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Honor the game of anonymity !

Posted January 20th, 2008 by criticat in

We at Criticat allow users to anonymously do the stuff because we believe that it give our users privacy they need. Also it will make sure that reviews/advice they write are unbiased and honest.

However at the same time, we expect our users to honor the game of anonymity. We expect that doing stuff anonymously is for their benefit and they won't misuse it :)

Why should you create polls on Criticat

Posted January 19th, 2008 by criticat in

Lot of times you want the opinion of your colleagues on a particular topic. You might have a solution to a particular problem but not sure if your colleagues will agree with you. By creating a poll , you can build consensus and cause the change

Consider an employee who wants to get opinion from his colleagues about the frequency of team outings so he creates the following poll.
How often do you think we should have team outings ?
a) once a quarter
b) Semi annually
c) Annually
d) Twice a quarter .
He can now send the compiled response to the parties(upper management and HR) concerned.

Consider an employee who has an opinion about a particular thing and wants to put weight around it by getting others' opinion. He thinks that his company claims that there is flat hierarchy in the organization which is not true so he creates the following poll
DO you think we have a flat hierarchy in the company ?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Not sure
d) Doesn't matter.
By looking at the response he will know if lot of others agree with what he thinks is true . If lot of people agree with what he is thinking then you can claim it front of upper management and his opinion will have weight and value now

Consider an employee who is having problems in coordination because of his team size and he wants to know if others feels the same. He creates the following poll
What do you think is the best team-size for you to be most productive ?
a) 1-5
b) 5-8
c) 8-12
d) more than 12
e) Less than 5 .
Seeing the response from his colleagues he can know better about what others would want

Consider an employee who feels that company's all-hand meetings are mandatory but are not always useful for him so he wants to know what others feel about it .He creates the following poll
Do you think all-hand meetings are always useful and should be mandatory ?
a) They are useful and should be mandatory
b) They are not very useful but should be mandatory
c) They are not useful and should not be mandatory
d) They are useful but should not be mandatory.
If he finds that others also feel the same way as he does, he is basically putting weight around his opinion.

Why should you participate in discussion forums on Criticat

Posted January 19th, 2008 by criticat in

When you are considering a company, sometimes you have some specific questions about working in a company which you cant find on the company website or job sites. By asking a question in the discussion forum of a company on Criticat , you can expect to get answers from the employees of the company.When you ask a particular question you will realize that lot of other potential employees have the similar question.It helps you understand the company better before you join it.Information in discussion forum will not only be useful for the potential employees but also for the current employees

Consider a potential employee X who is willing to join say messenger team in Yahoo. He knows different skill set is needed for different teams in a company. He is really fascinated with Yahoo messenger and wants to work for the messenger team but he doesn't know what skill set is needed for a technical position in yahoo messenger team. He can ask such question in the discussion forum of that company and can expect to get answers from the employees themselves.

Consider an employee X who is willing to move to a different team within his company . He can get more information about that particular team by asking questions about that team in the discussion forum of the company on Criticat.

Why should one advise his employer on Criticat

Posted January 19th, 2008 by criticat in

There are many times when an employee feels things can be improved at his workplace but most companies don't have a mechanism for you, an employee, to rally support around issues that you strongly believe in. Criticat provides you a platform to anonymously build consensus around issues that you care for. Posting your advice on a public forum will also ensure that your senior management is prompt in addressing your issues.

Lets consider a scenario. An employee X realizes that lot of employees in the company including him are frustrated with the bench problem i.e employees are on bench when there isn't any project allocated to them. He thinks more about the problem and realizes that he feels frustrated because his time and skills are not being utilized properly. He therefore emails his manager and other concerned senior managers about the possible solution i.e to allow employees on bench to work on some internal projects or let them use their time to come up with some innovative idea/product. If their idea is good enough it will make to their main product line. Nobody pays heed to his suggestion. His voice/suggestion gets lost. He now advise his employer about the same thing on Criticat. Its gets spread and his colleagues and senior management gets to know about it. All of sudden he sees that lot of his colleagues and senior managers are impressed with his suggestion and his voice is being heard now. His solution with modifications suggested by others is now in place in his company. Now the company i.e employees + employer, has one problem less to solve :)

Employees are the people who knows about problems inside a company and they are the best people who can come up with the solutions for those problems.

Lot of people can think of problems. Be the one to think of solutions and set things right at your workplace. Advice your employer !

Why should one review his employer on Criticat?

Posted January 19th, 2008 by criticat in

When one comes to a site like Criticat which lets you review your employer, its very natural to get this question "Why should I review my employer on Criticat ?"

Here is why we think you should you review your company on Criticat.

Every company strives to project the "right" image to its prospective employees. If it is not a good pay master, ideally it shouldn't even want to interview people who value money the most. And who can tell the world about the values of a company better than its employees. By reviewing your company on a public forum, you are telling the world what your company stands for and what can prospective employees expect. It is a win-win situation for both companies and prospective employees.
By reviewing your company on Criticat, you also let your senior management know what you truly feel about the company. And if something is broken, they will try their best to fix it.

We realize that every company has an internal way of getting feedback from its employees but a message sent from a public forum is much more powerful.Research has shown that no matter the company tells the employees that all reviews are anonymous but employees are still scared to give their earnest feedback inside the company. Reviews on public platform like Criticat are expected to be unbiased and more honest. Employees' reviews of a company on Criticat will reflect much clearer 'inside view' of the company.

We would love to hear your opinion about it.

Launching Criticat phase 2

Posted January 18th, 2008 by criticat in

We have been getting a lot of feedback from our users. We tried to incorporate most of it and came up with Criticat phase 2.

Here is the list of few things we added in Criticat

  • Advanced Search
  • Discussion Forums
  • Polls
  • More interactive way of writing a review
  • Complete makeover of the front page
  • Better user experience with Ajax
  • Rest is for you to check out :)

We would like to thank all our users for the wonderful feedback they have been providing. Please continue to give your feedback because its just the beginning for Criticat and it will continue to evolve with your feedback and suggestions.

What was the need for a platform like Criticat ?

Posted January 17th, 2008 by criticat in

Suppose you are offered a job at a company and you have to decide whether you should accept the offer. In an ideal world, along with the offer letter, the company should also share the reviews of the company from its current employees. It should tell you what is broken inside that its employees have advised to be fixed. They should let you talk to any employee to the company and let you ask them any question without the influence of HR.

Since the world is not ideal, we created Criticat. Criticat allows employees to anonymously review and advise their employers, prospective employees can pose questions to current employees and employees can discuss among themselves to form consensus over an issue.

You can read more about Criticat here

What exactly is Criticat ?

Posted January 16th, 2008 by criticat in

Criticat Introduction

In simple words, Criticat is a platform for employee, employer and prospective employee to openly communicate with each other through reviews, advice , polls and discussion forums.

You are an employee and want to tell the world including your employer what your company stands for or how you feel for your company , Criticat by letting you review your employer allows you to do that. By reviewing your employer , you are openly communicating with your employers and prospective employees.

Yor are an employee who knows about a particular problem in your company and its possible solution. Criticat by allowing you to advise your employer lets you openly communicate with your employer in an attempt to improve things at your work place.

Prospective employees of a company often have lot of questions about the company e.g salary raises, company culture, growth in the company. There is no such place to find all the answers. Criticat by allowing the prospective employees ask questions about the company let them openly communicate with the employees and employer of the company and get answers to their questions.

You are an employee of a company and wants to build a consensus over a particular issue e.g problems due to increase in the number of impromptu meetings. Criticat by allowing you to create a poll and build consensus through votes of your colleagues lets you openly communicate with your colleagues and employer to help you cause the change you believe in.

We believe that open communication among employee, employer and prospective employees is much more effective if you want to bring about a change. This open communication will bring out transparency in the corporate world and hence a positive change.

Welcome to Criticat !

Posted August 1st, 2007 by criticat in

Welcome to the official blog of Criticat !
The blog is an initiative from our side to connect with our users and help us understand our users better. Through this blog we would like communicate to our users our philosophy behind Criticat.
While Criticat is still evolving, we would love to hear your feedback as it will surely help us improve. You can use this platform to let us know what you expect from Criticat and how it can be improved. You can read more about us here.

So what are you waiting for ? Send us your feedback or drop us an email at feedback@criticat.com