Why You Should Be Using Employee Brand Ambassadors

How to Turn Employees Into Brand Ambassadors

Your employees' experiences are a reflection of your company's brand as an employer. When you treat your employees well, they give back through positive reviews and outstanding performance. 

Employee ambassadorship can be a great recruitment strategy to get job seekers excited about your company. Your staff members can share the great experiences they have with you through the most prolific form of media information - social media platforms. 

Tips to Empower Every Employee as a Brand Ambassador

You can't just ask your employees to become ambassadors - the workplace needs to have an encouraging atmosphere. It would be best if you built your brand to be trustworthy with the well-being of your workers. Here are tips to encourage employees to become brand ambassadors for your company:

1. Know Your Employees

As an employer, you need to make connections with your workers. You can ask about them from time to time and know how your employees are doing. Set aside time to conduct interviews with your staff. 

For example, you can create a scheduled interview to get to know your employees. You can schedule an afternoon tea or coffee time just to have small talk with your staff members. Ask about their life in the company, hobbies, or anything, really. 

When you establish genuine connections with your employees, they can share how your company leaders are not out of reach and are approachable. You can expect lots of job applicants who want a boss and a friend with the leaders in your company.

2. Lead a Good Example

As a leader, you need to set an example for your employees. With the mission and vision of your company, you need to employ these in everything you do. Thus, your workers would think that you're true to your words and principles.

For example, your company's vision is to have excellent service in the food business industry. Become a model to your employees by showing your achievements to them as you become successful in your field. You can become the inspiration for your workers to do a good job.

When workers set an excellent standard in working, you know they can become great employee brand ambassadors. Your company's participation in creating the best employees can get lots of aspiring job seekers who want to become the best they can be.

3. Create Employee Events

Lots of workers get tired with the hours of work, so try to think of ways for your employees to have fun. With this in mind, you can avoid rants and frustrations that your employees would share. You can help them balance their work and having fun at the same time.

Employees should also have recreational activities beyond working hours. You need to make sure that they aren’t being drained by their workload. You can create simple events such as tournaments, team-building activities, and parties.

4. Give Gifts

Give simple tokens on the excellent job your employee does, thus encouraging them to continue doing their best in the workplace since they know how you appreciate their efforts. You don't have to give extravagant gifts, and it's the thought that you are grateful for what your employee has done for you that matters the most.

When employees feel appreciated, they will share with other people the happiness they experience when their efforts are recognized. Unconsciously, your employees become ambassadors as they talk about their accomplishments in the workplace together with the reward they receive.

5. Don't Force Your Employees

A good employer doesn't force uncomfortable situations on their employees. If you want employees to share their experiences, don't force them to do so. You can approach them nicely and continue to treat them respectfully and professionally. Doing so will encourage them to be more involved with the company, and good reviews from your employees will come naturally.

You don't have to give formats or templates on what they should be telling about your company. Trust your workers with the excellent workplace environment you've given them. 

6. Allow Employee to Have a Platform

When there are meetings, you can ask for representatives from your employee brand ambassadors. Give them a chance to speak and share their knowledge. Make your workers a part of your plans for the company. You can also gain insights into what your employees share.

With the opportunities you give your employees, it would be good for more job seekers to see that they can grow in the company with your help. 

7. Listen to Your Employees

Effective communication is a two-way process. You don't always have to talk. Listen to the people around you, no matter what corporate level they are, because all of them are working towards the same goal - the company's success. It's essential to give your employees a nurturing work environment where they can express concerns and suggestions. 

One good example is to hand out survey forms to your staff members. When you create a survey, you'll be able to know what are the good and bad things in the workplace. You can ask for suggestions from your employees to help you improve on the bad points.

When you make efforts to create a great workplace, employees will feel important and will have the best experience with your company. Thus, when you ask them to be your brand ambassadors, it won't be hard for them to share their stories with many people.

8. Deal With Problems Professionally

Problems in the workplace are inevitable. However, you need to manage them well and avoid mishandling any situations. You need to be professional and don't take any sides, instead know the cause of disputes, and think of ways to resolve them.

Suppose two of your employees fought about a product launch. Then, you came to know about the situation. It would help if you interviewed both of your workers, instead of favoring one. You can also ask other employees' opinions to help you resolve the problem without any hard feelings from the two workers.

When you can deal with the problems well, you can avoid any bad comments, especially on social media. You can create solutions within the company without involving the public interest. Doing so will let you avoid issues that can discourage job aspirants from applying to your company.

9. Build Your Company's Social Media Presence

Now that social media has become one of the most important platforms for businesses, you can use it to share fun information about your company. You can create a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter page to share pictures of daily events in the company.

For example, make a company Instagram account. Ask employees to share photos with their colleagues, and you can also post pictures together with the workers. The posts can be seen by job applicants who would like to be a part of the company.

Also, if you've asked a staff member to be an employee brand ambassador, you can ask them to post products, services, and experiences in the company. The employee can use hashtags that applicants and customers can search.

10. Show That You Value Your Employees 

Simple praise and saying thank you will make your employees feel valued. You can’t just ignore your employees; instead, you need to show your workers that you care about them and make them feel that the company would not succeed without their efforts and help.

Let's say one of your employees continuously turns in their work on time. You can say thank you and commend the worker, as opposed to ignoring the employee and just getting the files. The worker will feel happy when you offer validation even with the simplest effort they do and will be encouraged to continue to do a good job.

With the simplest things, your employee can post short phrases about their day in the company through Twitter or Facebook. Like, "Had a great day at work, my boss commended me! #AXBXCXcompany." The posts can be a great way to promote your company's leaders as good leaders. When job seekers look up the company's name on the internet, the post can be seen immediately.

11. Offer Sample Products and Services

Your employees can be your first customer. Give them free samples of your products and services to have their insights and reviews. You can get the good and bad points of the product and service. Thus, you can make further improvements to make an excellent output.

Your employees can also share on their platforms how great the products are by sharing photos and captions that other people can also read. When customers see the benefits of the promoted products, they can be sure that what they'll be buying is worth the money. You can attract applicants who want to be part of a company with the best products and services.

Gather Great Talent Through Employee Brand Ambassadors

Using employees as brand ambassadors is a phenomenal recruitment method. It doesn't just boost good employer-employee relationships; it also fosters an excellent public reputation. With your workers' real-life experiences with your company, many aspiring job seekers will know that they are in good hands when they enter your company. 

As mentioned before, providing frequent feedback and praise is one of the best ways to foster a great relationship with your employees - consider using Lanteria HR’s Employee Performance Check-In feature. This, and other features, enable you to build an encouraging workplace environment, which will help turn employees into brand ambassadors. Contact us today for more information!