Kicked in the (Gl)ass(door)? Try this.

Negative outlook. Don’t recommend. Disapprove of CEO. Dishonest leadership. Broken culture. Sinking ship. I’d rather gag down jellied moose nose than consider working at this godforsaken hellhole ever again.

If this sounds like your company’s Glassdoor page, I have a maybe-crazy idea you can try. And don’t worry! I’m not going to suggest the obvious things that most recruiters are already doing: responding to negative reviews, encouraging positive reviews, silently cursing the angry employees who have destroyed your talent pipeline/offer acceptance rate/entire life. (It’s okay. We’ve all been there.)

I’m going to suggest something even more radical: transparency. As in “Yeah, we know everyone hates us. Here’s why… and here’s why you should work here anyway.”

If you’re wondering how to do that, I have some tips to share below. But first, let me tell you a quick story.

From Crappy Pizza to Billions of Bucks

In 2009, Domino’s pizza chain was tanking. Thanks to a misguided prank video, customers were led to believe that an employee had shot a snot rocket into a sandwich that was served to a customer. It set off a PR crisis, and the company’s revenue took a nosedive. As much as Domino’s was probably tempted to run away from the nightmare they were living in, they couldn’t afford to ignore it.

In a brilliant move, the chain decided to tackle the problem head on—and then some. Domino’s ran an ad campaign highlighting the nasty comments people made about their pizza. They spent $75 million of their rapidly shrinking revenues to make sure everyone in the world knew how much people hated them. Check out this widely publicized video clip, where focus group participants agree that Domino’s tastes like cardboard.

They didn’t stop at recognizing their food problem. They got to work on correcting every issue that was damaging their bottom line. They changed the menu, transformed infrastructure, and welcomed anyone into the fold who could help reshape the company’s future.

It was madness. And it worked.

Today, Domino’s is the second-largest pizza chain in the world, with nearly $2.5 billion in revenue in 2017. Their story has become required business school reading. You’re hearing about it right now, almost a decade later.

Can We Be More Like Domino’s?

Yes.

For any company to succeed today, transparency is the only option. Just like Yelp has forever changed the game for local businesses, Glassdoor has given employees the power to make or break a company’s recruiting efforts. Whether we like it or not (and we often don’t), employers don’t have all the leverage. If employees want the market to know how much people hate you, the market is going to know how much people hate you.

What’s a recruiter to do?

First, remember that you’re not powerless. Domino’s emerged victorious from one of the worst situations a company can imagine. You can, too.

If employees are going to make bold statements about you, then you need to make bold statements right back. Not negative statements, of course, but powerful ones. Follow Domino’s example. Take the high road. Make some noise.

Look the Problem in the Face

I promised that I wouldn’t repeat the same old advice you’ve already heard about responding to negative Glassdoor reviews and highlighting positive ones. That’s HR 101.

Instead, acknowledge your bad reputation throughout the entire recruitment lifecycle. Mention it on your careers page. Address it in your job descriptions. Ask your candidates what they think about it during the hiring process. Even in the rare instance that a candidate is clueless about your terrible reviews, they’re going to find out eventually. The sooner they know, the better. If they discover that you botched a cover-up by painting a falsely positive picture, they’re going to interpret it as evidence that you’re as bad as people say.

Earlier in this article, I mentioned that Domino’s was fixing their problems, in addition to acknowledging them. You can’t just admit fault and be done. You also need to make sure that your company is committed to changing the status quo. (If they’re not, it’s your turn to write a negative Glassdoor review and start a job search.)

It might be tempting to take 50% of my advice: admit that people hate you, but provide justifications for why they shouldn’t. That’s a great way to undermine your credibility. Vulnerability, on the other hand, is a great way to build it.

You can follow a script like this: “Our obvious mistakes created a terrible working environment for a lot of people. They left us because we failed to listen, but we hope that by bringing this up now we can begin to show you how we plan to reverse the trend. We understand why that’s hard to believe, but here’s our transformation plan. We want candidates who can help bring it to life, because we don’t have all the answers.” That wasn’t so painful, was it?

There is still a percentage of candidates who won’t believe you, and that’s fine. They’ll go work for companies that have things figured out. But there’s also a percentage of candidates who will perk up and listen, because you’re being real. Those are the people you need on your team.

Transparency Tips for Beginners

It’s not that recruiters are dishonest people; it’s just that we aren’t always sure how to put the idea of transparency into practice.

If you see the opportunity to turn Glassdoor hate into another success story, here are five tips to get started.

1. Make sure your company is actually fixing the real problems. I can’t stress this enough. It’s a non-negotiable aspect of any true turnaround. One of our hiring managers recently said, and I quote “it took us a long time to eff this up and it will take us a long time to un-eff it”
2. Call out your Glassdoor page on your careers page. Hyperlinks and all. The truth will set you free. Talk about the steps you’re taking to change.
3. Proactively respond to candidate objections in every job description. “Why should a talented superhero like you work for a 1.5-star company? Because you’ll play a key role in turning this company around.” (Careful not to overpromise, but do let them know how important they are. We all want to feel needed.)
4. Create a bonus or reward structure for anyone who assumes the risk of working with you. If they can help repair these costly business issues, they should be properly compensated for doing so.
5. Stay humble, but take power. As hard as it sounds, be thankful that your employees have shared so much feedback on how you can be better. Then turn that data into an action plan.

Nothing is harder on a recruiter than trying to convince people that the haters are wrong, your company is actually awesome, and they should set aside their concerns and come work for you. So don’t. It’s much easier, and more effective, to admit that the company messed up. And work with them to fix it.