We expored the types of motivation. Now we provide different bonuses to those who actively support your company, we decided to share a «bank of ideas».
Recognition is the way to an employee’s heart.
We like to be appreciated. If a person does something for you, it’s essential to thank them. There are several opportunities to do this.
Here are some ideas on how it can be done:
— Create a «Hero of the Week» section on the portal, where you will talk about the achievements of your ambassadors, praise them
— Collect stories involving your ambassadors and tell about them through the company channels so that the employee sees their merits recognized.
— Be sure to recognize the most active ambassadors and their accomplishments (e.g., the popularity of their posts and social media activity) in your ambassadors’ community every week and across the company monthly.
— Regularly promote the employee advocacy program, popularize it, and raise the status of its participants.
— Include a special nomination in your employee incentive program monthly, quarterly, or annually to reward ambassadors.
— Create a gamification program for your ambassadorship program: allow employees to prove themselves, earn points, and get valuable prizes.
Ambassadors’ brand
One of the most important motivations for employees to participate in an employee advocacy program is the opportunity to create and develop their brand. Employees realize that by gaining a new status and sharing helpful content, they are working for you and positioning themselves as leaders and industry experts. Help them do this more professionally.
What you can do:
— Be sure to provide training on the topic of personal branding, help them develop their positioning and personal brand foundation
— Provide training on personal brand promotion, particularly on the use of social media. Offer tips on how to optimize your profile on popular platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook
— Invite influencers and experts to meet with your ambassadors to inspire them to develop their brand.
— Offer individual consultations on developing personal profiles, offer mentors/coaches on developing their brand
— Hold regular (once a month) training events where you will talk about content creation, content promotion, and development of social networks, personal blogs, and trends in this area
— Use company channels to promote your ambassadors.
The importance of teaching ambassadors and supporting their career development
Starting an ambassadorship program with training is possible. Moreover, learning opportunities are also one of the most frequent motivations (especially for the professional type). So, plan your training program a year in advance.
Here are examples of what you can do:
— Make the ambassadors themselves internal experts and invite them to train others
— Give ambassadors access to the best educational courses on the platform or at the company’s corporate university
— Invite extraordinary external experts to train (and inspire) your ambassadors
— Collect wishes and feedback from employees on training provided and desired
— Use a variety of formats: face-to-face, online, and hybrid forms to maximize the engagement of your ambassadors.
— Hold special community meetings where ambassadors can share their experiences
— Implement a Random Coffee format in the community where the theme of the meetings is sharing experiences, ideas, or learning specific skills.
— Help them get a mentor from a higher level within the company. Let this help them in their career development.
Motivate and enable the ambassadors to expand their network of contacts within the company, express themselves, and become «visible.» This will increase their chances of promotion within the company (and, of course, support them with recommendations).
We also recommend supporting the career development of your ambassadors. Through participation in such programs, ambassadors can prove themselves, become recognizable, acquire new skills (for example, public speaking or project management), and expand their network of contacts. All this will contribute to their career development.
Material rewards and gifts
People need to see both virtual and material recognition. However, we strongly discourage paying employees to act as ambassadors and suggest using gifts and prizes instead.
— Make special unique merch, high-quality and exciting, which will be received only by the program participants
— If you have a gamification system, create valuable items that employees can purchase with their accumulated points. For example, exclusive merch, a trip to a restaurant, some additional material things, or top-rated bonuses — additional days of vacation and lunch with the CEO
— If the company has its merchandise store, allow your program members to earn extra points to purchase it
— Besides «thank you» to the best ambassadors, buy valuable gifts, ideally tailored to their preferences. For some, it will be theater or concert tickets, books, or good training courses; for others, you will buy new rackets or a gift for the kids.
Expand and vary the set of your bonuses while being guided by your employees’ feedback and requests.
Hopefully, our approach to motivation will be as demand-driven and comprehensive as possible. Never force people to participate in the program; let it be voluntary and honorable.
Of course, keep in touch, collect feedback, and listen to your people, and then your program will be the best, highest-quality, and most attractive for employees. That means they will actively support you and help you solve the tasks you set for such programs.
