5 Steps To Make Your Employees Become Your Best Ambassadors

Just because you have great products doesn't mean people will want to work for you.

It is essential to remember the importance of your best internal supporters: your employees. They are the ones who know your company better than anyone else.

By encouraging them to share their own stories, you are on your way to building a successful company full of employees who are your best brand ambassadors.

Employers with a strong employer brand decrease their cost per hire by 43% (Shriar, 2016).

But where does it start? How do you make sure you convey the right message through your employees to attract the talent you are looking for? 

1. Successful ambassadors come with a strong culture

A strong organisational culture keeps employees engaged, allowing for a stronger online presence.

Effective core values ​​can increase engagement by creating a workplace culture based on principles that employees believe in. The benefits of engagement are even greater if you involve employees in defining your core values, for example through consultations or surveys.

An effective way to start this is with a strong Employee Value Proposition (EVP) - an important weapon to compete with in today’s job market. An EVP refers to a set of characteristics relevant to the organisation as an employer that the talent market will be attracted to, and the value that current employees feel they get from working in the organisation.

Last but not least, this will require collaboration between the HR and marketing functions of the organisation to work together to ensure that the offering is well communicated, targeted and most importantly - deliverable.

2. Leaders have to set the example

When talking about their experience and sharing company information, focus on open communication and bold transparency to showcase your employees’ authenticity and genuine motivation.

Once you know how to communicate, start from the top. The top executive has to lead the way for your employees to naturally be inclined to match the behaviour.

3. Provide training on online best practices

According to Meister’s 2016 report, employees have ten times more social connections than a brand does. Help your employees share content or online reviews on Google by providing them with the necessary tools and guidelines to improve their social media presence, and create appropriate and compelling content.

To know more about how to share your employees’ stories on social media, click here.

4. Make It Easy for Employees to Be Advocates

All companies have incredible stories to share that reflect the organisation's internal culture and work environment. Whether it is a company project, employee testimonial or a crowdfunding initiative, leverage them to make sure that this content can be easily shareable by your employees to promote your company online.

Content shared by employees receives 8x more online engagement than content shared on corporate accounts (Dunay 2014).

Facilitating these initiatives for your employees will increase the chances of promoting your brand. Some employees have a lot of attention on social media and have a lot to share about their careers, but not every employee can easily create and share content online on their initiative. Organise customised content that employees can share on many other social media platforms.

Check out The Red Cube with Riley Stefano of Datadog who talked all things employee advocacy and employer branding! 👇

5. Ask for feedback

It’s essential to ask your employees for feedback and ideas. Employees can experience different aspects of the organisation and communicate these experiences more effectively. Asking for their perspective is another best practice for empowering your employees to become strong brand ambassadors, and it can help your employee feel valued in the process.

Normalising the collaboration between leadership and employees in your work environment will facilitate a constant flow of innovative ideas and new insights for your business strategy.

Think that you have a great company culture? Check how you can be Certified as a Great Place to Work! The Certification™ is the first step towards any Great Place to Work recognition. Want to know how to be Certified as a Great Place to Work?  Watch the recording and get all your questions answered!

More resources about Employee Engagement:

• 10 Points on Retaining and Attracting Talent through Employer Branding
• 5 Best Practices for Leading a Hybrid Team
• What is it like to be part of a Great Company Culture?
• 10 Tips for Retaining Your Top Talent 
• Mental Health Supports in the Workplace: A Mutually Beneficial Approach
• 9 Tips on Improving Employee Experience by Building a Healthy Culture 
• Employee Appreciation Day: 7 Great Ideas to Give Back!
  

About Great Place to Work®

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. We help organisations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. We recognise Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces™ in more than 60 countries. To join the thousands of companies that have committed to building high-trust company cultures that help them attract, retain and take care of their people, contact us about getting Certified today.