Employee Advocacy Program: 5 Tips to Scale It

Word of mouth is the strongest form of advertisement. We’ve all heard it and it’s been proven true in many instances across many industries. In fact, a Nielsen study revealed that nearly 92% of consumers trusted recommendations from family and friends to influence their purchasing decisions. The same can be said for job seekers when deciding which organization they’d like to pursue a career with. This is where an employee advocacy program comes into play.

Think of an employee advocacy program as an influencer campaign where the “influencers” are your employees. Usually managed by an internal marketing or talent acquisition team, they’re designed to encourage employees to showcase their company to potential candidates on platforms like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, or Indeed. They are important for several reasons:

• Build brand trust and credibility: As we mentioned before, people trust people more than they trust companies. An employee advocacy program humanizes companies and enhances the credibility of the message and trust among their connections.
• Attract top-tier talent: How nice would it be to be able to actually see what it’s like to work for a company before accepting an offer? An employee advocacy program allows potential candidates to do just that. When current employees share their positive experiences and enthusiasm for their workplace, it attracts applicants whose values align with your organization.
• Drive employee engagement: When employees actively participate in promoting their organization, they feel more connected and engaged with their work. It fosters a sense of pride and ownership, leading to increased job satisfaction and productivity.

Despite the advantages, the biggest challenge that we frequently hear from talent leaders is getting employees to take time out of their day-job to advocate for the organization.

5 proven, practical tips to ensure success with your employee advocacy program.

1. Get leadership involved. Many employees want to see their leaders, including the CEO, involved in being advocates of the brand. Get your C-Suite and your Chief People Officer to understand how important leadership involvement is. Here is how to build the case with the C-Suite.
2. Look at your employee engagement survey results and find out which departments have the highest scores. This will help you identify natural advocates for your brand. If you don’t have access to this, ask your talent leader for it.
3. Make sure your employees know that it’s safe and ok to share realistic aspects of your culture on their personal social media feeds. Provide your employees with clear guidelines, training, and ongoing support on how to build a personal brand on social media.
4. Get your C-suite to celebrate your brand advocates. Company town halls, leadership, and team meetings are the best channels to celebrate your brand advocates.  When other employees see the celebrations, they will want to get involved too.
5. Don’t force it. Employee advocacy shouldn’t be “forced” upon employees and instead should be encouraged while respecting their personal boundaries. Why? When forced, it becomes a chore rather than genuine involvement and your audience will see right through it.

Everyone understands advocacy programs have a high ROI but only a few are able to successfully implement them. It is a journey and we have seen time and time again when the above practices are followed, organizations are able to scale it off the ground.

Cliquify is an AI-powered employer branding platform for recruiters, hiring managers, and employees to showcase your culture, create buzz across social media, and activate your brand to get future candidates to connect with your values.