With CEOs of major companies like Amazon and Goldman Sachs mandating a full return to the office, it seems many company leaders are embracing the work-from-home experience altogether. But not so for Glassdoor, a platform that allows workers to anonymously review their current or former employers.
In February of this year, the company announced it was doubling down on remote work, closing its last remaining offices in Chicago and San Francisco, and making a big bet on its distributed workforce. Months later, CEO Christian Sutherland-Wing says it’s not going back.
“I think the biggest benefit that we’ve seen, being a completely remote workplace, is being able to tap into talent all over the US and around the world that we didn’t have access to when we were in the office. based company, Sutherland-Wong explains. good luck. “And that’s a powerful shift in the ability that we’ve been able to bring.”
good luck Sutherland-Wing sat down to discuss the state of remote work, the use of AI bots for recruiting, and the current state of the labor market.
This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity.
Many CEOs are ordering that employees return to the office. Meanwhile, Glassdoor is doubling down on remote work efforts and closing offices. Why do you see remote work as the future?
The current state of the workplace is far more fragmented than it was before 2020. So we’re starting from a starting point of being more divided than ever. I would say the pendulum is swinging back. I expect that there will be other employers who will order a return to the office and some employers who prefer to keep their employees in one place. But I think you’ll see a lot more companies embracing remote work and a lot more companies embracing hybrid workplaces, where you don’t have to be in the office all the time. We’ve all learned as employers that you can be productive even when you’re not in the same physical location. So I expect this trend to continue here.
What is the current state of the labor market?
Well, it’s been an interesting last 18 to 24 months. I would say earlier, we’ve seen a lot of optimism in the labor market. There was a lot of hiring going on and a lot of power in the hands of job seekers during the big layoff. Then we saw a real change in the last year and a half, where the pace of hiring has slowed, even though the economy looks relatively strong and you have a low unemployment rate. With this era of inflation, companies are holding back. Right now, it feels like the power has shifted to employers. Earlier, job seekers had many choices and could easily move between companies. But now they’re pulling back, and people are staying at their companies longer.
What are your thoughts on using chatbots during the recruitment process?
When I talk to many executives about what the recruiting experience is like for them when they make a career change, they talk about the white-glove service that a recruiter provides. Has a great relationship and is a person who is truly out there. After them during their career transition. And then you talk to people who are starting their careers, it’s a very different experience, where they talk about the job-seeking black hole, where they apply to companies and they don’t. know what is going on and they don’t know that their requests are not being received. And I see what AI can do is effectively take that kind of white-glove experience and make it available to the masses. An agent can accompany you on your job search journey and make it a smooth experience.
Recently there have been many complaints from job seekers about past listings. Why are they so obvious now?
When it comes to ghost listings, employers often receive so many applications for roles that they have trouble filtering them. It’s very hard to top. As a result, recruiters aren’t very good at returning job seekers. And it creates a bad experience for employees. We’re always thinking about how we can help bridge that gap so people can know what’s going on with their applications.
Glassdoor has received some criticism for allowing people to post about jobs anonymously. Can you explain the thinking behind this decision?
Anonymity is the lifeblood of Glassdoor and fundamental to having genuine conversations on the platform. It allows people to feel safe talking about their real experiences in the workplace. And none of that has changed. What we want is for people to have the ability to interact with people across industries or with their own employees or colleagues on our platform. And with that, we’ve allowed people to post anonymously. But also, if they like, they can post with their identity, and it’s really up to them how they want to post because there’s a whole new dynamic. There are some topics where people feel really comfortable posting their identity and other topics where they don’t. And just to be clear, reviews on our platform continue to be completely anonymous, and that’s not going away anytime soon.
Many states and territories have enacted pay transparency laws, requiring them to include salaries in job positions. What are your thoughts on this?
I think it’s great. At the end of the day, we ultimately want pay equity, gender pay equity, and racial pay equity. It starts with transparency, and I think Glassdoor’s greatest gift to the world is advancing the pay transparency agenda. Years ago, when Glassdoor first started in 2007, there were very few transparency rules in place, and we’ve really changed the game. Now, we have a lot more pay transparency across the board. And I think it’s really wonderful to see governments in their own places now catching on and pushing payment transparency.
That said, while some companies are coming to the table and being passionate about what it is about pay transparency laws, I think Glassdoor as a platform is very important. Because you can make laws, but people will try and work around them. But Glassdoor is a platform where people will hold you accountable. If you don’t tell people what the salary is for that role, other employees in your company are going to post their salaries, and then you can really have salary transparency.
