The Key Role of Employee Satisfaction in Successful Employee Advocacy Programs

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Your workers are undoubtedly the most important influencers of your company’s success. They not only handle day-to-day operations, but they also have talents that could provide your business with a competitive edge.

Some companies have started to recognize that in this digitally connected world, employees also have the potential to effectively promote the company through advocacy programs.

Essentially, advocacy programs are about encouraging workers to contribute to social media marketing about the business. This involves sharing your brand’s posts on their channels and even creating their own content about their experiences as a worker. In some instances, they’ll receive rewards for their efforts.

However, one of the strongest influences of genuine and committed advocacy is worker satisfaction. When your employees have positive connections with the company, this can impact the quality and consistency of their advocacy.

We’re going to explore some of the aspects that contribute to employee satisfaction and how these can lead to better advocacy programs.

Investing in Your Workforce

Investment is important for any business. This is especially relevant when it comes to your workforce. When employees see evidence that you’re dedicated to regularly investing in them, they get the message that you consider them to be important. This boosts their overall satisfaction in the workplace and may give them topics to talk positively about when advocating for your business.

Some focuses for investment should include:

• Salaries and raises: One of the most important ways to show investment in your workforce is through salaries and raises. It’s not the be-all and end-all, but it’s still vital. Be mindful of not just what is appropriate for the role and your industry, but also what the individual brings to the business. Look at how cost of living changes impact workers’ quality of life, too. At a time when people are talking more openly online about fair pay and conditions, your efforts here are good for both satisfaction and advocacy.
• Employee development: Each of your workers has career ambitions. Investing in their development is a great way to communicate that you recognize their talents and their potential to grow. Your investment could include not just internal training programs but also subsidized courses and qualifications. This might encourage them to share their achievements online and talk about how your company has contributed to their success.

Part of your investment could also include employee advocacy itself. Commit time and resources to identifying the most likely advocates. This is often those who are active on social media, particularly those who share experiences and recommendations both in and outside of work. You could also provide these workers with employee advocacy training that empowers them to understand the most impactful ways to share and create advocacy content.

Supporting Employee Wellness

Your employees are unlikely to be satisfied or effective advocates if they are frequently navigating work-related ill health. For instance, workplace stress tends to lead to burnout, with significant physical and psychological wellness consequences. Not only is advocating for your business not going to be a priority, but they may well share negative insights into your company culture’s influence on their health.

So, what can you do to support employee wellness in ways that boost satisfaction, leading to advocacy? One approach is to create a formal employee wellness program. This should provide workers with resources, such as access to therapy and tailored health coaching. These should be geared toward giving workers the tools to take control of their ongoing well-being, rather than dictating how they should live their lives.

It’s also worth considering that this is a time when people frequently share their workouts on TikTok and Instagram. As a result, subsidizing gym memberships may be a good way to encourage workers to create positive social media content that highlights your company’s contribution to their health.

Remember, too, that working hours also influence your employees’ wellness. This isn’t limited to the aforementioned burnout. For instance, working long hours can lead to poor oral health in a variety of ways. Work-related stress causes some people to grind their teeth, potentially resulting in pain and sensitivity. Spending too much time at work can also cause workers to make poor dietary choices because they don’t have time to cook meals. This means they may rely on overly sugary or acidic junk foods that cause tooth decay, as well as impacting their wider wellness.

Therefore, it’s important for your company to keep a close eye on your employees’ work-life balance. Avoid insisting on excessive overtime that causes stress and disrupts their ability to have a healthy personal life. Importantly, talk openly about the value of maintaining this balance and even post content on the subject on your social media channels. Not only can this benefit workers, but it also gives sharable materials that advocate for your company’s commitment to prioritizing worker wellness.

Boosting Team Morale

Even when employees generally enjoy their jobs, they can still become disheartened by aspects of company culture. This might be the atmosphere of the business or frequent exposure to difficult customers, among others. When left unaddressed, this can influence the moods and outlooks of colleagues and, before you know it, there’s a serious dissatisfaction issue that derails advocacy. You can’t shelter your employees from challenges completely. However, you can make a difference by taking steps to lift workers’ spirits.

Boosting team morale involves recognizing that what affects workers’ spirits varies between companies, teams, and individuals. This means you need to assess for factors that could be causing low morale, such as micromanagement, absence of collaborations, or feeling isolated. Keep track of this over time using 1:1 meeting forms. This not only enables you to see what is difficult for individual workers but also trends in what may be affecting morale across the business. As a result, you can make the most relevant changes.

Consider also incorporating morale-building activities into the everyday culture of your company. This can be as simple as show-and-tell sessions that help workers learn more about one another and develop deeper connections. Give them opportunities to let loose, too. Break up the week with fun team-building games and creativity sessions. Effectively, this brings a little joy into their roles even when things are tough. Not to mention that these activities can offer Instagrammable moments that boost advocacy.

Morale-building activities shouldn’t be the entire basis of striving for worker satisfaction, though. Social media is awash with dissatisfied workers posting about businesses’ tendency to provide pizza parties instead of more meaningful rewards, like pay and benefits. Treat these activities as additional perks to build on top of a strong foundation of fair employee treatment. This is more likely to garner advocacy rather than inviting the kind of criticism that goes viral.

Conclusion

Employee advocacy tends to be stronger when it’s driven by workers who are genuinely satisfied. Therefore, it’s vital to focus on actions that both provide a solid sense of support while also inviting opportunities for advocacy.

Remember, though, that your efforts shouldn’t just be focused on employees who are more likely to promote your business. Each of your workers has a right to be enriched and supported in their positions. This not only produces a more positive workforce, but may also lead to independent advocacy that’s not connected to formal programs and rewards, but based on a real passion for your business.

BIO: Ainsley Lawrence is a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest in the United States. She enjoys writing about better living through education and technology. She is frequently lost in a mystery podcast.