Reputation | Staff offered days off for writing FAKE reviews

Employers may incentivise their staff with several different methods. For example, offering vouchers for when a target is met or giving someone a day off on their birthday for hitting a deadline, are common ways staff may be rewarded for their hard work.

Purplebricks Canada has offered its employees one particular perk in exchange for their help. According to Forbes, the online estate agent offered its staff members paid annual leave in exchange for made up positive reviews on Facebook and Google.

In an email obtained by Forbes, the company’s marketing department wrote to its 200 employees in March 2019 asking for their family and friends to leave glowing online reviews ‘whether or not’ they were Purplebricks customers.

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However, the email was clear that stories didn’t need to be fabricated and that simple sentences remarking on how great the company was ‘would be fantastic’.