ten essential steps to great employer brand ambassadors- papirfly
TRANSCRIPT
Employer Brand Ambassadors; a highly motivated team
of individuals who love working for your organisation and who
aren’t afraid to take pride in telling others about how fantastic their
job is. Each and every one with a story to tell, a journey they share
with the outside world. Fledgling careers and senior executives
sharing a laugh and a coffee. They’re happy, high performing and
more than anything else, fiercely loyal to your Brand.
If that’s your organisation you can probably stop reading here, if
it’s where you’d like to be we’ve compiled a list of 10 key steps to
creating a willing band of Brand Ambassadors that will extoll the
virtues of your organisation and form the bedrock of your
Employer Brand.
Is your organisation congruent with its stated values? If not,
do your values have to change to meet the company culture
or does behaviour have to change to meet the values. In truth
somewhere in between is probably true. Be bold, don’t settle
for a list of trite corporate values, and embrace the power
that authentic organisational values can deliver.
There is a gap, there’s always a gap. Start by bridging the
gap between the culture you want and the one you have. Be
driven by pragmatism while keeping the ultimate goal in
mind, a culture that attracts the top talent. As company
culture morphs into a new shape, you will lose some people,
that’s fine, so long as the people who replace them fit the
new culture.
It’s not enough to just define your EVPs, your workforce must
understand how they relate to their position and the tangible
outcomes of the EVPs. For example; if a stated EVP is
training and development, what does that actually mean?
How many hours? What will it look like? How do they access
it? Be specific so your people can recognise the EVP and how
it benefits them.
Apart from the necessary board level buy-in to your
Employer brand strategy your people will be looking to your
leaders to lead, and in this case it means leading by
example. The sought behaviours and culture must cascade
down the organisation as well as at grass roots level.
Nothing shatters the confidence and loyalty of an employee
than inconsistent management, the company are saying one
thing and the experience of the individual is something
completely different. It saps morale and create cynicism.
This is often down to manager interpreting guidelines in
order to get the results that are required of them. The keys
here are transparency and consistency, selecting the right
people into managerial roles is important, but supporting
them and training them to manage the working environment
within cultural thresholds is critical.
If you have the previous 5 steps sorted, it shouldn’t be too
difficult to find authentic employees willing to step up and
proudly represent your company. It will be tempting to cherry
pick the best and brightest employees, but before you do,
think about what messages you are trying to project. Tie the
selection of the ambassadors into your future talent
requirements, consider location, diversity and skill sets.
It’s a banal statement, but people like people like
themselves, use the knowledge wisely.
We’ve previously discussed the importance of narrative in
your Employer Brand, using the stories and voices of your
Employer brand Ambassadors adds a level of authenticity to
your brand as a whole. Real stories from real people are far
more compelling than anything your agency can create.
Yes, you have an ideal candidate, but in truth that person
doesn’t exist, so use a real role model.
Confidence in your Employer brand is only as strong as your
brand compliance, and delivering this globally is important.
You have gone too all the effort of aligning culture, developing
EVPs and selecting Employer Brand Ambassadors, the least
you can do is ensure they are backed up by a consistently and
accurately applied Employer Brand. Don’t let chinks appear in
your armour that can easily be avoided.
Pick your metrics and measure your ROI, ensure the metric
matches your organisational goals. The ambassador
program might be difficult to measure in isolation therefore
should be measured as part of your overall Employer Brand
strategy.
If you get this perfect first time that’s wonderful, but it’s
still a moving feast, so you’ll need to go back and start
again. If you find gaps in the program, learn them and
take the gaps back to step 1 and start afresh with the
new knowledge leading the new program.
Nothing projects your Employer brand better than glowing
referrals and recommendations from inside your company
and an authentic culture, strong employer brand and real
Employer brand ambassadors will achieve this. It doesn’t
have to be perfect first time but it should be near the top of
your to-do list.
Round-up
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