Your aligned and engaged people are perfectly positioned to become your strongest brand advocates. Sprinklr shares important statistics why an employee advocacy program is such a great talent attraction strategy: “According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, 52% of consumers would trust information from a regular employee (a jump from 32% in 2009), and 67% would trust information from a technical expert within the company. The report also found that, in 4 out of 5 company-related topic categories (engagement, integrity, products & services, and operations), employees are the most-trusted influencers.

“By setting up an employee advocacy program, you can ensure your employees are enabled with the training, guidelines, and messaging they need to effectively engage new and loyal consumers. As Social Media Today found, “nearly 64% of advocates in a formal program credited employee advocacy with attracting and developing new business, and nearly 45% attribute new revenue streams to employee advocacy.”

These facts and figures are all well and good, but it’s important to have a framework for measuring the success of your employee advocacy program.

Percentage of employees sharing content

Measure this data point to understand how many employees are participating in your advocacy program. Using this knowledge, you can better understand where your share numbers, traffic, and engagement come from.

If this number is low, find ways to reinvigorate and optimise your program for better results. If it’s high, use this information to motivate other employees to join.

Percentage of employees who have participated in past 90 days

“Three months (or 90 days) is an appropriate trial period to see how your advocacy program is performing. If you’re just launching your program, or if you’re thinking of making some big adjustments, it’s helpful to gauge the participation and performance from the past 90 days. This way, you can arm yourself with a benchmark with which to compare future success.

“For instance, by keeping track of these metrics, BMC was able to see how its own BeSocial program significantly impacted the company’s social engagement. In just three months, 850 members had participated and over 30,500 messages were shared, resulting in 12.9 million impressions and over 3,100 website clicks.”

What content is being shared most?

Find out what resonates with your people. Determine which pieces of content do employees feel most comfortable sharing and what they think is most appropriate for their audiences.

If the majority of your engagement came from a few pieces of choice content, you can use that to inform your content-creation strategy going forward, by either creating more of the same, or axing things that aren’t working.  

Engagement rates of content being shared by employees

Of the content being shared by your people, what are your clients and customers responding to? What information are they interested in from your employee advocates.”

“Perhaps blog posts are being shared more than ebooks. Maybe tweets with questions are being shared more than tweets with just headlines and links. It’s crucial to understand how content is performing in these communities because it can tell you if the content is high-value, and which content you should be creating and sharing more. It can also shine a light on the employees who have the most engaged social followings.”

How many people complete your employee advocacy training program?

By offering your people training and implementation guidance, you can increase the chance of your organisation’s success. Measuring the percentage of people who have undertaken this training will give you a better idea of where your reach is coming from (i.e. mostly from people who have been trained?)

Compare content-sharing between those employees who have undertaken training, and those who are sharing content on their own. Then use this data to incentivise more people to participate in your training.

How many people remain and advance in your program

“How effective is your advocacy program at retaining participants? Is there a natural progression between each stage? Perhaps you might need to optimise certain stages of the program. One easy way to do this is to establish check-in points where employees can provide feedback to the social team, and vice versa. The only way employees will be able to successfully complete [or remain in] the program is if they understand each stage and have the tools they need to advance to the next one.”

Total number of participants

Of course, measuring the total number of people participating in your employee advocacy program is key. It indicates how many people are actually adopting your program. If there’s a gap, address the cause and ensure you have adequate communication strategies in place to promote your program.

Employees aligned with your mission, vision, and values are a powerful force to promote your organisation as a great place to work, attract future talent, and personalise your brand. Don’t put a great program in place without measuring its effectiveness. Use data to gain knowledge, promote your program further to your executive team and other employees, and informed make adjustments to maximise the potential of this strategy.

Source

The 7 metrics you need to measure your employee advocacy program

Scott Amerman

Sprinklr

The post 7 ways to measure the impact of your employee advocacy program appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Word of mouth is one of your most important marketing tools. Why not use it in your employer branding strategy? Employees aligned with your mission, vision, and values are a powerful force to promote your organisation as a great place to work, attract future talent, and personalise your brand.  

Employee advocacy refers to employees promoting your organisation as an employer of choice. There are a number of ways to go about this, but the most effective strategy is through social media.

According to Hootsuite’s guide to creating an employee advocacy program, “Word-of-mouth remains the top influencer for buyers. Studies show that employees are more than twice as trusted as a CEO, senior executive, or activist consumer. Cisco notes that employees’ social posts generate eight times more engagement than posts from their employers. People are 16 times more likely to read a post from a friend about a brand than from the brand itself. In addition, employees often already have social media profiles. And it’s likely that they’re on some platforms that your brand isn’t.

“Plus, employee advocacy is as effective for small businesses as it is for large corporations…[An organisation of] 20 means a potential reach of 5,000.”

This strategy is beneficial for both employees and employees alike. Aside from promoting your benefits, your people are empowered to shape the type of people attracted to your organistation, and build their personal network and brands.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to launch an employee advocacy program without engaged people with shared vision and trust in your brand. It’s beneficial to start with a strong workplace culture.

As Hootsuite explains, “For employees to become brand ambassadors, they need to love more about their jobs than just their paychecks. In one study, 18 per cent of employees said that corporate culture would increase their loyalty and engagement with a company.

“This is especially true of millennials. In 2016, a Fidelity study found that workers in that generation willing to take a pay cut of up to $7,600 for ‘an improved quality of worklife’.”

Develop authentic relationships with your people to build a high-trust culture. This beneficial in encouraging people to share idea and fosters authentic communication.

Find a way to link your people’s work to your overall mission and vision, and articulate this in a way that helps them understand how their contribution goes towards a higher purpose.

Get your people onside

Why should people participate in your employee advocacy program? Think about the type of things that would motivate and benefit them. For example, they can build their professional brand as a thought leader in their field and gain more recognition on social media.

Hootsuite recommends the following to win your people over:

• • Recognise their work. In a recent study, 72 per cent of businesses said that recognition for high performers had a significant impact on employee engagement. An “employee of the month” program or notice in a monthly newsletter sound old-fashioned, but can still be effective. So can setting aside time in team meetings to recognise certain employees. And certainly, few people are above accepting gift cards, bonuses, and even company swag.
  • Ask employees what kinds of incentives they would like to see. The more engaged employees are in the process, the more they will feel like they have a stake in the program.
  • Ask, don’t mandate.
  • Make advocacy a game. Create a leaderboard to show metrics on who’s getting the most impressions or engagement. Make a hashtag around a new development in the company. Then organise a draw among team members who create posts with that hashtag.
  • Make advocacy easy. Give them something interesting or fun to promote. This could be a new product announcement or a humorous video.
  • Recognise individual talents or accomplishments. Everyone is a micro-influencer in their own right. Perhaps someone is a renowned food blogger, or an expert on all things Apple.
  • Show enthusiasm. Remind your team about the program and give updates on new, shareable content. Enthusiasm is contagious, so play up your brand initiatives and goals.

Set KPIs

How will your people know they’re achieving success? Without an organised process, you won’t be able to track results to inform and tailor your strategy.

“The more you define your specific goals, the more your employees will be able to help. If your goal is to increase awareness, ask employees to post more about the brand. If it’s a new product, create shareable content about that product. If your target is [gaining your] share of voice, seek out and organise employees who use several platforms and/or post often.

“Other goals might include improving organic reach, increasing traffic from social media, and expanding your demographic. For each, look at how employee advocacy can help.”

Define social media guidelines

Employees need to understand both your message, and the best way to communicate it. This will ensure your brand messaging is consistent. (“You don’t want one employee adopting an irreverent tone, while others take a more formal approach.”)

Help them understand the best language to use, how often they should post and how they should respond to comments.

If you already have a social media policy, share it with your people. If you don’t, it may be a good idea to create one. Make your guidelines short and easy to follow!

Set up training and implementation guidance

Your people’s social media competency and following will differ, so ensure you clearly communicate best practices across all areas of the business and levels of seniority.

“Be consistent in offering new and shareable content. This helps employees also be consistent and create new social media sharing habits. Offer a mix, if possible, of fun, shareable content, and industry trends.”

Appoint advocacy leaders

Your leadership team should be leading the charge, however, you can outsource advocacy roles to your people. Some of their responsibilities may include communicating your program’s missions and goals, and creating incentives. These leaders should communicate their messages to a small group of people, who in turn pass the message on.

Proactive advocacy leaders will minimise people dropping off from the program after the initial excitement wears off.

Track results

Of course, with any brand initiative

Summarise your results to demonstrate ROI. Consider the following:

• Top contributors. Which individuals or teams are sharing the most? Which advocates are generating the most engagement?
• Organic reach. How many people are seeing the content shared through your employee advocates?
• Engagement. Are people clicking links, leaving comments and re-sharing content from your advocates? What is the engagement you’re getting per network?
• Traffic. How much traffic did the content shared by employee advocates drive to your website?

Take advantage of word of mouth as a recruitment marketing tool, and your people build their personal brand with great content. Design a robust program, offer training and guidelines,  and measure results. Employee advocates who share your mission, vision, and values are a powerful force to promote your organisation as a great place to work, attract future talent, and personalise your brand.  

Source

Employee Advocacy on Social Media: How to Make it Work for Your Business

Hootsuite

The post How to create an employee advocacy program appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

I’ve got great news for you.  Lurking underneath the surface of your organisation is one of the most powerful forces you can use to transform your culture and promote your brand. It’s a highly underrated and untapped resource that can jump-start your culture breakthrough from the inside out – a select group of culture heroes are ready to be activated.  I call them “Sneezers” because they are positively viral influencers that represent the very best of your culture.

Defining attributes of a Sneezer:

A Sneezer is someone who raises the game of everyone around them.  Sneezers typically operate at every level and in every department. On the outside, they are advocates for your brand and deliver the experience that fulfills your promise to the customer.  You wish you could have all your best customers interact with them directly. On the inside, they are champions for accountability, and respect. You likely see them acting as a catalyst for creative collaboration to solve problems and drive ideas forward.  

Identifying your Sneezers:

In my experience  leaders typically can answer the questions below with confidence in under 10 seconds.  These are easy no-brainer questions because every organisation has Sneezers. Again, just to be clear, Sneezers are positively viral. Their attitude and approach to work are emblematic of the very best of your culture.

The list of questions below are intended to surface the true Sneezers in your organisation:

1. Who are the people in this organisation who are indispensable examples of your culture at your very best?  
2. Who are the people that are “poster-child” worthy to represent your values?
3. Who are your absolute most valuable “go-to” team members that you can’t afford to lose because of HOW they work?
4. Who do you wish you could clone for every position because of their attitude and purpose-driven orientation?
5. Who is worthy of investing into for development as an incentive to stay with your organisation because of their leadership potential, and positive influence?

Isn’t it obvious who they are in your organisation?  I bet you had no problem picturing their faces. They stand out that much as being unique and special.  By the way, if people must think too long to answer the Sneezer ID questions, then they are lacking a true Sneezer.  Conduct this exercise as a type of Rohr shock test. It should be that simple and clear to you, and others on your leadership team.

Imagine what you could accomplish if everyone shared the character and work ethic of your Sneezers?

So, why wouldn’t that be possible?  I’m here to challenge you to make this happen.  You have an opportunity to transform your culture if you apply some discipline by following proven action-steps to get there.  

Activating your sneezers:

Sustainable culture change always happens from the inside out.  A strong top-down leadership commitment is essential, but not enough on its own.  You must build support from within that influences at all levels. Sneezers have a circle of influence that can be expanded to impact a critical mass of people that will also reflect and “own” the best aspects of your culture.  Here’s your guide on a strategy to reach your culture change tipping-point faster, and with a method that sticks.

PHASE 1: Identification and charter

1. Gather your senior team together for your organisation, (or as a department if that is your highest level of influence) for a meeting to launch the Sneezer initiative.  
2. Clarify your goals for your culture with the senior team (Set the stage for context and perspective).  Cover these items:

• • What’s at stake that is dependent upon your culture to initiate and execute from your strategic plan?  What key initiatives might live or die depending on the way people work together to execute?
  • What are the measurements in place that reveal the “health” of your culture?  Include retention data, engagement scores, and ability to recruit top-talent. What do you want them to be?  Create a gap analysis.
  • What is the current challenge in recruiting top-talent?  What’s at stake if you can’t get the right people onboard?  
  • What is your current challenge with retention?  Share what you know about why people might be leaving the organisation from exit interview data.  What are the ramifications?

1. Identify the Sneezers with senior team input and buy-in
   1. Define the purpose in creating a special team that can address the issues above in item #2.  Although not the panacea, the Sneezer team has the capacity to have an enormous impact.
   2. Define the attributes and characteristics of a Sneezer (Share the list of questions above to frame their answers.)
   3. Ask each person to “nominate” their best choices for Sneezers

NOTE:  Discuss nominations as necessary to confirm around the table.  The stories or rationale for selecting people is inspiring and a highly positive experience.  Remember, you are identifying the “best of” your culture. This process will help galvanize your team on what culture success looks like in action.  

1. Clarify the future role of the Sneezer team with a written scope document that lists intended actions and outcomes (Depending on how in depth you want to go with the Sneezer team.)  The charter you create will avoid future scope-creep, and also make the effort feel more official for the Sneezer participants.

NOTE:  For the first year, I would recommend a limited scope to build small win style momentum and to gain a feel for dynamics of the Sneezers when they get together.  You can then make adjustments accordingly to be as aggressive as you wish with bold and audacious goals.

PHASE 2:  Change agent activation

Culture change is about elevating shared expectations.  Activate your Sneezers as a powerful team to drive culture change from the inside out.

1. Invite your Sneezers to attend a kick-off meeting.  
2. In the meeting, explain to them the criteria for which they were chosen.  Be certain to provide a congratulatory tone on being nominated. This is a big deal, and they should receive appreciation for representing themselves and the organisation in the positive way that was worthy of being nominated.  

NOTE:  You don’t need to call the group “Sneezers” if it’s not appropriate within your culture.  The term is more of an internal expression and I tend to use it only at the outset of the program with the senior team to make the point about them being “positively viral”.  Other terms for the team could be “Culture Team, Culture Catalysts, Difference-Makers, Culture Crew”, etc. Again, use what feels right within your culture. Or, you can ask the team to come up with their own name.  This is a great first assignment to gain their buy-in and break the ice

1. Consider having the CEO or CHRO kick-off the meeting to share a culture state-of-the-union.  It’s also vital to make the connection on why the culture is a competitive advantage, and a vision for the future expectation for what the culture will look-like.  
2. Explore with the team the creative opportunities to influence culture at your most vital touch-points where culture is won or lost.  Make this a lively brainstorming discussion.
3. Discuss the future talent plan and your goals for hiring people.  Cover the impact and importance of hiring people that will enhance the culture (in the same way the Sneezers enhance the culture).  
4. Ask them what they need from you (in terms of support and development) to be effective and successful.  Record their ideas and commit to getting back to them with answers on next steps.

NOTE:  Give them the opportunity to decline participation in the group (highly unlikely).  You want them to understand their special role is completely voluntary. Being a Sneezer is an honour, not a burden.

Ways to leverage the Sneezer team:

Recruiters extraordinaire:  If you only use your Sneezers for this role, it will all still be well worth the effort.  Here’s what you say to them, “We want new hires that approach work with your type of attitude.  In other words, if we could replicate you and your attitude and values, we’d gain a huge advantage in the way we work together.”  Ask them who they know that is similar in attitude and values they would be proud to bring in for an interview. Remember, it’s not just about style or skill set… it’s about mindset.  You want to replicate their mindset. Ask them to set a SMART goal pertaining to the number of potential referrals that can make within a specific time frame. No pressure though! Make it totally positive and comfortable for them to take on.  Remember, this assignment is a high honour.

NOTE:  I would not offer a reward of compensation for referrals.  Research shows that it is not only a disincentive for some people, it also will take integrity away from the premise of leveraging your Sneezers and the positive intent they naturally bring to the table.  They will recruit people for the right reasons and not need an extrinsic element to get in the way.

Culture recon:  Another way to think of the sneezers is as a culture reconnaissance team.  They can be your eyes and ears that unlock the mystery of what’s really happening within the culture.  Here’s a stern warning. Ensure you do NOT put them in a position to be snitches or narcs. If that happens, then all your good intentions will go down the drain, and put them in a vulnerable position where others see them as the secret police.  All trust will be lost. It is vital that you keep any information they share with professionalism and in great confidence. Plus, do not solicit them for the dirt on individuals or leaders within the organisation.

Change agents: Again, the Sneezers can be your eyes and ears as to how the esprit de corps of your culture is playing out.  For example, if you’ve just enacted a huge change initiative in the organisation, then ask the Sneezers how people are feeling about it, and what could be done to clarify, and encourage buy-in. Ask them how the message is getting through (or not).  They also can have direct influence in the communication process if you request them to help get the message out through their role.

Engagement pulse:  Instead of spending thousands of dollars to roll-out the same old engagement survey, tap the Sneezers to evaluate the state of your culture.  They will surface realtime specific data in a street language form that if often far more useful than the gobbledy-gook consultant-speak analysis.     

If you still want to do an engagement survey, then great!  Here’s an idea to gauge how accurate it is. Before you administer the survey, gather the Sneezers to answer the questions (from the perspective of their respective division).  Then, when you get the broader results, you can compare to the Sneezer prediction, and likely feel confident they are fully aware and accurate as pulse-takers of culture engagement.    

Engagement catalysts:  After the survey results are in, tap into the Sneezers for ideas on how to improve results in engagement.  You can do this by gathering the team for a brainstorming session to focus on specific issues from the survey, and by asking them to take the lead within their departments to facilitate action planning .  Realise they have a deep understanding for what is happening underneath the surface of the culture, including a sense for whether people in general are a flight-risk to leave the company. You can be proactive to improve retention by getting ahead of issues that cause people to start looking elsewhere.  

Key Takeaways:

• Sneezers represent the very best of your culture.
• Identify the Sneezers in your organisation and invite them to take part.
• Train Sneezers for their special role of influencing others within the culture.
• Leverage Sneezers as your recruiters, your culture think-tank, and implementers at the ground level.
• The Sneezer program gives them a unique, special, and honoured role that adds to their learning and development, and increases their likelihood of staying with your company.

Steve Van Valin is CEO of Culturology. He is a culture-shaping strategist and innovation expert. Steve works with leaders who believe a healthy engaged culture is their key to unlocking a competitive advantage. Steve played a key role in shaping multi-media shopping leader QVC’s collaborative culture, creating a remarkable customer experience and brand. QVC grew to over $10 billion in annual revenue with that philosophy. Steve has over 25 years of experience developing winning culture and innovation strategy with clients including SAP, Boeing, NASA, Lincoln Financial Group, and The Philadelphia Phillies.

www.culturologyusa.com

The post Activate a positively viral force of brand ambassadors appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

This brings me back to my original question of: are your interviewers your best brand ambassadors? Are they the champions of your organisation who are always sharing organisation’s wins and successes on their personal social media platforms? Are they sharing posts from your company Facebook and/or LinkedIn pages as they are proud to have their personal brand associated with your organisation brand? I really hope, at the very least, that their LinkedIn profiles are up to date with their current designation!

In this scarce-skilled market, where you are probably meeting more passive candidates, the interview almost always needs to turn into a sales pitch! Let me explain this statement. By scarce-skilled I refer to the war for talent as everyone is looking for the same hard-to-find skills these days. As the demand increases, these candidates realise that their value in the market is much greater than it was previously. These candidates do not even need to put their CVs on traditional job boards as they are bombarded by recruiters daily on LinkedIn. If the recruiter is good at their job and knows how to apply a few gentle strokes of their target’s egos, they can usually persuade the candidate to attend an interview.

The interviewers need to be briefed accordingly before they meet the candidates. They need to approach the interview differently if the candidate has been headhunted for the role, or if they have applied directly to the company as they want to work there. In the latter, half of the battle has been won as the candidate has already decided that they want to work for them. In the former, the interviewers need to decide quickly if they like the candidate or not. If they do, they need to start selling the merits of working for your organisation and how this will be a career move that the candidate won’t regret.

Herein lies the reason why you need your best brand ambassadors in this first interview. I firmly believe that the people who are passionate about, and most loyal to the company, will sell your organisation most effectively. I also feel that you need to have someone who is directly linked to the role that you are recruiting for in the interview. This person can honestly explain the challenges, and highlights, of the role. During an interview, your candidates are looking for genuine human connections with people who are “in the trenches” and understand your organisation. They are not looking for Utopia, but a real and trustworthy account of your organisation.

Luckily, your best brand ambassadors should be really easy to identify. These are the employees who shout the successes of your organisation from the rooftops! They are the employees who attend every social event, fundraising drive, company picnic etc. They are always willing to go above and beyond what is required of them. They are the people who put their hands up to volunteer for extra responsibility, often at the expense of their personal time.

Once you have identified these people, you need to make sure that they are competent interviewers. There are several courses and YouTube videos available which can help to improve people’s interviewing skills. These are also the people that you need to work with to raise their online profiles. At this point a lot of people would argue that if they raise these people’s online profiles, they will be headhunted out of the organisation themselves. I assure you that this will not happen if you are looking after your employees and providing them with everything that they need on their career journey.

I also feel that your interview team would benefit from quarterly meetings to discuss any challenges they have encountered during their interviews. They could also look at what has worked really well in interviews and what “hooks” have worked in encouraging candidates to join the team.

As an in-house recruiter, I always encourage my candidates to have a look at the people they are meeting with for the next interview stage’s LinkedIn profiles. Most of them give me the impression that they would have done this anyway, which is a good sign. I then also encourage them not to mention too much about the interviewer’s profiles during the interview for fear of coming across as a weird stalker type! I actually have more success in encouraging candidates to view the interviewer’s LinkedIn profiles than I do with getting the interviewers to keep their online profiles up to date!

In conclusion, you can clearly see that your best brand ambassadors are the people that you want to have in your interview process. They will naturally sell your organisation and instil confidence in your candidates that your company is the place for them to be in order to be successful and happy in their jobs.

Vanessa Raath is determined to bring the “human element” back into today’s recruitment process. With more than 10 years’ experience in the recruitment industry, she is currently in an in-house recruiting role which allows her to focus on her passions for employer branding, tech sourcing and social media marketing. She loves presenting about these topics and sharing her knowledge and experience with others. She co-hosts South Africa’s longest running Twitter chat, #JobAdviceSA, helping youths construct CVs, improve their interview skills and find jobs. Connect with her on Twitter and Instagram, @Van_Raath

The post Are your interviewers your best brand ambassadors? appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.