If it’s been said once, it’s been said a million times: there is no better resource to build your employer brand and show candidates what life is like in your company than the talent you currently have working for you.
A few of the ways you can leverage this goldmine of a resource:
- Getting your talent on camera, talking about life inside the company
- Sitting your talent down for a Q&A and writing that up into blog post format
- Spamming your social channels with pictures of your talent doing their jobs and enjoying the culture aspects of your company
But one major way you can leverage your current employees when building up your employer brand that many companies overlook or ignore (even those who are hitting the major points above) is by having employer brand ambassadors.
What is any employer brand ambassador?
The idea is simple, but let’s take to the ever-faithful Wikipedia for an official definition:
“Predominantly, a brand ambassador is known as a positive spokesperson, an opinion leader or a community influencer, appointed as an internal or external agent to boost product or service sales and create brand awareness.”
Of course, this explanation covers the blanket term of “brand ambassador”, but as with any marketing term, it’s very easily translatable into the recruitment marketing world. Community influencer = your employees, internal or external agent = just internal, boost product or service sales = boost candidate pipeline.
Essentially, these are employees of yours who take it upon themselves to spread the word of your employer brand, giving that special insider, personal touch. Candidates can engage with your employer brand, as well as real individuals in the company who are sharing what it’s like to work there. Having an individual speak to your employer brand gives an extra level of credibility that you cannot obtain any other way.
So how can you build up an employer brand ambassadorship at your company?
For employer brand ambassadorships to work, you have to have a formal program—otherwise, it’s just not going to get done. Here are the things you need:
–Identifying your top employees who can spread the culture of your company. These are going to be the employees who eat, breathe, live your company culture. If they’re the right type of employee, they’ll leap at this opportunity to spread some extra love for the organization. But they’ve got to have the time and the dedication to do it. Be upfront with them about how much of their time it will take up and be candid about the expectations.
–A point person who can make sure things are getting shared and your ambassadors are doing what they’re supposed to. This isn’t a full-time role, so don’t go writing up the job description just yet. Rather, this is probably the person who is already doing your employer brand, whether that be an internal person or an external team. When they share great content on your company careers-focused outlets, they let your ambassadors know. They make sure the ambassadors are aware of all the things happening around the office and help them with any questions they have.
–Tools that can help your ambassadors. Whether this is a content aggregator, a social scheduling tool, a shared folder for pictures to be placed into, or all three and more, you have to have some tools that will help your ambassadors do their job. Make it as easy as possible for them—after all, in the end what they’re doing is helping you.
–A formalized document/packet/set of guidelines. Not only is everything listed above placed into this resource so all your ambassadors have one centralized place to go to for information on the program they’re a part of, it allows you a place to put the dos and don’ts of being an ambassador—i.e. DO share great content from our careers site, DON’T post complaints you hear from your coworker.
The more formalized you make your program, the more successful it will be. Remember, help your employees so they’ll help you. This is an amazing untapped resource, and it’s one that will truly make your employer brand stand out from the rest.