In a competitive job market, in which businesses are all looking to recruit the best talent, employer brand is a major differentiator. In fact, it determines the image that candidates have of a company as an employer. Employees play an important role in building this image. Here we are going to focus on employee ambassadors in companies: you will discover everything behind this role. You will see that it is essential to have them to make your company shine.
What is an ambassador collaborator?
An ambassador employee is an employee who presents his company in a positive way to those around him, and possibly on his social networks. She is a person who is proud of her business, culture and values. He does not hesitate to talk about it with his personal and professional network.
The ambassador is deeply convinced that his company offers significant advantages to its employees. He would therefore sincerely recommend to someone he likes to come and work for him.
All employees of a company can naturally become ambassadors: this is not necessarily a formal role. Some companies choose to create real ambassador programs, or employee advocacy. In this case, the company selects its most committed employees and makes them participate in events: fairs, testimonies, interventions in major schools, etc.
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The benefits of an employee advocacy strategy
Having employee ambassadors brings many benefits. Here are the main ones.
More credibility with potential candidates
Talented people looking for a job naturally trust the words of a person who works in a company more than the marketing speeches they find on recruitment sites.
More and more often, candidates are looking for internal and external opinions before applying for a job offer: this is reassuring for them. If the testimonies come from an individual they know personally, that's even better.
Your employees are the most legitimate people to talk about your company: so don't hesitate to publish their spontaneous testimonies on your career site. This allows candidates to project themselves more easily.
An improved reputation
Your ambassador employees have a positive impact on the reputation of your companies. The positive words that they convey, both to those around them and on their social networks, contribute to the reputation and e-reputation of the company.
Of course, it is the employer brand that benefits the most: by sharing positive information about working conditions, it is particularly highlighted.
We can say that ambassador employees are an extension of The company's employer brand. By sharing their positive experience, they contribute to strengthening the company's reputation as an attractive and reliable employer. They can have a positive influence on talent's choice whether or not to apply for job offers.
A gain in visibility
The more employees who talk about your business around them, the more the visibility of your business increases. Put together, the personal and professional networks of all employees are immense.
It is important to understand that an employee who is not really committed to his company does not talk about it or very little about it around him. His level of satisfaction must really be high in order for him to spontaneously mention it to the people around him.
Recruiting based on recommendations
Finally, your employee ambassadors can have a role in recruiting, by nominating and recommending candidates they know. This is called co-optation.
For the company, it is a way of attracting, at first glance, people who share its values and who have a thorough knowledge of how it works. Most often, this makes it possible to recruit people at a lower cost. These talents generally have a mindset that is fully compatible with the way the company operates, which limits the risks of premature departure.
How to have ambassador employees?
It is not enough to want to set up a strategy of employee ambassadors for this to work! Indeed, effective employee advocacy starts with employees who are willing and ready to speak highly of their company. To do this, they must obviously feel perfectly at ease there.
Exemplary working conditions
It is imperative that your employees feel perfectly at home in your company. The quality of life at work is therefore essential. This requires, first of all, suitable premises, quality equipment, a caring working environment, etc.
An employer that does not put everything in place to promote the well-being of its employees cannot expect spontaneous recommendations.
Satisfied and committed employees
Without satisfaction and without commitment, it is not possible to push your employees to talk about you around them. It is therefore essential to work on employee engagement in companies. There are a lot best practices and tools to put in place : do not hesitate to deal with this subject in different ways.
The creation of a co-optation system
Finally, you can formalize the fact of encouraging employees to talk about job offers around them by creating a co-option system. Generally, this involves offering a referral bonus to employees who have recommended an acquaintance for a position. If this person is hired and validates their trial period, a bonus is paid to the employee who supported the application.
Formal employee ambassador programs also exist. They consist in designating a group of employees whose tasks are to promote the fact of coming to work within the company. Thus, their schedule is adjusted to be able to devote part of their week to this mission. Such programs are only effective if the ambassadors are genuinely voluntary.
Through this article, you could see that employee ambassadors are a real asset for an employer brand. They contribute to building a corporate culture strong and positive and have a real role to play in the recruitment of new talent. They give credibility to the company's image on the job market: their testimonies are a guarantee of trust for people looking for a job. If you want to capitalize on this strength, it is necessary that your employees are committed and that they feel good at work. Otherwise, they can have a completely reversed effect by becoming detractors. A good quality of life at work and practices that promote employee engagement are essential conditions for hoping to have good ambassadors.
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