Why and how to cultivate brand advocates among your staff

Your employer brand is a key ingredient in securing that edge. Your employees contribute significantly to your business success.

Whose responsibility is it to champion the employer brand? Marketing? HR? PR? Internal communications? The lines separating these departments have blurred, but that doesn’t mean turf wars are inevitable.

You become a liability if you waste time squabbling to secure influence and fighting over who does what. The employer brand needs a consistent, cohesive, collaborative champion.

Shift from obsessing about brand ownership to improving consumers’ brand experience and perception. This calls for three steps:

Step 1: Collapse the walls between communication disciplines; build bridges instead.

Step 2: Connect new bridges between external- and internal-focused brand partners.

Step 3: Pursue consistent collaboration throughout companywide communications.

For instance:

Employees want to be treated as valued members of a vibrant community. They want to rally behind a mission that reflects their own values and ideals. That’s where communicators can motivate their colleagues to rally around the organization’s common goals, putting them at the center of an organization’s mission and overall story.