The rise of employee advocacy
Portland has recently conducted extensive research with over 2000 employees across the US and the UK that found 80% of employees are proud of the work their company does and are willing to talk about it. However only 5% actually share their employer’s news on social media.
In a “post truth” era where authorities are increasingly distrusted – people are looking for recommendations that they see as honest and authentic. This provides a clear opportunity for organisations to empower employees to support their external PR and communications.
Employees can be the best spokespeople that a company has: they often understand the business inside and out; they can be a highly credible source of information; they are much better connected then the business.
Empowering employees seems like a no-brainer, but there are few companies which effectively do this; Portland found that only 27% of employees share company information with people external to the company.
Portland have developed the Employee Advocacy Activation model to harness this vast pool of potential. It is designed to help understand the landscape more thoroughly and provide a framework for empowerment.
The EEA model will show company’s where their employees are on the ladder to advocacy and importantly where they get stuck. It will enable them to take action and implement a focus-driven strategy to drive their employees closer to ‘Active Advocates’.
The sample included blue and white collar workers and was representative for age, gender and location.
About Portland
Portland (www.portland-communications.com) is a strategic communications agency which specialises in offering integrated reputation management, digital engagement, branding and public affairs advice to major corporations, governments, and international organisations. Founded in 2001, Portland global teams support clients in more than 85 countries. Portland is part of the Omnicom Public Relations Group.
About Omnicom Public Relations Group
Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, marketing to women, fashion, global health strategy and corporate social responsibility. It encompasses more than 6,000 public relations professionals in more than 330 offices worldwide who provide their expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and non-profits across a wide range of industries. Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. that includes more than 200 companies in a wide range of marketing disciplines including advertising, public relations, healthcare, customer relationship management, events, promotional marketing, branding and research.