The Inside Scoop

We are entering a new era in employment where skilled workers who are in high demand have instant access to the information they need to find out about potential employers.  Two sites that allow people to rate their employers are indeed.com and glassdoor.com.  This takes potential employees well past career sites to the opinions of former and current employees.
Here is an example of employer Imperial Oil who gets over 4 out of 5 stars.
http://www.indeed.ca/cmp/Imperial-Oil/reviews
And here is an example of an employer with a few less reviews (with most of the reviews being mediocre), which puts TransCanada at 3 out of 5 stars.
http://www.indeed.ca/cmp/Transcanada/reviews
As a potential job applicant, who would you apply with?
Although LinkedIn does not currently allow employer reviews, it is easy enough to connect with current and past employees to find out what it is like to work at a company.  In the past there have been studies that linked employee engagement with much higher share prices, return on investment, and overall company value.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if current and past employee ratings of a company also correlated strongly with the value of a company?
Are we beginning to see an era where the old top 100 Employer surveys of North America are being replaced by a democratic website that is driven by past employees?