How To Remove Glassdoor Reviews: What Employers Can Actually Do

As more job seekers turn to the web for employer information, companies are asking how to remove Glassdoor reviews and manage their business’s reputation. These ratings can help attract top talent or discourage quality candidates from applying, so it’s a topic worth exploring.

Discover what conditions warrant Glassdoor review removal and what steps businesses can take in those situations.

Key Takeaways

• Glassdoor only removes reviews that violate its Community Guidelines or Terms of Use, not reviews an employer simply disagrees with.
• Employers can flag reviews through the Employer Center, and Glassdoor responds with a decision about removal within 72 business hours.
• Glassdoor states that final content decisions are within its sole discretion and are not open to negotiation, so no vendor can guarantee a Glassdoor review removal.
• An employer’s response to a review is the only comment published, which gives the employer the last word.

Can Glassdoor Reviews Be Removed?

Yes, Glassdoor review removal is possible, but only when the review breaks a stated rule. And the final decision to remove Glassdoor reviews belongs to Glassdoor, not the employer.

Glassdoor explains to employers that final content decisions are within its sole discretion and that these decisions are not open to negotiation. Glassdoor also reserves the right to remove a review or an employer response at any time for any reason.

Paying Glassdoor to remove a review is not an option, either. The same rules apply to all users, including Glassdoor’s own paying clients.

With these restrictions in mind, the best practice for employers who want to remove Glassdoor reviews is a straightforward three-step process. First, flag any reviews that genuinely violate policy. Second, respond to any other negative reviews promptly and professionally. Third, improve the business’s overall profile over time. This last step can be accomplished with the assistance of business review management services.

What Glassdoor Will and Will Not Remove

For employers seeking to understand how to remove negative Glassdoor reviews, recognizing what Glassdoor will and will not remove is key. Certain reviews are eligible for removal, but they must fall under Glassdoor’s specific guidelines.

Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, Glassdoor is not legally obligated to remove content a third party wrote. However, Glassdoor does set some parameters for review removal consideration.

Note on Identifying Information

This policy is often misunderstood by employers. Glassdoor does permit content that names people in the highest positions at a company.

Reviewers can name those who have broad influence over the work environment and who are the public face of the business such as a C-suite officer, executive director, president, owner or founder, as long as the content describes that person’s behavior or performance at work. However, negative content about identifiable employees below that level is legitimate grounds for flagging the review.

Note on NDA Breaches

Glassdoor states plainly that it does not take sides in contractual disputes because it cannot verify whether the restriction is real, whether the reviewer agreed to it, or whether it is legally enforceable.

How To Flag a Review on Glassdoor, Step by Step

To effectively remove Glassdoor reviews, employers must flag the review. Following this process brings the review to the attention of Glassdoor staff, who determine if the review should be removed based on their guidelines.

To flag a review on Glassdoor:

1. Sign in to the Employer Center.
2. Open the Review tile.
3. Locate the review.
4. Click the Flag icon beneath the content.
5. Use the text box to explain which guideline the review breaks.
6. Click Send.

A paid branded profile is not required to complete this process. A free employer account is all businesses need to access it.

Glassdoor states it responds with a decision within 72 business hours, and that their on-screen response will not be followed by an email.

Glassdoor limits how often the same piece of content can be flagged for review. For this reason, a single well-argued flag is worth more than repeat submissions. To create a strong argument, avoid vague statements that the review is unfair. Instead, cite the specific guideline by name and quote the offending line from the review.

Which Flag Reasons Actually Get Reviews Removed

For employers who hope to remove Glassdoor reviews, it is crucial to understand what efforts are fruitful and what tends to fail. Keeping these results in mind can prevent wasted efforts and target a business’s flagging attempts.

What Works

The strongest grounds for Glassdoor review removal fall directly under the platform’s stated guidelines. As noted above, if the review contains the reviewer’s own identifying details or contact information, is an advertisement or contains a link, is copied from another source or is a duplicate that breaches the one-per-year limit, there is a good chance that Glassdoor will remove the review.

These are objective and verifiable from the text of the review itself, which is why these flagging efforts succeed.

One other feasible angle for Glassdoor review removal is misattribution. Glassdoor states it rejects reviews which do not relate to an employer, and this can encompass reviews posted to the wrong company.

At times, reviews land on the wrong company profile. This happens most often when an organization has a generic name or shares a name with an unrelated business. If this occurs, flagging the review as a misattribution is a winnable argument.

What Fails

The weakest grounds for Glassdoor review removal are not what many employers expect.

“This review is untrue.” – This does not carry any weight with Glassdoor, because Glassdoor does not take sides on factual disputes.

“This review breaches an agreement the reviewer signed.” – Because Glassdoor declines to take sides on contractual restrictions it cannot verify, this argument will also fail when attempting to remove Glassdoor reviews.

One other tactic is worth noting, because it can actually make things worse. Glassdoor prohibits employers from incentivizing or coercing employees into leaving positive reviews. The company states that if the practice persists it may post a Glassdoor Alert on the employer’s profile and review pages. This public alert is a worse outcome than any negative review that prompted it.

Rather than take these ineffective routes, employers may need to make a broader effort for negative content removal. Options include responding to the review, taking legal action and partnering with a Glassdoor reputation management firm.

When Responding Beats Removing

An employer’s response to a review is the only comment published on a review. This is paramount because it means responding gives the employer the last word on the page that a candidate reads.

Glassdoor discovered that these last words matter. Glassdoor’s U.S. Site Survey, published in 2025, found that 71 percent of Glassdoor users say their perception of a company improves when the employer responds to reviews. They also found that 70 percent of Glassdoor users are more likely to apply when an employer is active on the platform.

This method of responding rather than attempting to remove Glassdoor reviews is a better route in several scenarios.

• The review is accurate but unflattering
• The complaint is specific and fixable
• The review is a lone outlier on an otherwise healthy profile

The third scenario often raises more alarm from the employer than necessary. Glassdoor reports that its users read an average of six reviews before forming an opinion, which means one bad review in context does less damage than employers often assume.

How to Respond to a Negative Glassdoor Review

When responding to a negative review, employers should follow several best practices:

• Acknowledge the specific issue raised by the reviewer.
• Avoid disputing facts publicly.
• Avoid anything that could identify the reviewer.
• Name a change the company has made or will make.
• Offer an offline channel to discuss and resolve the concern.

Keep it short and direct. And keep in mind that the response will be public. This is the employer’s opportunity to demonstrate how they handle negative feedback and to leave a positive impression on both the reviewer and those reading the reviews.

A Glassdoor and Hall Poll survey from June 2023 found that 83 percent of job seekers check reviews before applying, so these responses and impressions are significant. They are one part of an overall profile an employer must maintain as they are managing reviews across platforms.

Defamation and Legal Options

An opinion about a workplace is protected speech, while a false statement presented as a fact falls into the narrow category that may support a defamation claim. Pursuing this route means retaining counsel, and in situations where the reviewer is anonymous, it can involve seeking a court order.

Glassdoor states it will resist on behalf of its users’ anonymity. The company also frames legal action as a last resort for employers who are not satisfied with the other options.

NetReputation is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney about their specific situation.

For attorneys looking into how to remove negative Glassdoor reviews, NetReputation offers reputation management for law firms and legal professionals.

When To Bring In a Reputation Management Firm

Certain situations warrant seeking outside support for learning how to remove negative Glassdoor reviews and managing the company’s reputation.

• A coordinated cluster of reviews posted in a short window of time
• Review content that spreads to Google results and other platforms
• An executive named repeatedly across reviews
• A profile rating that has dropped far enough to affect hiring

Based on Glassdoor data from January to December 2022, Glassdoor reports that employers who raised their overall rating by at least half a star saw roughly 20 percent more job clicks and 16 percent more application starts on average.

A Glassdoor reputation management firm is key in these situations because it accomplishes several important tasks that an internal team usually cannot sustain. The firm monitors reviews and results across Glassdoor, Indeed, and search results all at once. It assembles documented policy-violation cases for flagging. It manages response cadence at volume. And its experts work on the search results where the reviews surface, which is often the more crucial, long-term issue.

For companies concerned about how to remove negative Glassdoor reviews and the greater impact reviews can have on their brand, NetReputation offers business reputation management. NetReputation is a leading online reputation management provider, and our experts are available to answer any questions about Glassdoor review removal and other concerns. Contact us for a free reputation analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can companies remove Glassdoor reviews?

No. Glassdoor states that no company can remove Glassdoor reviews. Only Glassdoor’s Trust and Safety team is authorized to determine whether a review violates their guidelines and should be removed.

A company can flag a review for removal. This triggers a review by the Glassdoor team to assess whether the review is in violation of their guidelines and should be removed.

Does Glassdoor delete reviews?

Yes. Glassdoor states that they will remove reviews that do not meet their integrity standards. This includes submission of copied content, leaving multiple reviews of the same company, and creating reviews on behalf of others.

Can you delete a Glassdoor review you wrote?

Yes, a reviewer can update or remove their own review. An employer may request this of the reviewer, but reviewers are under no obligation to agree to delete Glassdoor reviews. Note that asking must not involve pressure, incentives or anything tied to employment, since Glassdoor prohibits coercion and may post a public alert on the profile if these attempts are made.

How long does Glassdoor take to respond to a flagged review?

Glassdoor flag review takes three business days. Glassdoor states it will respond to flagged reviews within 72 business hours. If an on-screen response is provided, the employer will not receive a follow-up email.

Will Glassdoor remove a review that violates an NDA or employee handbook?

No. Glassdoor states that they cannot verify these types of violations, therefore they will not take sides on employee contractual issues. They can’t determine what was agreed upon or what might be legally enforceable, so this situation is not grounds for Glassdoor review removal.

Can an employer find out who wrote a Glassdoor review?

For more on review anonymity, check out Are Indeed Reviews Anonymous?