How much time and effort do businesses put into ensuring their employees sing its brand’s praises? Here’s 5 reasons you should care about employee advocacy.
A brand advocate is typically described as “a customer who has been officially commissioned to speak on behalf of your brand without compensation”. It doesn’t have to be a customer however, and can just as easily be any one of a brand’s employees. Happy and engaged employees provide free advertising, reduce recruitment costs and improve your employer brand, for free, as well as offering many other benefits.
1) Advocates provide free marketing
Every employee is a potential brand advocate and marketing channel. If they share a positive message through social media regarding the brand, then their connections will read and trust their opinion.
It’s very difficult for brands to earn this level of trust with their direct followers and many of them spend millions paying media and PR agencies to run campaigns to try and gain this level of engagement.
Employees that are truly engaged with the business will naturally talk about their the services, products and daily life on social platforms, reinforcing trust through transparency and openness.
2) Advocates stay and become experts
Happy, engaged employees not only offer advocacy, they’re also less likely to seek employment elsewhere.
Retaining the talent that brands have invested time and money in recruiting, will strengthen the expertise retained within the business as well as improving professional relationships between employees.
Experienced staff will strengthen any mentor program that a business conducts and make sure that knowledge is cascaded to new employees.
3) Advocates won’t be as likely to look elsewhere
Advocate employees, happy in their roles and believers in the company message and culture, are less likely to leave, reducing the need to hire replacements.
With the cost to replace a staff member being reported as exceeding £30k, every employee that doesn’t leave saves a considerable amount for the business.
4) Advocates are more productive
Engaged and happy employees are not just less likely to leave a brand in search of employment elsewhere, other productivity related benefits include:
- 31% higher productivity
- 40% more likely to receive a promotion (people like happy people!)
- Less absent, with 23% fewer fatigue symptoms
- Up to 10% more engaged at work
Source – Why happiness at work is important
5) Advocates will increase profits
With all this increased productivity, reduced recruitment and absence costs, and free marketing/advertising, isn’t it time to start seriously investing in your employees to ensure that they’re engaged and happy?