14% of companies use ambassadorship to promote their employer brand. This approach is appreciated by candidates, who trust the word of employees more than management. But ambassadorship only works if it's voluntary and part of a 'win-win' strategy. Let's dive in.

Forced ambassadorship? Beware of the backlash

Promoting the advantages of a company in their own name is a decision that commits people. When boasting, for example, about the flexible working conditions or the organisations’ CSR commitments, employees expose themselves publicly. But if the company has tasked them to take on this role of ambassador without “genuinely” having their own say in the matter, it won’t have much chance of exuding authenticity and fluidity. In this case, how can we give them credit?

By placing people in an uncomfortable position, their messages will go unnoticed. Worse still, their words could be called into question by the simple fact that the talent will sense that they are uncomfortable. What was meant to be a technique to develop the company brand notoriety and attract the best profiles turns into an unfortunate bad buzz for the company! Its sincerity could be challenged, which will in the long run affect the organisation’s reputation and employer brand.

Voluntary and win-win: two conditions for a successful ambassadorship

To serve the employer brand, the ambassador programme must be built on a volunteer basis. Only employees who want to speak in public and share some information about their daily life and their company can become ambassadors.

Those in charge of the programme – generally HR decision-makers – are invited to inform interested parties about what being an ambassador involves, the limitations of this role and what is at stake. Some topics, such as managing emotions when faced with trolls, provocations or unwanted solicitations, as well as sharing sensitive information should be tackled from the outset (as part of the integration and training programme) so that the volunteers are fully informed before making the commitment.

As this is a time-consuming commitment, a company is advised to set up a “give and take” system. In order to recognise and encourage their participation, rewards can be offered, such as exceptional bonus payments for the best ambassadors or gifts.  When it comes to rewards, volunteer employees should see the role of brand ambassador as an opportunity to boost their visibility on the job market.

Becoming an ambassador is a means of personal expression that boosts the employee’s profile

Should you write your ambassadors’ LinkedIn posts so that all they have to do is press “Post”? For Caroline Mignaux, marketing expert and LinkedIn Top Voice, who recently expressed herself on this topic in a LinkedIn post, it is preferable to avoid this practice as it can give the impression that it is orchestrated and soulless. On the contrary, authenticity should be promoted by encouraging the employee ambassadors to share their points of view, their ideas and their experience. Because each one has their own unique voice, what they say on social media must stand out in its form, as well as its content, so invite them to suggest ideas for content.

And when you look at those who apply this method, the results are plain to see. Camille Goni, Head of Talent at the start-up Shine, has more than 34k subscribers to her LinkedIn account after 4 years of sharing content to the network. Every time she goes public, the careers page of the company sees a boom in visits. For the ambassadors, it is a good way to be more visible, to develop their personal branding and their desirability on the job market.

Posting on social media is a learning process (it is up to the company to train its ambassadors)

Another advantage for the employees is that by joining the employee advocacy programme to promote the company image, they develop their oral and written communication skills on social media. While it is usual to select employees that have a taste for and are comfortable expressing themselves on and using social media, some good ambassadorial practices should be instilled in them.

For example, the company Décathlon trains its network of ambassadors internally on how to use LinkedIn. Similarly, after refreshing its EVP (employee value proposition), Mars France wanted to strengthen its Associate Advocacy and Leader Advocacy programme by implementing training on LinkedIn to promote Associate public posts. The HR department that leads a community of ambassadors in charge of answering questions from candidates on the website also has the ambition to grow and to support ambassadors to increase their interactions on social media.

Note: the bigger the community of ambassadors, the more important it is to have an employee advocacy tool to oversee the programme. This is a tool that can centralise marketing content (graphics, posts, videos, white papers, etc.), to more easily monitor the results of the strategy and optimise the distribution of all digital content.

No volunteers to become ambassadors? It could be time to question your practices!

The prerequisite for becoming an employer brand ambassador is to share the company values and be in alignment with the company purpose and culture. Without this, the results on attractiveness will be negative. If there are few employees willing to join the programme, question your HR practices and your employee experience.

An in-depth audit of your HR metrics (workplace satisfaction, eNPS, turnover, etc.) and a campaign of managerial interviews should allow you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the employee experience and the managerial culture. As an example, if your employees ask to switch to working from home and more flexibility to have a better work/life balance, but their requests are not heeded or not followed by actions, the employer brand image will be negative and the company will attract few new candidates. It is therefore important to correct this by implementing actions that meet their expectations before envisaging the deployment of an employee advocacy programme.

To sum up, ambassadorship is an opportunity for the company to boost its visibility and its e-reputation.

Employee commitment to company values, purpose and culture is essential before embarking down this path. Training the employer brand ambassadors prepares them to take on this role and personal commitment as an influencer.

For more on this, read our article to discover how to set up an employee advocacy programme and thereby attract qualified profiles!