THE best people who can promote your business are your employees. Often, organization leaders spend so much on hiring personalities and so-called influencers that they forget the best people to talk about their organization are their employees. If word-of-mouth is the best way of promoting a product or service, some organizations might not be leveraging their most valuable promotional asset—their people.
Your employees do not talk about your organization out of the blue. They do so because of several reasons but much of it is because of your organizational culture. Culture is built through people, and how you build your employees affects the way they talk about you with others. More so when they talk to others outside the office about what they do, and if they are aware that they carry the organization’s image whether they like it or not. When your employees speak highly of your organization, this indicates that they are highly engaged and productive.
But how do you get your employees to talk to others about your products and services without having to resort to incentivizing everything they promote? How do you empower them to organically endorse your organization?
It all starts with your organization’s vision and mission. People need to own the vision of the organization. They need to have a personal stake in where the organization is headed, and they can connect their work to why the organization exists in the first place. Simon Sinek in his Ted Talk, titled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” said that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Your employees need to understand how their work contributes to the overall vision of the company and how significant they are to the organization.
The best way for employees to have their buy-in with the organization’s vision is to involve them in crafting it. By asking for their opinion on where they think the organization is headed, they become accountable for its fulfillment. If the organization’s vision is from the top down, the challenge will be for middle managers to translate it in a way that their teams will understand. The executive leadership needs to provide the necessary support to their middle managers if they are expected to embody the organization’s vision.
Whether the employees were involved in crafting the organization’s vision or not, there needs to be a mechanism for collecting employee feedback and suggestions. This promotes transparency, teamwork and adaptability as management learns more about their employees and vice versa. As employees are heard and improvements are implemented, employees will feel they are appreciated and empowered which will create a positive working environment and an engaged work force. This in turn will produce employees who will talk positively to others about where they work.
As the leader of the organization, walk the talk. There is nothing more disappointing than a leader who does not embody their organization’s vision. Your employees see you as the prime example of how the vision is translated into action. Show them how it is done, and they will start emulating your example. When leaders are authentic and passionately driven, employees will naturally be drawn and follow their example.
Before launching a promotional campaign outside your organization, make sure your own employees know it first. They cannot support something they do not know anything about. It also puts your employees in an awkward situation when they learn of your new products and services from others or even the customers themselves. So, before you promote your product to others, make sure your employees are the first to know.
Let your employees pursue their passions and interests. Creating an authentic culture means letting your employees find their niche in the organization where they can grow to their full potential. Just as much as the organization tries its best to meet customer expectations, they must also seek to put people in a career path where they will grow and succeed. You can provide learning sessions or brown bag sessions where people can learn from each other while creating working relationships within the organization.
You can also develop a social responsibility program that your team is interested in and develop it as an advocacy. Special interest groups provide a venue for employees with similar activities to connect and see a different view of the organization. Employees will then have a better appreciation of
how different departments contribute to the organization’s success. Having an advocacy also provides a venue for your employees to be in touch with their communities and make a difference in other people’s lives.
If you have artworks or videos that you want your employees to share, make it easily accessible to them and easily shareable on their social-media pages. Before releasing anything, ensure that it has been reviewed by your communication experts because once you make it available online, it will be extremely difficult to retract it. You can also allow your employees to create their own content but make sure you have guidelines in place for how they package their messages, so your message remains clear and consistent.
Richard Branson once said that “if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Your employees are the best representation of what your organization stands for. Conversely, your organization’s vision and purpose are shown by how your employees treat your customers and how they talk about your organization behind your back. And whether you like it or not, your organization will be known by the employees you keep.
Image credits: Christina@wocintechchat