Companies trying to succeed in this digital age and cutthroat world must figure out ways they can keep their employees engaged, improve customer retention, and attract the right talent.
A digital transformation is almost necessary as you strive to enhance the way your business operates.
One way to get started is to help foster and nurture relationships among your employees. This will enhance trust and further drive engagement and productivity.
Research shows that employees who have work friends are seven times more likely to be engaged in their job duties, in addition to being healthier and happier.
Relationships can be created when employees are recognized company-wide. Employee spotlights are effective at making this happen.
Regardless of whether you run a company from one central location or if your employees are spread thin across the world and remotely, employee spotlights can connect employees and keep them engaged.
Further, they can instill a sense of much-needed trust in customers and prospective hires.
Ready to know more about them?
What are Employee Spotlights?
An employee spotlight is some of the most powerful content you can have on your website.
This content will highlight a specific employee’s background with the company, anniversaries, accomplishments, personality, successes, and more.
An employee spotlight puts your employees front and center for everyone to learn more about them and your brand.
These spotlights can be very powerful tools when it comes to building trust and loyalty among other employees, potential new hires, and even customers.
What is the Purpose of Employee Spotlights?
Ultimately, the main goal of an employee spotlight is to garner trust among employees and provide new hire prospects additional information about the company and people they will potentially be working with in the near future.
You are essentially putting a face to your company as you share first-hand experiences and stories of your employees.
Employee spotlights also serve as a useful sales tool in building both trust and credibility with customers. People prefer to buy from other people and brands they like.
Of course, these spotlights also recognize your employees in a way that other forms of content simply cannot.
When employees feel appreciated and valued, their productivity levels increase.
Further, employees are more likely to tell others about the great company they work for, increasing employee retention and loyalty.
By offering employee spotlights, others (from employees to customers) will find your company far more trustworthy, which can potentially increase traffic, sales, and retention.
Benefits of Employee Spotlights
While the most obvious benefit of employee spotlights is recognizing and showing your appreciation for the wonderful employees of your company, there are numerous other benefits that you can reap by using employee spotlights.
After all, these spotlights serve as a marketing and sales tool that isn’t over-the-top with sales and marketing language.
It is an authentic way to market your brand and give it the chance to stand out among the competition.
Here is a look at some of the most common benefits of employee spotlights.
Improve Your Employee Recruitment Strategy
Recruiting new employees that fit your brand and company culture isn’t easy.
The good news is that employee spotlights can help your business recruit some of the best people to become part of your company moving forward.
Best of all? Employee spotlights are free marketing tools for your brand, spreading the word about how great it is to work at your company.
When potential hires are looking for a match, they want to know as much as they can about the company they are considering applying to and working for.
They want to know what it is like to work within the company, who their potential co-workers may be, and what kind of benefits they can expect to reap by joining the company.
Believe it or not, a well-crafted employee spotlight may just be the one thing that sways a prospect’s decision to join your company.
Develop Solid Connections Among Employees
One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to foster great connections and relationships among your employees is through employee spotlights that showcase individual employees at different times.
Employee spotlights can be particularly beneficial if you run a larger company with multiple departments, as it can be difficult for all of your employees to get to know one another.
Essentially, these spotlights can remove barriers between departments, offering employees an opportunity to speak to others in different departments.
In the end, this can help improve communication, productivity, and the bottom line.
Increase Social Media Reach and Engagement
Employee spotlights are popular in and of their own right, but when they are put on social media where they can be viewed and shared, their potential benefits for your company are significantly increased.
Employees, families, and friends love to be able to share a company’s post that features information about someone they know and are fond of.
It is much more likely for an employee spotlight to be shared than a corporate brand message.
Each time you have something shared on social media, it is an opportunity to reach people who didn’t know your brand beforehand.
This may result in new candidates as well as new customers, both of whom will feel better about your company when you are connecting and engaging with your employees and the rest of the world.
How to Create an Employee Spotlight
Now that you understand what employee spotlights are and their benefits, it is time to learn how to create your very own that will stand out in a crowd.
Before you get started, you must identify who you plan to showcase, what type of information will be included in the spotlight, and where the spotlight will be posted.
1. Who to Showcase in Your Employee Spotlight
Unless you have an employee who does not want to be highlighted, any employee should be up for grabs.
Further, you should switch up the departments from one spotlight to the next, allowing the chance for anyone and everyone to be recognized regardless of their position or time with the company.
2. What Information to Include in Your Employee Spotlight
Your employee spotlight is only as good as the information provided in it.
While you can take your own spin on the spotlight — and you should — it is important to ensure that the basic information is included.
Employee spotlights should always include these basic details:
- Employee picture
- Employee name
- Employee job title
- Employee direct quote
You can get creative with the information in the employee spotlight by offering more details, such as length of employment, detailed description of their role in the company, and even some of their favorite hobbies outside of work.
A Q&A session with the employee being highlighted can really add value to the spotlight.
If you decide to go this route, make sure that you ask questions that make it easy for your employee to speak about your brand in a positive light.
Some example topics you can cover in a Q&A session include:
- Company culture and leadership
- Job role details and why they love it
- What attracted the employee to the company/job
- Employee benefits and perks
As you embark on an employee Q&A session, you will want to avoid focusing too much on trying to get the perfect response.
Let the answers from your employee flow, and when something is mentioned that you can expand on, go with it.
While there is a basic template to follow, you want each and every one of your employee spotlights to highlight that employee in a unique and different manner.
This ensures that people are more likely to reach all the spotlights shared.
3. Where to Share Your Employee Spotlight
When it comes to your employee spotlights, you want to post them anywhere you possibly can. A good place to start is your company blog.
To garner more traffic for your spotlights and blog overall, utilize social media.
This will increase the number of individuals who are reading the spotlights. Social media also allows you to reach people you wouldn’t have otherwise.
These spotlights can also be featured in your company newsletter.
This ensures everyone in the company knows who they are working with, potentially increasing employee morale and better relationships among team members and across departments.
If you decide to film the spotlight, make sure to upload it to YouTube. This is a platform that is great for hosting your videos and expanding your brand exposure.
Wrap Up
Employee spotlights serve as a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to develop authentic content that can be shared with others.
Plus, they can be incredibly fun and not just strictly about business.
Employee spotlights have the power to connect employees, new talent, and customers to your company culture while also ensuring employees feel appreciated and potentially attracting and engaging prospective candidates.
If you are not currently utilizing the power of employee spotlights, you are missing out.
You may also want to learn about how defining your company’s organizational structure can further foster connections among employees and customers in addition to improving your company and its culture as a whole.
Check it out in our blog!
