Activate Your Employee Advocates

In today’s environment, there’s no shortage of public policy and social issues to advocate for, and there is no time like the present to start educating and activating your most engaged employees. Although often overlooked in communications plans, employees can be the best spokespeople for an organization or cause when equipped with the right resources and context.

While employee engagement and communications should be ongoing and consistent, there are critical moments where it’s especially important: surrounding a key social or political event; in conjunction with a policy issue or specific call to action; or a crisis situation at hand. By incorporating employees into the communications planning early, you can ensure your organization is speaking from the same playbook and doubling down on what matters most.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for employee communications, but here are five best practices to keep in mind no matter the situation:  

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  1. Know your audience.

  The first step in educating and activating employees is doing your research. Take the time to learn and understand employees’ interests, concerns, and preferences for communication – whether that’s through company or organization-wide emails or surveys or through more anecdotal information and informal conversations. Then use this information to inform communications styles and educational opportunities.

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  2. Meet employees where they are.

  If you have the data or context already that shows where you’re best reaching employees – whether that’s through email or an internal messaging system or through in-person touch points – incorporate that as part of the strategy. For example, if internal employee email open rates are high, start by sharing crucial announcements and resources over email. In a similar vein, make communicating and advocating as easy as possible for employees. This could mean creating a key messages playbook, a social media toolkit, or shareable graphics for their use. Everyone is busy and juggling competing priorities, so making resources readily available is key.

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  3. Explore and test various communications mediums. 

  Again, there’s no one size fits all in terms of communicating with employees – explore different platforms, different frequencies, and styles of communicating so you can really focus on what works best. And remember to keep in mind that different styles will resonate better with different people. Stay agile on what works well and what doesn’t – if the current methods aren’t hitting the mark with employees, take a step back and refresh the approach.

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  4. Amplify employee voices. 

  Collect and encourage employee stories and perspectives – and then share them. Communications should be a two-way street, and an employee’s voice can be a powerful source of information and experience sharing, encouraging other employees to engage and advocate in turn.

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  5. Empower employees as ambassadors. 

  Engaged employees are irreplaceable ambassadors for your values or policy priorities. By equipping them with the resources and information they need to succeed – and ensuring the call to action is clear – you’ll empower them to make their voices heard and activate during key moments when you need them most.

The Adfero POV

Don’t overlook employees in your communications planning. When equipped with the right resources and tools, employees can be the best advocates for an organization or cause – the more consistent information they have, the more effectively they’ll be able to influence others and share their own perspectives in the future.