How company scores are calculated
Every number on a company page can be checked against this page. Nothing is weighted by hand.
The score
A company's score is a weighted average of the Overall ratings in its published reviews, pulled toward the site-wide average until the company has enough reviews of its own. This is the standard “Bayesian average”; it exists so that a single 5-star review cannot put a company at the top of the list.
score = (n × avg + 5 × siteAvg) / (n + 5)
- n — the number of published reviews of the company
- avg — the mean Overall rating of those reviews
- siteAvg — the mean Overall rating across every published review on the site
- 5 — the prior weight: the company is treated as if it started with 5 average reviews
Example: three 5-star reviews with a site average of 3.5 give (3 × 5 + 5 × 3.5) / (3 + 5) = 4.1, not 5.0. With thirty such reviews the score is 4.8.
No score is shown until a company has at least 3 published reviews; the page shows the count instead.
The four category averages (management, work environment, salary & benefits, career & development) are plain means of the published reviews and are always shown next to the number of reviews.
What gets published
- Every review is read by a moderator before it appears. Until then it is visible only to its author.
- One review per company per account. Editing it sends it back for moderation.
- An edited review disappears from the page until it is approved again.
- Anyone signed in can report a published review. A moderator then keeps it, asks the author for changes, or removes it.
- Readers never see who wrote a review. Moderators can see the account behind it, which is what makes moderation possible.
What a review may contain
- Your own experience, in your own words.
- No names of colleagues or managers, no personal details about anyone.
- No insults, threats or profanity.
- No claims that cannot be verified — describe what you saw, not what you heard.
- No advertising, links or recruiting.