How to Successfully Roll Out an Employee Advocacy Program

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How to Successfully Roll Out an Employee Advocacy Program

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__ Contents

Introduction 3

Find Your Advocates 4

Launch 6

Grow 9

Effective Rollout 12

Success Story 13

About Us 15

How to Successfully Roll Out an Employee Advocacy Program

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__ Introduction

Organizations are quickly recognizing the value that employee advocacy offers.

In just the past year, maturity of employee advocacy programs more than doubled from

18% in 2015 to 45% today. It’s clear that enterprises have identified the critical need for

solutions that modernize the way they communicate with employees.

Employee advocacy tools not only allow employees to share company content on social

media, these tools improve the flow of communication within the organization. They offer

an experience that’s mobile, social, and visual - which is how your workforce is

accustomed to communicating outside of work.

With employee advocacy tools, information and content that your workforce wants is

available on their smartphone, tablet, or desktop in rich, engaging formats. And you now

have the insight as to who’s seen the content, who has shared it with their networks, and

which content types perform best.

It’s a complete transformation of how large companies communicate with their

workforce - and it works.

If you’re one of the organizations who has decided to go ahead with an employee

advocacy program (or even if you’re considering implementing a program like this), this

guide will walk you through the necessary steps to getting your program off to a strong

start and ensuring that you achieve sustainable growth.

Let’s get started!

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01 Find Your Advocates

You can likely think of a handful of employees who are already visibly

proactive and engaged. These are the folks that attend every company event,

volunteer their time to lead company initiatives, or regularly share news about

the organization on social media.

A sizeable segment of employees - 21% - are taking

positive actions on behalf of their employer and nearly

no negative actions. For a workforce of 5,000, this

means that approximately 1,000 employees are

enthusiastically letting others know they stand behind

their employer. - Weber Shandwick & KRC Research

Naturally, these are the employees who we can assume would be the first

ones interested in joining an employee advocacy program.

But there are others in your organization who have high potential to be this

engaged and may need a bit more nurturing. The same report found that an

additional 26% of employees have a high engagement level, but may not be as

active online. This could mean that they are enthusiastic about where they

work, they are highly engaged in face-to-face conversations or company

events, but they may not share anything about work on social media. These

employees are likely interested in joining the program, but will need additional

support and resources for online best practices.

Online external engagement is central to employee advocacy, and we

recommend taking the time to understand employees’ concerns around social

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media, and providing them with the training and guidance they need to feel

comfortable sharing.

The best approach is to cast a wide net to ensure that you capture anyone

who’s interested.

Once you’ve gauged who’s interested, you’ll want to invite them to your

program’s kick-off or launch. The launch is an opportunity for your employees

to learn more about employee advocacy and what it means for them. Here

are some things to consider when inviting employees to your program launch:

• What channel would be the best way to get their attention?

o Email

o Intranet

o Internal Social Network

o Townhalls or company event

o Team Huddles (lead by managers)

• Who’s the best person to introduce this exciting new program?

o C-level

o Team leads

o Hand selected peers

• Do you need to check in with anyone before you invite employees?

o Set up some time with HR, maybe legal

o Supporting roles who know the ins and outs of that group

o Translation teams if launching in multiple languages

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02 Launch

How your program is positioned during the launch is critical to high adoption

and early success. An interactive and informative launch helps employees

understand what the program is meant to accomplish, and how it’s going to

help them.

The style of launch event you’ll have depends on how your workforce is

distributed.

If you have a large group of employees in centralized offices who you’re

onboarding, then it makes sense to have what we’ve named a “Champagne-

style” launch.

Champagne launches are interactive and engaging events hosted at every

office where employees will be joining the program. The event’s focus is to

educate your team on the overarching value and strategy around social media.

TIPS FOR ORGANIZING A CHAMPAGNE STYLE LAUNCH:

• Set up different stations with different themes.

Here are some examples:

o What’s the value of social media?

o What is Social Selling?

o How does social media help recruiting?

o How do employee advocacy platforms work?

o Get to know our company’s social media policy.

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• Offer live demos of the platform for your employees.

o If possible, have your Customer Success Manager from the

platform join this session to answer questions around best

practices.

• Host social media workshops, such as:

o How to build an effective LinkedIn profile

o Key differences between social networks

o Set up a photo booth that lets employees take new headshots

for their LinkedIn profile.

• Create a one-page handout with basic details of your employee

advocacy platform and how to access it so the team can bring it back

to their desk with them.

If your employees are distributed in different locations (like branches, stores,

or even employees who work from home), then it makes more sense to host

a remote launch. Mobile-first launches are ideal for teams who are regularly

out of the office, such as frontline staff at retail locations, or sales reps who

are on the road.

TIPS FOR ORGANIZING A REMOTE LAUNCH

• Know your audience. Launching to a remote workforce in different

geographic areas is no easy feat.

o If a technology was launched in the past few years to this

remote group, then learn what worked from those program

admins so that you can onboard efficiently.

• Make use of existing communication methods that these employees

prefer.

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o For example: team huddles, intranet landing pages, weekly

status reports. Use these tried-and-true mediums to start

introducing the program.

• Keep it short and sweet.

o This group won’t have a lot of time, so we recommend a 2-3

minute video that articulates the value, and shows a quick

demonstration of how the app works.

o Follow up via email with more detail on the program.

• Make the app easily available.

o If your organization uses its own Enterprise App Store (EAS),

then make sure your employee advocacy app is available for

download. This will ensure that remote workers can access

the app on their preferred device.

• Host an online Lunch & Learn with the program manager and platform

Customer Success rep.

o End the training call with actionable next steps: sign up,

browse content, connect your networks, and share your first

post.

Be sure that you keep in training guides or materials on hand for

future use. As your program grows, you’ll have more users onboarding

who need social media training. Any presentations or documents will

come in handy!

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03 Grow

In order for your program to have lasting success, it needs to become part of

your employees’ everyday workflow. The launch event is important to get your

team on board, but it’s equally important to constantly measure success and

iterate where needed.

It’s a balance between quick wins (i.e., high initial adoption rate) and

enterprise-wide adoption (acquiring more users, habitual sharing.) Here’s what

we recommend to help ensure that your program gets off to a strong start

and grows at a sustainable rate:

SET PROGRAM GOALS

• Identify your impactful first project.

o What will be your first quick win?

o Is it high profile enough that those not involved with the

program can understand its significance?

• Understand your program’s maturity model.

• Cross-functional alignment.

o Are there any other departments you can engage with so that

you can gain a more diverse perspective? Strong programs

have had a program office that includes: corporate

communications, innovation teams, HR and legal.

o Not everyone needs to be involved every step of the way, but

it’s great to get feedback from various stakeholders early on.

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LEAD CHANGE MANAGEMENT

• Will this program require new roles?

o If so, what will these roles look like? Do you need to hire?

• How will this program impact current workflows? What is the most

efficient way to integrate program management into day-to-day

activities?

• How will those who belong to the program management team keep

each other accountable?

• How will you measure success?

PLAN FOR GROWTH

• How will you leverage your first success?

o Don’t be shy about early wins. Sharing your first success

stories will help those lagging adopters to join, and can get

you a spotlight at the next executive meeting.

• Prepare for multiple roll-outs.

o This is when it makes sense to start thinking about multi-

language support. Work with your translation team for

onboarding materials and make sure your platform supports

multiple languages.

• Gain sponsorship and buy-in from your executives.

• Find a way to report on the program with numbers only, then add

context.

o Go back to your overarching goals and align that with your

organization’s priorities. If you’re trying to generate leads,

show how many leads came through your employee advocacy

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platform. If you’re trying to engage your employees, then

measure time spent in-app, articles suggested and/or shared.

Depending on the size and structure of your program, there are several

benchmarks to measure yourself against that will give you an indication of

your success and potential for growth.

Defining these goals is critical to ensuring that your employee advocacy lasts

long after the launch. In fact, the best is yet to come.

Involving stakeholders from different areas in your program’s launch and growth

planning directly impacts how quickly you hit the critical mass that’s necessary

for success across the organization. The more business units and champions who

are involved at the program’s inception, the higher the volume of employees who

will talk about and continue to ensure enterprise-wide adoption.

Learn how TIBCO scaled their employee advocacy program across their

organization. Read More Here >

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__ Effective Rollout

“COMING SOON”

Early communications with high-level introduction of new initiative.

(Via digital screens, newsletters, email communications, etc.)

CONFERENCE OR EVENT

Reinforce importance of social media & personal branding at

upcoming conference or event. Touch on what’s to come.

INVITATION

Senior Leadership to send catered invitations to launch events for

each city and/or departments.

PLATFORM LAUNCH

1. Lunch and Learn style launch events by city and/or

department. Focus on overarching social media strategy and

value. Informal Q&A sessions and platform functionality demos.

2. Open Webex for all staff to attend. Webex covering social

strategy, value, and demo.

COMPETITION

Align competition with major campaign (i.e. Share x post for chance to

enter draw of $100 gift card.)

WORKSHOPS

Smaller training workshops for the next 3 months. This is aimed at

those who are slower to adopt or those who need a refresher on the

value of social media as well as the platform.

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PostBeyond Success Story

SLEEP NUMBER

Sleep Number had enthusiastic employees all across the U.S. who often asked

how they could share the latest product offerings, brand loyalty, and proud

culture moments with friends and family on their social networks.

But with nearly 550 retail stores, two plants, a customer service center, Home

Delivery technicians across the country, and their corporate headquarters, the

process for team members to find and share content was inconsistent and

sparse.

Sleep Number partnered with PostBeyond to launch a social hub called

‘SleepFeed’, which features images, articles and videos focused on topics

such as sleep and well-being - all in one centralized location.

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The communications teams’ initial goal was to leverage a large industry event

as a “culture moment,” testing the social advocacy platform concept with a

pilot group of team members who were already actively talking about Sleep

Number online. Team members quickly embraced the customized content

portal, and within two weeks they had a team of 100 pilot members actively

sharing content. The small group of pilot users at the event accounted for 1/3

of total potential reach.

Not even one year later, Sleep Number rolled out the program to include their

corporate headquarters, a small group in Home Delivery, and retail teams.

Now, nearly 3,000 employees have been invited to join SleepFeed. Content is

available to all functions, helping them drive brand awareness and create

pride among team members online.

“PostBeyond helps all staff, from the boardroom to

the open road, share in one cohesive brand voice. I

dream of PostBeyond helping us manage the internet

for employees. Kellie Due Weiland

Sr. Manager, Employer Brand and Social Recruiting

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__ About Us

Stephanie Malatesta (@stephmalatesta) is the Director of

Customer Success at PostBeyond. Leading a team of Customer

Success Managers, Stephanie helps organizations navigate the

changing workplace. She designs robust employee advocacy

programs for customers, and ensures that all PostBeyond users

are making the absolute most of their program.

Meaghan Halloran (@meaghanhalloran) is PostBeyond’s Brand

Journalist. She works with PostBeyond team members to create

content exploring the millennial mindset, digital transformation,

and the evolution of the workplace.

Interested in Launching an Employee Advocacy Program?

Every employee advocacy program is different. At PostBeyond, we help ensure that your

program is a success, and we’ll guide you through implementation, launch, and growth.

Contact us to learn more about how you can

launch a successful program at your organization.

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