Employee-Led PR: Why Your People Are Your Most Credible Recruiters—or Your Loudest Critics

Ever seen an organization spending thousands on a hiring campaign that drowned with a single LinkedIn post, “Worst employer ever—don’t join them,” from one of their workers?

If not yet, welcome to the era of employee-led recruitment PR, where your talent acquisition success would largely depend on whether your team members endorse or criticize your company as a good or bad employer. And no matter how spotless you try to appear in front of potential job candidates, nothing would beat the following positive sentiment: “It is the best workplace in the world! I love working and having fun with my amazing colleagues” (Or negative, just as we mentioned above).

So, let’s first understand what it is, and then learn how your workers can become your brand ambassadors (without feeling as if you’re forcing them into a corporate talent extravaganza) rather than roasting it like restaurant critics.

What Is Employee-Led PR for Employer Branding and Hiring?

Employee-led PR is when your employees—not your HR department—represent your company to the outside world, particularly to job seekers.

Such employer brand promotion mostly happens through word-of-mouth sharing, like this:

• What they tell someone about you in person
• What they type on social platforms
• What employee reviews they leave on review sites, such as Glassdoor or Indeed (or “company reviews by women for women” at Fairygodboss that particularly evaluate gender inclusion in the workplace)

Note: 83% of job seekers read employee reviews when deciding to apply for a job.

They honestly share their experiences and stories about what it’s like to work at your company. And those genuine employees’ voices help attract (or repel) new hires.

Here’s why.

4 Major Reasons Why Employees Are So Good at Promoting Employer Brands

…and helping them hire top talent!

People Trust Other People More Than Job Descriptions.

When the candidate looks at the job ad, they most likely think, “Well, duh, every brand says that. But how can I know it’s true?” And there you have something like: “We promote DEI in the workplace.” “Really? How?”—that’s another thought crossing the job seeker’s mind.

But then, they notice the post from the company’s worker: “Yesterday, our team ran a valuable DEI workshop!” Or: “Celebrating Black History Month at work will always be special to me.” Just as you see below.

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Well, now, that’s something!

The employee’s voice matters more than corporate jargon in your job description. In fact, candidates trust the word of companies’ employees three times more than their official employer branding messages.

Their Networks Are New, Often Unexplored Fields for Employer Branding.

Each worker has a tightly-knit circle of:

• Relatives
• Friends
• Former classmates or alumni
• Community peers (e.g., social media groups, hobby clubs, or niche communities on forums like Reddit) 

For example:

Suppose they repost your job vacancy in a Facebook group (e.g., “Our company is hiring! Join our friendly team.”). Or, say a couple of endorsements in their community (e.g., “We’re learning and developing each day at work. Today, we learned about Neurodiversity and how different brains work. That was so interesting!”).

In both cases, your employer brand enters new markets—those who would never visit your “Careers” page or LinkedIn profile on their own.

They Tell Authentic Work-Related Stories.

Your workers offer one thing you can’t buy or mimic—authenticity. And whether these are amusing or heartwarming employee experience stories, they are authentic and relatable.

These can be:

• Office’s behind-the-scenes
• Remote or hybrid work realities
• “Why I love my job” narratives
• Personal growth examples (“I got promoted!”)
• Company’s daily/monthly/yearly traditions (“Our annual holiday party was full of cheer—hey, New Year is near!”)
• Day-in-the-life videos (“a day in the life of [job title] at [Company]”)

For example:

Catch a glimpse of this video featuring a day in the life of a software engineer at Meta (formerly Facebook) on YouTube.

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Alternatively, let’s take workplace perks. Employer-sponsored debt relief programs are among the most desirable financial ones, particularly sought after by recent graduates looking for a job. And here’s how Chegg’s worker tells about the company’s student loan repayment perk on Reddit.

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Even such authentic micro-mentions as this can say much more about your employee benefits than just dropping them in your job description or “Careers” page.

They Humanize Employers.

Humanization is one of the key aspects that make companies attractive to employees in recruitment PR. And your team members can help you achieve it effortlessly.

Your brand won’t look like a faceless entity anymore. It will have a human face and voice (sometimes, with a great sense of humor) behind it—your employee’s voice.

For example:

They might want to call your firm “the best workplace” where they engage in funny team-building activities, such as Laughter Yoga or Drink and Draw. And here’s the employee feedback about the Virtual Drink and Draw event at iCIMS Studio:

“You know when people say, ‘Oh, that work mixer was great!’ They’re totally lying. It was awkward. THIS, however, was SO fun.” 

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Authentic? Yes. Emotional? Definitely. Humanized employer branding? For sure!

…Or They Can Pour Out the Harshest Criticism of Your Workplace

As rough as it may sound, that’s the flip side of employee-led PR. You can’t script authenticity and beg your team members: “Can anyone post anything positive today? And do it authentically, please.” Nor can you ask them to promote a workplace full of negativity and toxicity.

If your culture is off or if you have a toxic work environment, they will either stay silent (and eventually quit) or take a social media megaphone to roar (often after quitting first) and tell cautionary tales:

• Horrible workplace
• Culture of fear
• Bullying and discrimination at work
• Managers treat people like robots.

Just take a look at a Glassdoor review we came across: “Poor work-life balance, toxic culture, incompetent leadership, and limited growth. But hey, free lunch!”

The solution?

Invest in building a positive employee experience that will eventually make them the biggest hiring magnets rather than talent repellents.

How to Help Your Workers Become Happy Brand Advocates for Recruitment PR

—without obligatory TikTok dances or manipulative tricks (or even bribes) to make them participate.

Set Up an Employee Advocacy/Ambassadorship Program.

Don’t just hope for a random in-person endorsement or social media post once in a while from your workers. Take a more organized approach and consider launching a corporate advocacy program to give your employees all the necessary instruments and materials and guide them throughout the employer branding process.

For example:

In 2023, HCLTech launched a Supercharged Ambassador’s Club. In the words of their workers, it’s a totally “rewarding adventure.”

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By the way, you can also implement referral bonuses or other rewards, such as empowering, custom-designed tees with the hashtag #Proudtoworkat[BrandName] or “Employer Brand Ambassador of the Month” prints.

Note: Make participation voluntary, not mandatory, and reward employees for their achievements—don’t bribe.

Make It Simple: Help Them Share Quality Content with Ease.

Everyone will gladly endorse your company—only if they don’t have to stay up late, pick the right photo (where everyone looks good and has their eyes open🙄), or edit the team’s video for hours before publishing it on social platforms.

Make it as easy as 1-2-3 with:

• Tools and training materials: Ambasify, Oktopost, GaggleAMP
• Content library: Prioritize social-sharing tips and templates for LinkedIn—the most powerful hub for employer brand promotion and hiring.
• Keywords: Use an advanced SEO checker for keyword research and optimization. If it’s a “We’re hiring” publication, stuff it with industry-driven (say, “law careers” or “artificial intelligence”) and job-focused keywords (say, “International Lawyer” or “AI Engineer”).
• Hashtags: #hiringnow, #joinourteam, #bestplacetowork, #lovemyjob, #dreamteam, etc.

For example:

Here’s how the editor at Launch Potato announced the Lead UX Designer job opening in their company with appropriate hashtags.

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And if you want to bring it to a more structured level, here’s a great case in point.

As part of an effective employee ambassadorship program at Danfoss, they run regular training sessions on LinkedIn content creation and personal branding. Plus, they have a content library of sources and hashtags, such as #wearedanfoss and #danfossmoment, for employee-led PR posts.

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Volume Up the Voices of Your Team’s Newcomers or Interns.

Whether you’re welcoming new employees to the team or running an internship program, you have the most enthusiastic brand advocates in both scenarios. Why so? Because these are fresh and super-emotional impressions for both new hires and interns. And they would speak about those authentically.

New Hire Onboarding

For example:

“What impressed me the most was my boss—she is the most dedicated person in the company, setting a great example for everyone. The positive atmosphere and hardworking culture motivated me to do my best.”

That’s what OmniMarketing’s new hire wrote in the “My First Day at Work” post on LinkedIn.

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A positive employee onboarding experience like that can act as a strong attractor, drawing new candidates who’d definitely want to know what it’s really like to join your company.

Internship

For example:

Let’s go to TikTok and see how the Starbucks intern is sharing her training experience with corporate swag and activities for interns at the company.

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Mind: TikTok is the #1 digital channel for attracting Gen Z talent through employee-led PR.

Encourage Employee-Led Initiatives.

True enthusiasm and motivation sprout from human hearts, not corporate scripts.

So, let your team members lead passionate projects that truly mean something to them and then tell the world about them. That would be employee-led PR and employer branding at its finest.

Together, you can brainstorm ideas like these:

• Employee resource groups (ERGs) with dedicated ERG events
• Peer-led lunch-and-learns or mentorships
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR), like “Give Back” or “Save the Planet” missions
• Intrapreneurship challenges
• And so on.

For example:

Intentionally with the pun, let’s land the case of SkyTeam. The Aviation Challenge at the global airline alliance is a “meaningful employee-led sustainability initiative” that has grown into a friendly competition to reduce environmental impact through alternative fuels, waste reduction, and other solutions.

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Create Team-Bonding Moments Worth Sharing.

When your team members enjoy spending quality time together, their content would practically “generate” itself automatically (not as if they were held hostages for a photo). They would naturally capture that laughable moment from your team-building event and put it into a branded picture frame like a mini-billboard for your employer brand in the offline environment, or go social and share selfies or videos from:

• First-day welcome rituals
• Workshops
• Corporate parties
• Volunteering days
• Friendly competitions
• Hilarious team-building activities
• Personal or professional milestone celebrations (e.g., a birthday or a work anniversary)
• Wellness initiatives

For example:

Just take a look at this selfie from the “yoga class at work” with the hashtag #ilovemyjob.

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Having a virtual yoga class or any other team-bonding activity remotely? No worries. You can always take a screenshot of the most wonderful (or the funniest!) moment for employer branding.

Drive Fantastic Employee Experiences Worth Bragging About with Confetti

When all is said and done, you can understand that employee-led recruitment PR doesn’t come from instructions and perfectly staged photos; it derives from genuine moments your staff can’t help but share.

Explore Confetti and choose the right activity to create brag-worthy team-building experiences your workers will remember and loudly (and proudly!) talk about, online or offline. Because when the experience is awesome, everything flows naturally. No pushing needed 😉