The steps to creating an effective employee advocacy program

In today’s dynamic workplace, employees want an employer that’s willing to stick up for them. Employee advocacy helps not only determine what issues are important to employees but also empowers them to become de facto brand ambassadors for your organization. Employee advocacy programs give employees the encouragement needed to share their experiences at work and relay them to others, both inside and outside the organization.

During last fall’s Strategic Communications Conference at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA,  Eric Jaffe, director of employee comms, advocacy, exec social, and US regional comms at Microsoft shared a list of steps that communicators can follow to create effective employee advocates

1. Make the case for employee advocacy.

Jaffe said that making the case for this program to exist in the first place begins with making sure that your people are heard. You can position this formal program as an opportunity to demonstrate the authenticity of your communications and build that necessary trust.

Stick to your core values — employees look to their organization as a source of trusted information, and by communicating about them frequently, you can drive the point home that you’re serious about creating a positive work culture. They, in turn, will speak about this if they believe it to be real.