<aside> ⛔ Nearly 30% of people who start a new job quit within the first 3 months (source). This is often because not all candidates are researching potential employers properly. Of those early quitters, ****43% said the day-to-day role simply wasn’t what they expected. Another 34% blamed a bad experience for walking away, while 32% claimed there was a bad job culture.
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<aside> 💡 Naturally, you will never know for sure before you actually start the job. But you could help avoid all of this by doing some research into the company that is offering a seemingly ‘dream’ job.
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It’s tempting to accept straight away. After all, there’s nothing quite like the buzz of a job offer, but you really need to dig a little deeper into the culture, vibe and general dynamic of an organisation.
While this all sounds rather time-consuming, it’s not. And it could save you a lot of heartache down the line. Here are some useful free tools to help you find an employer you want to stick with:
There’s a goldmine of information to help you quickly identify companies with a toxic culture or poor work-life balance, two main contributory factors for those quitting early. It’s a site for current and former members of staff to write honest, anonymous reviews about the employer.
It’s got a database of millions of company reviews, including salary reports, interview questions, CEO approval ratings, benefits, office photos and more. It’s perfect for assessing if it’s the sort of company you’d like to work for.
This is a clever way to learn about an organisation because it tells you about it from a customer point of view. Google reviews give great insight into the credibility and service provided. If it’s clear a company bends over backwards for its customers, who give five-star reviews, it’s likely to look after its staff, too. Bad Google reviews should raise a red flag immediately.
It’s a good idea to run some research on LinkedIn. Have a look at current and past employees to get a feel for how long they remained employed. If many people stayed only a short time, there could be an ongoing issue.
The company should also have its own profile page on LinkedIn, and smart employers will show off the company culture (socials, shoutouts, events benefits etc) specifically because they want to attract potential star employees.
Also, you can identify if the organisation has strong branding, something that might help you engage and convert potential customers.