Salaries Are No Secret at New Site

Glassdoor.com, which went live last night, allows anyone to peer into details many employers would no doubt rather keep secret:  salary information, CEO ratings from employees, and dishing about work environment, among other things.

The site shows teaser details for Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco and Google for non-registered viewers, but to see all the data that others have shared, you'll need to first provide anonymous details on your own employment.  Share your salary and see those from others.  Same for employer reviews.  You won't need to provide your name (though you will need to give it an e-mail address), and it's free.

Glassdoor says it's focusing on SF Bay area companies at the start, but is expanding to other regions and industries.  As with any ratings system, I wouldn't put much stock in ratings for companies that are only based on a few people's reviews.  It's too easy for one overly happy or disgruntled person to skew a rating.

But as an article in the San Francisco Chronicle describes, even a few scathing reviews could prove useful for an on-the-ball company to see if there's a problem manager or situation.  I could certainly see people being more willing to vent on an anonymous site than to walk into their company's HR.  Companies might not like to see such information made public, but they could still turn it to their advantage.

Also, while other sites such as Salary.com provide data on how much a given type of job might pay, Glassdoor.com could provide more specific comparisons, such as how much the other people in your particular company with your same job title are making.  If those people happen to enter their data on the site, that is.

The site is sluggish right now and I'd guess it might be under a heavy load.  For more background on Glassdoor, head to the SF Chron story.

Erik Larkin