Kununu - A platform that is probably familiar to just about everyone who has ever dealt with their current or future employer in the past. With over 1 million registered companies and a total of over 5 million reviews written, Kununu is the largest employer rating portal.
In Germany alone, the keyword "Kununu" was searched for by 246,000 users in the last 30 days. The popularity of this platform is beyond question, but can the ratings on Kununu be believed? Is there any trickery at Kununu to achieve a better score? We have taken a close look at the issue and show you 4 aspects that you should always keep in mind when looking at the ratings on Kununu.
What is Kununu and how does the platform work?
On the website, companies have the opportunity to create a profile, introduce themselves as an employer and collect ratings from former and current employees, applicants and trainees. The reviewers have many different categories to choose from, on which they can write a comment and rate with 1-5 stars. Likewise, one has the possibility to rate the salary and the corporate culture. So a user who goes to the platform gets a complete overview of the company and the experiences that employees have already had with the employer. That's a great thing, isn't it?
The competitive pressure is in the foreground
Nowadays, it is the case that everything revolves around competition. Especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, it is enormously important for employers to be attractive to potential employees. So it is only understandable that a good rating on Google, Kununu or other platforms is an important basis. For this reason, it should never be ruled out that companies have a hand in reviews that they do not like.
4 aspects you should look for in reviews on Kununu
When people write a rating, they find themselves in a wide variety of situations and pursue different goals. As you learned in the previous section, employers can also have a hand in manipulating their own score. The following 4 points make it clear to you that you should question every rating on the Internet first and foremost.
1. Exaggeration due to the current situation
In most cases, the evaluation of an employer takes place precisely when a person is disappointed and dissatisfied. Because let's face it, far too many people vent their anger after being laid off not at sports, but at their employer. The employer is bad-mouthed, insulted behind the back and often given a bad evaluation. It is only logical that the evaluation in such a situation is even harder than in a four-eye conversation with a responsible person. However, this can quickly lead to an employer being rated worse than he actually is. Fortunately, such so-called frustration comments can be quickly unmasked and removed.
Our tip: If you see an enormously exaggerated evaluation, think twice about whether you want to believe it or not.
2. Fake ratings
As in the previous aspect, the fake reviews are about the extremely frustrated employees. It is not uncommon that ONE bad review from the employer is enough for the alumni. Quickly, more reviews are created with multiple accounts, so that the amount reduces the overall score even further. Perhaps even friends and acquaintances are encouraged to write a bad review to restore the terminated person's lost self-esteem. Such multiple evaluations are inadmissible on employer evaluation portals. For this reason, evaluators must present proof of activity in order to be authorized to write an evaluation in the first place. In some cases, however, these are not presented or there is trickery, so that multiple evaluations of an employer occur again and again.
Our tip: If you discover many enormously bad evaluations of an employer that were written within a short period of time, this is an indication that most of them are fake.
3. Deleted ratings
One thing you should also keep in mind is the following: Companies have the option on Kununu to report reviews. To do so, they have to deal with the respective review, build an argument against the comments written and forward it to Kununu. In the best case (for the company), Kununu judges the employer's argumentation to be true and takes the rating offline. Every reviewer has 24 hours to adjust the review, but this happens very rarely. Many have completely finished with the situation and do not want to deal with it anymore. But let's rewind: companies can have ratings taken offline if they have arguments against the rating. But what about evidence? Can Kununu know, for example, if there is respectful behavior at the company or if managers are taking advantage of employees? No, of course not. But nevertheless such evaluations can be taken from the overview.
Therefore the appeal to you: Every company that is represented on Kununu could have already deleted a vast amount of reviews.
4. The quantity makes the difference
If you look at the number of ratings of well-known companies, there can be enormous differences. But let's take a critical look at the number of ratings. If a company has a lot of reviews and is well represented in the overall score, the bad reviews can quickly disappear. It becomes suspicious when some reviews describe the company as abysmal hell and others can't imagine a better employer. Of course, this can also happen to companies with few reviews. However, if a well-known company has more than 2000 reviews, for example, it is difficult for the user to understand whether there are such drastic differences in the reviews.
Our tip: The higher the number of reviews, the more likely it is that the opinions in the reviews differ greatly. Therefore, try to get an overview of the opinions so that you can decide for yourself whether the positive or negative side within the employer predominates.
Conclusion
So, to sum up, we can give you some advice: Question every rating! It can be fake or real. Everything is possible. Likewise, a large number of reviews from an employer does not always bode well. Behind the many reviews can be multiple reviewers who have written different comments with different accounts. Likewise, 2000 or more reviews does not mean that an employer is doing a good job and employees are satisfied. Huge chess points can be hiding in the crowd.
Sources:
Are all Kununu reviews genuine? How reliable is Kununu? (anwalt.de)
Guide:Successful Employer Communication on Kununu & Co. (flutlicht.biz)
kununuPress Questions - Frequently Asked Questions by Journalists to kununu (kununu.com)
Rate Employer - Find Your Best Employer (kununu.com)
Images:
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