Dive Brief:

• Companies that lack a positive culture, development opportunities and trust make the worst employers, concluded 24/7 Wall Street, a financial news and opinion company and USAToday partner. Based on employee ratings on Glassdoor, Wall Street came up with the 18 worst employers, with Speedway gas stations, Genesis HealthCare, LA Fitness and Family Dollar Stores all making the top 10.
• 24/7 Wall Street considers employers with excessively high turnover or trouble hiring talent as having poor company culture. Companies without advancement opportunities can make employees feel as though they're in dead-end jobs, which lowers morale, productivity and retention, says 24/7 Wall Street. And organizations where management isn't trusted fail to communicate to employees how the business is doing and its long- and short-term goals.
• Although money can be a key factor in employee satisfaction, Scott Dobroski, Glassdoor's community expert, told 24/7 Wall Street that it doesn't have an outsized role, as long as workers don't feel their company is taking advantage of them.

Dive Insight:

Companies with low online ratings have reason to be concerned. Job seekers say they pay attention to these ratings when researching potential employers and routinely pass over companies with low scores. In a tight labor market, a poor culture not only drives applicants toward the competition, but also can lead valued employees to leave for a more suitable culture with career development opportunities.

And it's not just culture that's under the microscope; Indeed recently announced plans to rate employers on their diversity and inclusion efforts. The job board site is partnering with others to do so: Fairygodboss and InHerSight will provide reviews and ratings by women for women, and Comparably will post employers' diversity scores on company pages.

Experts recommend that employers address the issues that draw complaints in online ratings, if they're serious about protecting their brands. HR practitioners can help organizations define and create a culture, become more transparent about decision-making and improve their handling of hot-button issues, such as sexual misconduct and pay inequity. There will always be dissatisfied employees who will go public with their complaints, but by creating a culture where employees are encouraged to shared their concerns internally, HR leaders can sometimes get out ahead of potentially damaging online ratings.