Why employee voices are the key to your brand’s story
Taylor Meadows
Head Strategist of Employer Branding | Aug 15, 2024
For the first article of our three-part series on building a winning employer branding strategy, we’re diving into employee voices. Employees are at the heart of any company, and they really have the power to shape (or make, or break) an employer brand. Research from Glassdoor and Indeed shows that 75% of job seekers are more likely to apply to companies that actively manage their employer brand. By sharing their own stories, employees can influence job candidate and client perception of a company. Tapping into employee feedback allows companies to take their brand storytelling to the next level and empower their workers to help shape the narrative.
How to collect employee stories
Before you can get the most out of employee voices, you need to gather them. You can ask for feedback directly from managers after their discussions with direct reports, connect with your company’s or employee resource groups (ERGs), or check out Glassdoor Reviews and Company Bowls™. Here are a few ways to collect insights.
Manager
It’s a good idea to gather stories and feedback from workers who embody your company’s values. Check in with managers and team leads for their ideas of who to ask. Awards recipients are obvious contenders but don’t rule out new hires who can speak to the onboarding and integration process.
ERGs
ERGs simplify the search for employee voices, particularly if you’re looking for ways to magnify the stories of your diverse employee population. You can identify key cultural moments of inclusion to highlight throughout the year, (e.g. asking for feedback from your working moms ERG for a Mother’s Day feature, or an LGBTQIA+ ERG for Pride Month content) and share them on your website, Glassdoor profile, and social media channels.
Glassdoor feedback
While Glassdoor feedback — both through company reviews and Company Bowls — is anonymous, those unvarnished perspectives are a powerful tool for communicating company culture. Research has shown that reviews influence job searches. In fact, 86% of employees and job seekers research company reviews and ratings to decide on where to apply for a job, and 71% said their perception of the company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review. Bowls can also help mitigate negative reviews by providing an open forum for employee conversations regarding their concerns.
Use employee voices to highlight your strengths
Encouraging your teams to write Glassdoor reviews can help you zero in on your company’s strengths and areas for improvement. (For quick takeaways, use Review Intelligence™ to sift through your data.) If your company has an Enhanced Profile, you can also select a Featured Review to display first — a strategy that Best-Led Companies like NVIDIA and Houston Methodist have incorporated on their pages.
How to build an employer brand with reviews
Trupanion, a pet medical insurance company, is proof that spotlighting employee voices works.
Noticing that candidates often had questions about Trupanion’s DEI initiatives, the company built out the Belonging tab of the “Why Work with Us” section to showcase company-wide efforts. Following those changes, Trupanion saw a 14% increase in applicants from underrepresented groups and 16% more women applicants.
When filling out sections on your employer profile or company website, you can replicate Trupanion’s strategy. For example, identify areas that candidates care about or use quotes from your employees — whether cited or anonymous — that demonstrate your brand promise.
The power of storytelling
Employee feedback is the starting point for building an authentic brand narrative. Glassdoor Reviews and Community Bowls offer a glimpse of life inside an organization; leaders can use that information to drive change and build a complete picture of their company culture. Whether it’s championing a company’s industry-leading benefits or highlighting how leadership advocates for their work, employee voices are some of the most effective vehicles for communicating a company’s brand story.
Taylor Meadows
Taylor brings a decade of tech experience to the table having served in recruitment consulting roles at Apple, LinkedIn, Indeed and now Glassdoor. With a fervent passion for helping people find meaningful work, he spends his time shaping and delivering strategies that modernize the employer branding landscape - you can find him speaking at major events like SHRM, World Employer Branding Day and Indeed FutureWorks.
Tags:CommunityEmployer BrandEmployer BrandingStorytelling
