Glassdoor has taken a look at how Google and Facebook compare in the eyes of employees and job candidates, and has extracted a number of interesting data points related to CEO approval, benefits, perks and more. For background, Glassdoor is a jobs and career community where employees can anonymously rate companies and CEOs.
First, Glassdoor says that so far in 2012, Google has overtaken Facebook in employee satisfaction company ratings. In fact, this is the first time Google has overtaken Facebook in the past four years, says Glassdoor. In 2012, Google’s company rating reached a 3.9, surpassing Facebook’s 3.7 rating. From 2009 through 2011, Facebook received a higher company rating from its employees (2009: 4.4; 2010: 4.7; 2011: 4.2), than Google did from its employees (2009: 3.8; 2010: 3.7; 2011: 4.1).
For 2011’s rankings, Facebook ranked two spots higher on the list than Google, taking the third spot. Facebook actually slipped from the top spot in 2010 to number 3 on the 2011 list and Google had moved up to the fifth slot from number 30 on 2010’s list. Ratings are based on at least 10 reviews per year per company and on a 5-point scale: 5=very satisfied, 3=OK, 1=very dissatisfied.
Glassdoor also reports that Google CEO and founder Larry Page is currently rating slightly higher than Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Google employees are giving Page a 94% approval (6% disapproval) rating, which is just a tad bit higher than what Mark Zuckerberg earned from his own employees, which is a 92% approval (8% disapproval) rating.
Among employees’ company reviews on Glassdoor, a larger percentage of Google employees talk about the food as a ‘Pro’ of working at the company (Google: 29%, Facebook: 25%). When it comes to benefits, the breakdown is as follows: (Google: 21%, Facebook: 17%) and perks (Google: 21%, Facebook: 12%).
However, when it comes to a favorable opinion on salary and compensation, it is neck and neck (Google: 9%, Facebook: 10%). Specifically, Glassdoor says that long hours and work/life balance are the biggest downsides of working at Facebook. More Facebook employees mention long working hours as a ‘Con’ than Google employees (FB: 9%, Google: 3% of employees). However, more Google employees cite politics and stress as ‘Cons’ over Facebook employees.
It’s still only March, so this is hardly an indicator of how things will stack up for Facebook and Google for 2012’s overall ranking. But in light of the talent wars in Silicon Valley, especially amongst these two companies; it is interesting to see Google’s employee satisfaction rising. Stay tuned.
For more data, check out the infographic below.
