What is Employee Generated Content?
User Generated Content (UGC), or content created by people, rather than brands, has become a key part of the marketing strategy for retailers in recent years, as they know their customers trust information more when it comes from real people like them. In fact, consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands.
Employee Generated Content is a form of UGC where content – text, videos, images, testimonials etc – is created by an organisation’s employees. This content can be shared on websites, social media or other channels and helps to show the value and story behind your brand and typically is much more engaging and authentic than corporate careers copy.
Why is Employee Generated Content important?
Today’s employment market is extremely competitive and companies are struggling to make themselves attractive to the right candidates for their roles. Job seekers are increasingly sceptical about the claims employers make about themselves but are much more likely to trust opinions from people like themselves. EGC helps put a face to a brand and the stories told by employees are much more engaging and memorable than traditional career content.
EGC in statistics
The number of candidates reporting a “great” candidate experience has fallen by 3%.
Source: Talent Board
61% of jobseekers are more sceptical of claims made by employers than before.
Source: CEB
57% of candidates said employers do not share important information such as “day in the life” stories.
Source: Talent Board
Content shared by employees receives 8x more engagement than content shared by brand channels.
Source: Social Media Today
Employee stories are 20% more immersive than traditional careers site content and candidates reading these stories have 2x less frustration finding the information they need.
Source: Clinch Authentic Employer Branding Report
Brand messages are re-shared up to 24 times more when distributed by your employees instead of a brand.
Source: Viral Nation
The benefits of using Employee Generated Content
Boosts application rates
ECG keeps candidates more engaged throughout the recruitment process. If they feel employees are making an effort to answer their questions, and are getting the information they need to make a decision, they are ultimately more likely to apply to your vacancies.
Improves interview-to-placement rates
Giving candidates insights and advice throughout the recruitment process, helps the best candidates to shine and present themselves to their best advantage at the application and interview stages.
Discourages unsuitable candidates
EGC gives applicants an authentic idea what the day to day is like working in a particular role. This can help to discourage unsuitable candidates from applying who might have unrealistic expectations about the role, helping to reduce turnover.
Showcases diversity and inclusion
EGC is a great way to prove that the diversity and inclusion policies within your organisation work. It’s all very well a company claiming they encourage minorities, but if an actual member of that minority group tells candidates in detail how they are supported, it is much more convincing.
Increases traffic to your careers site
Building up a bank of employee generated content helps improve SEO and traffic to your careers site. EGC is generally very keyword rich and relevant to candidate searches, so it can help attract more people looking for similar answers.
Combats negative reviews
Your organisation’s score on review sites such as Glassdoor can easily be skewed by one negative review from a disgruntled ex-employee. EGC helps to give a more balanced view of your organisation as an employer from staff who are succeeding in their roles.
Improves employee morale
Asking your employees to contribute EGC helps to keep them engaged in their role by recognising them as experts in their field, helping them to showcase their work and grow their personal brand. This can potentially improve retention among your current employees.
So why doesn’t everyone use Employee Generated Content?
Employee Generated Content is a great way for your recruitment marketing team to generate cost-effective content that creates trust with candidates and boosts engagement rates. However, there are downsides to using EGC. Deciding on topics, creating content and signing it off can be very time-consuming for both recruitment marketing teams and the employees involved. It can also be difficult making sure all content created by employees is on brand and is consistent with the company’s Employer Value Proposition.
Clinch Employee Connections solves these problems by letting your candidates dictate the topics they want to learn more about and directing questions to the most appropriate employee. Each employee generally only needs to spend 10-15 mins a month answering questions to help build up a bank of really valuable content. We also train your nominated employees in how to respond to candidates and can set approval levels to help you control what content is shown to candidates.
Find out more
Find out more about how Mars used Employee Generated Content to keep their employer brand consistent with their corporate brand:
Mars Case Study
Alternatively book a demo with us and we can take you through a personalised demo giving you more information about what candidates in your sector are interested in and how your competitors are using EGC.
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