that a lot of companies haven’t really done that refresh and haven’t done that self-reflection in order to have clarity around their employee value proposition,” Costa said.

“If you think of a consumer product, if you don’t know what you’re selling and why you’re selling it, then it’s really hard to sell it,” he said.

Many reviewers on Glassdoor and other anonymous sites are often former employees, and following layoffs, those reviews can sway a potential candidate away if the job cuts were handled poorly or they perceive the company is in financial trouble, he added.

In general, some other ways employers can improve their employment brand is by having better application portals and career sites. “We consider that the front door to welcome prospective employees to the organization,” Costa said.

Applying online can be confusing for current job seekers with some roles allowing submissions through job boards and others directing them to a company careers page. When the design, layout and usability of a company’s career page is poor, “it creates just a notoriously bad candidate experience,” he said.

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