How can recruitment and employer brand functions get buy-in for employee advocacy?

Marketing and Communication functions are understandably nervous about launching employee advocacy programs. Fear of damaging the brand often outweigh the potential benefits. As a result, many recruiters and employer brand specialists find themselves being refused the possibility to leverage advocacy for their own needs. 

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So how can recruiters and EB get buy-in from their Comms and Marketing departments?

The organisations that do employer branding the best are those that manage to get all key stakeholders around the table. They have honest and open debates about how they can help each other to deliver on each others core mission. Gone are the days when Marketers can put their heads in the sand and deny all ownership of the employer brand. If there is one thing that more and more organisations are agreeing on, its that employee experience and customer experience are intrinsically linked.

Talent Acquisition/ Recruitment functions need to engage their Marketing departments early on, beg them, bribe them, do whatever it takes to get their attention. Be consultative, explain the benefits of trying an employee advocacy program for both customer and employer branding. But whatever you do, get their buy in early on! 

Employee advocacy is a proven method of improving employee engagement. It encourages a culture of sharing and transparency, two things that employees state are important to them.  This make advocacy an must have for internal communicators. Recruiters can leverage this to get buy in form the internal comms function and work with them to drive awareness of the program.

The employee journey starts with the recruitment process, and recruiters design and define that process. For that reason Recruiters are vital to an organisation becoming more ‘social’. Recruiters can write social responsibilities into job descriptions, help attract job seekers with a natural disposition towards social, and even interview for specific skills and mindsets.

The point is, recruiters are unlikely to get buy in from the board unless they get buy in from Marketing and Comms. So don’t fight it, make a clear and concise plan to unilaterally push a charm offensive across the organisation. Search out the facts and figures, prove that advocacy can be great for the organisation, and employer brand could be a good place to test the idea before rolling out across the organisation.