10 Essential Steps to Great Employer Brand Ambassadors

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.

Live your organisational values Authenticity. Reliability. Consistency.

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.

Conduct a gap analysis The culture you propose versus the culture you have.

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.

Define your EVPs

And what they mean in real terms

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.

Leaders must embody company culture And your EVPs

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.

Practically apply the culture and EVPs

And Educate managers at all levels how to.

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.

Appoint Brand Ambassadors To front Employer Brand campaigns

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.

Build Narrative Build you Employer Brand narrative

around your Ambassadors

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.

Activate your Employer Brand Consistently and Accurately everywhere it appears.

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.

Test and Measure your success

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.

Analyse and start again

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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