Bingo! Rank Shows How a Clear Glassdoor Strategy Can Boost Employee Engagement

Rank Group's story is one of iconic brands and talented people with a mission to entertain. Chances are that you have probably been a customer of Rank at some point, no doubt in one of its Mecca Bingo or Grosvenor Casinos venues, or through its online gaming channels. If this is the case then you'll know that Rank hires people primarily for attitude, behaviour and values, with a focus on fun. Rank is an employer that has really embraced employee feedback and has become quite adept at engaging with its staff. Here we speak to Kate Napier, Corporate Communications Manager about how Rank integrates Glassdoor within its business. Glassdoor: So Kate, Rank Group's overall company rating has shot up over the past year or so. What do you attribute that to? I was brought on board at the Rank Group in June last year, and one of my particular tasks was to manage the company’s Glassdoor campaign. What I learnt initially was that there was little to no visibility of Glassdoor within Rank, and that no one knew how to use it. So I implemented a Glassdoor strategy, which was to promote it throughout the company, using various different methods and channels. I believe that our rating has improved significantly due to the education of our employees about Glassdoor, with staff now fully-aware and onboard with this platform. Glassdoor: As an employer, you are quite innovative in the way that you have encouraged your people to leave reviews. Tell us about some of the methods that have proved effective. At Rank, we are an employer which has embraced transparency, and our main goal from this is get people’s honest feedback. We have a clear strategy in place of why we want to use this tool, and how we want to promote it. I presented Glassdoor to our entire Maidenhead HQ, to give them visibility on this site. We also have 139 clubs throughout the UK, and in order to cascade this further afield to the staff there, I have additionally presented to the regional managers within our brands, Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos. We have also introduced Glassdoor into our employee induction process. After three months within the business staff are encouraged to write a Glassdoor review. We also like to hand out, on occasions, chocolate treats with famous catchphrases attached asking people to write reviews! We will also have TV screens in our new office which will advertise Glassdoor, showing our ratings and encouraging staff to write a review. Glassdoor: What would you say are the main challenges and advantages of using Glassdoor as an employer? I wouldn’t necessarily say that there are any challenges with Glassdoor. I see this as an effective tool that allows our staff to be open and give their feedback. Regardless of whether it is negative or positive, feedback is incredibly important and Glassdoor presents a valuable opportunity to gain insight into what our employees feel about working for Rank. Glassdoor: Some people assume that only disgruntled employees leave reviews. What is your experience? This is absolutely not the case if managed properly. This is all about educating our colleagues about the site, if people are not aware of what Glassdoor is, it is only the people who have left a business that feel passionate about a negative experience, who will actively go to Glassdoor to write a review. We have started the education process with our colleagues outlining that Glassdoor isn’t just for recording negative feedback but also if you have something positive to say. People from all parts of the business could have potentially valuable constructive feedback for us that we could learn from. Glassdoor: Your CEO has an impressive 96% approval from employees. What is it that makes him stand out as a leader? Henry is passionate about engaging with employees, whether it be catching up whilst making tea in the office kitchen, to holding regular town halls talking through the latest Rank news. He has an open-door policy and encourages employees if they have any issues to come and see him. He also reads and responds to Glassdoor reviews, and to have our CEO on board our Glassdoor campaign is fantastic. To have questions or issues addressed directly by our CEO shows that the feedback is taken seriously. I think that’s very powerful and an important message for both current and future staff. Glassdoor: Your employees often cite a healthy work-life balance as a key pro for working for the company. Is that something which you focus on as an employer? I think we have a great team at Rank and the strong working relationships around the business help support a healthy work-life balance. It isn’t something we have ever really focused on, it has just naturally happened. Glassdoor: Rank Group often tweets about its Glassdoor profile, but are there any other ways that you leverage your ratings and reviews, perhaps for recruitment? I manage our Social Media accounts for Rank and we do indeed like to Tweet a lot about Glassdoor! Recruitment wise, we have embedded the Glassdoor logo onto our corporate website, rank.com, so that any potential employees reviewing our site can click and be directed straight to Glassdoor. This also carries over to the fact we have become a Glassdoor Open Company. We decided that in order to attract new colleagues, it would be great to achieve this status, meaning we are an employer who has embraced transparency, and taken those extra steps. We worked really hard to achieve this status as part of our Glassdoor campaign. We also recently signed up for the full Glassdoor enhanced profile, which gives us access to further recruiting tools to try attract great talent to our business. The enhanced profile gives us back-end access to analytics, and allows us to better advertise our job opportunities. Glassdoor: Finally, tell us something that people might not know about working for Rank Group At Rank we are here to excite and entertain! We recently introduced our new STARS values which have been cascaded throughout the business – Service, Teamwork, Ambition, Responsibility, Solutions, which plays a key part here at Rank. We are also relocating in June to our new Maidenhead HQ, which has been a significant investment for us, and we are very excited to move into our new office space! Check out Rank Group's open jobs for positions such as Casino Host, Poker Room Dealer, Operations Manager and Senior Digital Analyst.