Employee testimonials are a great way to share your culture in an authentic and in depth way.  What I mean is, (unfiltered) Employee voices are more trustworthy than marketing speak to a job seeker who’s doing their diligence.  And, while HR knows a lot about what a given person does in the organization, they don’t know all the in depth stories that make up the employee value proposition for that specific department, office, etc.

While employee testimonials are a great weapon in the war for talent, it isn’t 100% straightforward to collect and distribute them.  That’s where our employee generated content module comes in.  But, if you’re not using our exact playbook, we thought it’d make sense to share some of the best practices we’ve gleaned from collecting thousands of employee testimonials.

• What: You need to explain exactly what the process is for collecting these stories so that employees can budget the right amount of time and schedule it into their day.
• Why: This is the KEY!!!!  If you don’t explain WHY you need to collect these stories, then you’ll never get anyone to take the time out.  Try something like “we are growing, need to attract more amazing people like you, and the only way to do this is for you to share what you do on a day to day basis.”
• How: Lastly, explain how these stories will be used: social, careers site, etc.  You don’t want your employees to be surprised when they see their face on LinkedIn.

Pro tip: Put a calendar invite on employees’ calendars whom you ask to do this so that they have a 20 min time slot to take care of this.

Ok, here’s the video with a bit more info:

The post How to Collect and Distribute Employee Testimonials to Build Your Employer Brand Part I appeared first on NextWave Hire Blog.