Your Brand's Secret Weapon: A Practical Guide to Employee Advocacy
Your Brand's Secret Weapon: A Practical Guide to Employee Advocacy
At a time of declining trust in institutions, your people remain your most credible advocates. In Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer*, employees’ trust dropped 3% since 2024. Customers, candidates and partners are far more likely to believe what employees say about your business than what comes from official channels. For senior HR and People leaders, this is a strategic opportunity: build a culture that delivers on expectations, and your people become your most powerful brand ambassadors.
Employee advocacy isn’t about pushing out marketing content. It’s about creating an environment where employees are proud to share stories because they believe in them: where they recommend your products, amplify company news, support employee resource groups, and champion your values.
Here are five ways to turn engaged employees into authentic advocates.
1. Anchor in a purposeful, meaningful ambition
Advocacy begins on the inside. When employees feel their personal values align with the organisation’s, they connect more deeply with their work. Seeing the impact of their contributions fuels pride and a stronger sense of purpose. Leaders must therefore communicate a clear, compelling narrative of the future, and back it up with a culture that empowers people to share ideas, collaborate and achieve their potential.
2. Invest in growing talent and career pathways
Employees who see a future with you will speak positively about you. Professional growth, skills development and visible mobility are top drivers of retention and engagement. When employees tell their networks, “I’m growing here,” that is advocacy at its most credible.
Businesses should continuously invest in offering an Employee Value Proposition that delivers excellent learning opportunities, transparent mobility pathways, and enables a variety of opportunities to grow.
3. Prioritise wellbeing and psychological safety
Wellbeing and psychological safety are the foundations of engagement - and, by extension, advocacy. When employees feel safe to speak up, supported in managing workload, and confident that their mental health matters, they are more energised, loyal and willing to recommend their employer.
Businesses that embed these qualities within leadership behaviours, measure them alongside performance, and create a culture of care, will build loyalty and unlock authentic advocacy - ultimately creating huge business value.
4. Offer flexibility and autonomy
Giving employees flexibility and autonomy signals respect and trust. Employees who can integrate work and life in ways that suit them best are more productive, fulfilled and engaged. Designing roles around outcomes, not rigid processes, gives teams the freedom to shape their own ways of working.
The result will be higher performance and a workforce eager to share the gratitude they feel for a supportive environment, and the benefits it creates.
5. Enable advocacy through action, tools and recognition
Even with the most engaged and positive cultures, advocacy won’t scale without lived experience. For any employee to become an advocate they need to have first-hand experiences whether it’s a customer story, a moment where the brand came to life, or seeing colleagues thrive as part of a great culture. These create the positive and memorable stories that they’ll want to share.
Employees need clarity on what’s appropriate, simple tools to share content, and recognition when their voice has impact. Programmes with one-click sharing, suggested captions and analytics help turn goodwill into measurable reach, referrals and even sales. And recognising and thanking employees when they take action, through shout-outs, opportunities or internal storytelling ensures you’ll sustain momentum.
Employee advocacy isn’t a comms initiative; it’s culture at its strongest. When employees champion their organisation, it shows up everywhere: in the pride they share publicly, the talent they attract, the customers they recommend, and the confidence they inspire in investors and partners. For senior people leaders, the challenge isn’t pushing messages but fostering an environment where advocacy happens naturally. Get that right, and it becomes one of the most powerful, scalable, and enduring assets your brand will ever have.
To find out more about how you can embed your culture please get in touch at [email protected].
Written by Dave Hanney, Senior Strategy Consultant
Dave’s drive comes from increasing the impact of organisations by creating purposeful and distinctive brands, experiences and cultures. He has led and designed brand strategy, customer experience, and culture transformation projects for multi-national companies, disruptors and hyper growth innovators. He’s worked at global agencies Edelman and M&C Saatchi, and partnered with Samsung, Red Bull, GlaxoSmithKline and Wagamama.
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