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4 ways to build an employee advocacy program from the ground up

Ben Blog

by Ben Batten

If you’re looking for ways to strengthen your employer brand, then implementing an employee advocacy program can be a good place to start. This initiative is aimed at giving a voice to employees, enabling them to become more engaged with the goings on within their business and share their experiences with what they contribute. The benefits for this include the increased audience outreach businesses investing in an employee advocacy program can achieve, as well as the positive impact in can have on staff in regard to having their views and opinions acknowledged. To find out how your company and employees can benefit from this style of program, the team here at Volt have highlighted 4 key recommendations to help get you started:

Start with your brand ambassadors: The simplest way to begin cementing an employee advocacy program is to look for those in your company who are already strongly involved in promoting the business. For example, which members of staff are already saying positive things and generating attention on social media? Who are the individuals that are always involved in encouraging internal initiatives and team building experiences? Make sure you cover all the different possible channels, from Instagram and LinkedIn to trade channels and the more specialized social media channels and apps. This will give you a clear idea of who your first round of brand advocates should be.

Issue a general invitation: Although it’s a good idea to root your employee advocacy program with those staff who are already out there being proactive, it’s also important to give everyone in the business the opportunity to take part. You will likely find that there are a lot of people within the business who are keen to make contributions and be part of the conversation. Be clear about why the business is doing this and outline the vision and values that should be driving every conversation.

Ensure broad representation: Diversity matters when it comes to something like an employee advocacy program and should be a key consideration when you’re building it from the ground up. When you’re assembling your initial team, make sure that it represents all of the talent within your organisation. The program should be inclusive, championing diversity, and represent all the different levels and departments across the business. The more diversity you achieve, the more likely your program is to be a success.

Focus on engagement: Once you’ve identified your team of brand ambassadors, the next step is to put them to work advocating for the business. Engagement will be vital to this, ensuring that they consistently feel passionate about the organisation and valued by the business so that they are willing to go out and be a positive messaging force. There are lots of different ways you can do this, from creating a regular schedule of events to delivering ongoing encouragement. It can be useful to establish a database of content that can be easily repurposed for personal channels and make sure that everyone has access to someone if they have questions or queries about what they can or can’t post.

Integrating an effective and well received employee advocacy program can positively influence your business in a significant way, as well as showcasing how your business truly values the input your employees have to make your company unique. To find out how the team here at Volt can help with this process, please visit our ‘Client Solutions’ page on our website for more information.