How can you create employee advocates and ambassadors?

To create employee advocates and ambassadors, focus on these key strategies: Engage and Empower: Involve employees in decision-making and give them ownership of projects. Recognize and Reward: Acknowledge achievements and contributions regularly. Communicate Openly: Maintain transparent communication and listen to feedback. Provide Development Opportunities: Offer training and growth prospects. Foster a Positive Culture: Build a supportive and inclusive work environment. These steps help employees feel valued and motivated to promote your company positively.

Creating employee advocates and ambassadors begins with fostering a positive workplace culture where employees feel valued and empowered. Give them autonomy and recognition for their contributions. Open communication channels ensure transparency, while opportunities for growth and skill development show commitment to their success. Align their work with company goals and consistently seek and act on their feedback. Building trust through fair leadership and cultivating an inclusive environment solidifies their commitment, turning employees into passionate advocates who promote the company's values and brand externally.

Your employer brand is more than just a perception—it's your organization's identity as an employer. It encapsulates your mission, vision, values, and culture, creating a cohesive narrative that defines what it's like to work at your company for those in the outside. When your employer brand is well-defined and effectively communicated, it becomes a powerful tool in shaping a positive work environment, driving organizational success, and building a thriving, dynamic workplace culture.

Creating employee advocates and ambassadors hinges on fostering a positive work environment. Start by cultivating a culture of trust and appreciation — recognize achievements regularly. Provide opportunities for professional growth through training and mentorship. Encourage open communication and involve employees in decision-making processes. Ensure alignment between company values and employees’ personal values. Implement an employee referral program with attractive incentives. Lastly, promote work-life balance and well-being initiatives. By investing in your employees’ happiness and development, you’ll organically turn them into passionate advocates who champion your brand both inside and outside the workplace.

I focus on building a deep connection to our mission. I ensure that every agent feels valued by regularly recognizing their hard work and the vital role they play in supporting patients. By providing opportunities for growth and including them in decision-making, I help them feel more empowered and in control of their work. I also encourage them to share their experiences and successes, fostering a sense of community. Even in a demanding environment, I work to create a culture where they feel purpose and pride, transforming them into passionate advocates for our mission.

Treat people right every day and they will be your best advocates and ambassadors. Go beyond the policies and procedures and look deeply into the actual behaviours in the workplace. Make sure leaders and managers at all levels are trained and effective in their roles because these are the people who often have the most positive or negative impact on people.

Take your team along with you on your journey as a senior leader. When there is transparency, the employees feel more involved and treat your organisation as their own.

There are no shortcuts or cheat codes to creating employee advocates. Empowering people ultimately comes down to their own 'lived' experience of the workplace culture - of being trusted, of being supported to take on greater responsibility (from a manager happy to delegate), and of having real psychological safety. This, alongside engaging and enabling people is what makes for an overall positive employee experience. Meeting these needs will naturally lead to creating many more employee advocates.

This is really about making employee engagement everyones business. By seeing people and appreciating all they bring (the good/bad/indifferent), the human beings that work in our business will see that there is a real care for not just what they do, but who they are. Work to create advocates and champions organically but this can be complimented with pre selected champions in areas of focus. Find people who really care about the business, your product, your customers and your brand. Ask them to be involved early in testing things out and seek their opinion. They will fly the flag even when you dont ask them to.

?? Employees sharing their experiences on social media can be a powerful way to boost your company's online presence and credibility. ???? Foster a culture of transparency & trust within your organization. ?? Ensure employees feel valued & empowered to share. ?? Provide them with engaging and shareable content related to your industry/company news. ?? Offer social media training & guidelines to help them navigate the digital landscape responsibly. ?? Recognize and reward employees for their social sharing efforts, creating incentives for participation. Ultimately, a supportive environment and recognition can motivate employees to become enthusiastic brand advocates on social media, amplifying your company's reach and influence.

100% for people sharing on their socials about your brand. It is really powerful. However, it needs to be authentic. Set them up with all the tools they need, the skills in how to write posts and perhaps even provide #'s and templates but the key is to give them license to add their own personality to any posts. Make it easy for them but dont make it scripted

To encourage social sharing, start by creating content that resonates with your employees. The key is to produce content that employees feel proud to share, content that reflects their own positive experiences and aligns with their values.

?? Recognizing & rewarding employees is crucial for maintaining motivation/job satisfaction. ???? Start by acknowledging efforts with regular verbal praise/constructive feedback. ?? Celebrate milestones/achievements, whether big or small, publicly within the organization. ?? Implement a structured recognition program, including awards, certificates, or even monetary bonuses, based on performance/contribution. ?? Tailor rewards to individual preferences when possible. ?? Personalised thank-you notes or flexible work arrangements can also be effective forms of recognition. Most importantly, ensure that recognition is fair, consistent, and transparent, creating a positive workplace culture that values and appreciates its employees.

Here are 10 effective methods for recognition and rewards: 1. Verbal appreciation 2. Public recognition 3. Monetary rewards 4. Non-monetary rewards (extra time off) 5. Employee awards (employee of the month) 6. Team celebrations 7. Personalized rewards (thoughtful recognition based on employees preferences and interests) 8. Career development opportunities 9. Feedback & Growth discussions 10. Peer recognition

What I have found incredibly beneficial is taking key Ambassadors who are already posting company content and asking them to join future training sessions to support others. This is hugely successful as it shows how their peers are succeeding but also a chance to ask those questions they might not feel comfortable asking management or the marketing team. These people can be the ones who change mindset and show others how beneficial Employee Advocacy can be

Leverage feedback systems to improve culture. Having a feedback system and a strong process to use that information as leverage to improve your organization's culture is one of the most effective ways to create employee advocates and ambassadors. It gives a feeling of empowerment to employees, where they feel valued. Being heard in this noisy busy corporate culture world is one of the most precious gifts an employer can give to their employees. This in return encourages employees to talk about this gift both internally and externally. Someone who has benefitted from this the most will automatically turn into an employee advocate and ambassador, without seeking any additional benefits and perks for doing this.

This step makes sense for paid PR employees. But for volunteering advocates, this step should be done very carefully because once your volunteering advocates become aware of any monitoring and quantifying performance can have an adverse hawthorne effect on your program. In fact, this step would most likely change a socially motivated environment in which an employee has a deep commitment to the employer, to a transactional relationship where perceived trust and empowerment would quickly dissolve.

This is a huge task and one I have personally done manually. It takes time, patience and a lot of consistent effort. Here are some helpful pointers... Make sure are clear on your goals and KPI's before you start reporting. Get your benchmarks set so you know what you are comparing the activity to. Understand exactly what metrics will be useful to improve a programme, don't waste time on ones that aren't, especially if you are doing this manually. Think of the audience you are reporting to - C Suite for example will understand different metrics to HR or Marketing Long term I highly recommend an Employee advocacy tech platform or measurement tool to help.

Discussing about a brand on social media shouldn’t be reserved only for the C-suite. On the contrary by empowering employees of all levels to be a part of the organization and share related content, you’re promoting a strong company culture and facilitating employee retention along the way.

It's super important to have these conversations at the interview and onboarding stage with new recruits. Questions like... What impression did you get from our social presence? What do feel we do well and what can be improved? What are your views on posting content? What training would you like from us if any on your personal brand? Make that person feel you are invested in them right from the beginning. Make it about them, not about the company. This is the foundation of positive employer branding

I believe employee engagement should include a whole lot of community-building skills and strategies. Especially when you want the innovation or motivation to be triggered from within, it is crucial to set your organization up in a way where your employees are excited to be creating something *together* That's exactly where ambassadors and advocates come in. Employees who live and breathe your company's culture are the best motivators for their peers to tune into a similar mindset. Find them, and utilize them as a partner for your people strategy to build an internal community.

Think about the legacy: engagement should continue throughout the exit process, as former employees can be great advocates and potential clients. Some companies get this wrong, considering a departing employee to be of no further value. It's much better to think ahead and ensure employees leave with a good opinion of the business.

Creating more employee advocates or 'champions' ultimately comes down to one thing: authenticity. Your people need to enjoy a positive workplace experience themselves - which means engaging, enabling and empowering them day-to-day. These are the three foundational elements of EX. Getting this right will naturally result in more employees who are - even without being asked - keen to recommend your company to others externally, be it to friends, or through reviews on sites like Glassdoor.