5 Ways To Leverage Employee Testimonials For Employer Branding

People trust people, not faceless corporations.

Think about that the next time you’re preparing yet another polished marketing campaign to attract potential employees.

And while traditional branding is important, it is the voices of your employees that really make a difference. 

In this article, we’ll explore the power of employee testimonials and show you how to use them to build a strong brand that talent will want to join.

What is an employee testimonial?

Employee testimonials are simply the thoughts and opinions shared by your current or past employees about your company Just as a participant provides their professional resume when hired, they can offer a testimonial upon leaving the company for you.

These testimonials can be both positive and negative and can relate to any aspect of the employee’s interaction with the company, such as management issues, salary, benefits, company culture, team hierarchy, etc.

Utilize resources such as employee experience platforms to help centralize and organize these testimonials, to gather valuable data on employee satisfaction and areas for improvement across departments.

When it comes to what employee testimonials should look like, there are many formats to choose from:

• Full-length video testimonials
• Short topical videos
• Article
• Commentary
• A quote
• A series of photos
• Interviews, etc.

As for the types of employee testimonials, these include Q&As, career stories, life stories, etc. It goes without saying that positive employee testimonials should be leveraged. 

Employee testimonials are a big deal when it comes to recruiting. You can, on the one hand, develop an ATS system to simplify the hiring process and improve communication with candidates.

On the other hand, it’s the use of employee testimonials that can make the difference in the hiring process. What your people say allows potential candidates to learn about your company firsthand. Employee testimonials are far more valuable than sugar-coated marketing facts. Also, include these in your message while asking for job referrals.

Why are employee testimonials important?

It’s important to note that 96% of people prefer companies with a good employer brand, while 87% of those surveyed are discouraged by negative reviews. Your company’s reputation is crucial.

Utilize employee testimonials to solidify your employer brand, especially since 75% of job seekers research a company’s reputation before applying for a job. Social media is the first place they check out a company’s reputation.

With the widespread use of social media, it’s easy for your employees to talk about their work experiences by posting online. Wondering if you can take advantage of these posts? Absolutely.

Just make sure you use employee testimonials consistently. And it’s not just about social media, it’s about the broader use of employee testimonials. Incorporating them into a performance management template can enhance your company’s image and provide valuable insights for potential employees.

5 ways to leverage employee testimonials

The following are five ways you can harness employee testimonials to enhance your brand and get only the best talent on board.

1. Integrate employee testimonials into your career site 

Let’s start with the simplest one. Want more people to see your employee testimonials? Post them on your website, starting with a blog. On the blog, your employees can write articles and share their professional and personal experiences, allowing potential candidates to see that real people are behind the company’s success.

You can make things even better by putting employee testimonials on the right pages. For example, if you have pages dedicated to specific departments or teams, put photos and quotes from people who work there.

Source: normreeveshondacerritos.com 

2. Post testimonials on review sites

No matter what, your goal is to prove that your company is a great place to work. Encourage your employees to leave testimonials on review sites where they can anonymously share their honest feedback. This way, both current and former employees can freely express their thoughts about working for your company.

If the testimonials are positive, the anonymity and freedom to speak out make them truly trustworthy to job seekers. What about negative testimonials? They can happen, and it might work to your advantage if you respond promptly, honestly, and respectfully.


Source: Indeed

3. Use testimonials when onboarding

You onboard new team members having skills necessary for your business with much effort. So why not put those employee testimonials to good use? New folks just starting at your company want to feel good about their choices, so show them they made the right decision:

• Share helpful tips based on your staff’s experience with those starting out;
• Share funny video stories from current employees about how they started at the company to motivate and reassure newcomers;
• Provide links to articles written by your team members about their personal experiences.

The goal is to ease the nerves of new hires and let them know they’ve picked a great company to join. You can also use this opportunity to introduce new employees to your company’s security practices, including the importance of user access reviews in maintaining data integrity.

4. Share employee testimonials on social media

Given the huge popularity of social media (for example, Instagram has 2 billion users and the average time users spend on the app is 29 minutes), it would be weird to ignore these platforms. What’s more, 79% of job seekers utilize social media for their job search, so you can tap into this trend.

Start by encouraging your team members to share their work experiences on social media with your company’s specific hashtags or keywords. This is important because tools such as Keyhole’s tracking feature can help you retrieve all of your brand-related testimonials later on.

Your employees’ social media posts are the best way to see how they really feel about working for your company.

Source: Marriott Careers

5. Build an employee ‘Wall of Love’ page

The Wall of Love is a web page where your employees can show how much they love your company. It’s like the “I Love You” wall in Paris but on the web. You can create your own Wall of Love page where employees can share their heartfelt feedback about your company culture, and unique perks. It’s a simple yet powerful way to show appreciation. You can also easily add the page code to your website, newsletter, and marketing materials and thus get the word out.

How do you get your Wall of Love? You can use the media wall feature of the Keyhole to generate one. Making your employee testimonials shine is much easier than you might think.

Source: https://www.award.co/

Bonus: Track your brand on Keyhole

Building a strong employer brand isn’t just about showcasing employee testimonials on social media. It’s a two-way street: creating engaging content, interacting in comments, and encouraging employees to share their work stories are vital steps. However, the other crucial half involves keeping tabs on what people are saying about your brand through mentions, hashtags, and keywords. This is where social listening comes into play.

Social listening allows you to monitor conversations about your brand, understand your audience better, and connect with the right people. And it’s all done by tracking branded hashtags. Keyhole’s Social Listening platform makes it effortless.

With Keyhole, you can not only optimize your social media performance but also gain valuable insights through analytics on the impact of the testimonials shared.

Final words

If you want to make your brand bulletproof, leverage employee testimonials. Showcasing your company’s culture, values, mission, and job perks through the voices of your employees proves your openness, inspires trust, and attracts top talent.

Feel free to ask employees to share their thoughts on working for you, and then use their words to attract brilliant minds. Don’t start empty-handed.

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