Just read about employee advocates in a report (Do Your Employees Advocate for Your Company?) from Forrester. I am a big believer in understanding how to get employees onboard as advocates. I think it is where future success truly lies. How to do it is another story.
The survey (which I believe is only available to subscribers) was among 5, 519 technology end users in Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the US. They used the well-known NPS (Net Promoter Score developed at Bain) to ask employees how likely they would be to recommend their employer’s products/services to a friend or relative and how likely they would be to recommend their company as an employer? Without a doubt, employee advocates are critical to spreading positive word of mouth, attracting the best talent and building reputation. The headline about the results say it all, “The Sorry State of Employee Advocacy.” Here are a few nuggets:
- Employees in North America and Europe scored-23% on the employee advocacy index developed for recommending their company’s products and services. Particularly interesting to me was that detractors or what we at Weber Shandwick call “badvocates” made up 49% of the respondents on this question, 24% were neutral and 27% were advocates or promoters. Essentially, the badvocates were nearly twice as prominent in their answers compared to advocates.
- For the second NPS question about recommending the company as a good place to work to a friend or family member, the employee advocacy score was -16%, with 43% detractors, 29% neutrals and 27% advocates. Badvocates still overwhelm the discussion about one’s company as an employer. That is alot of conversation to compensate for.
These findings do not speak well of employees’ endorsement of the companies they work for and the goods they produce. Of course, this is not a representative sample because they are information workers. However, I suspect that if the research was conducted among a broader population, the results could be as bad or even worse. The economy certainly is a factor but in truth, greater attention needs to be paid internally for advocacy to take root. This is a good starting point for understanding employee advocacy however.
In an earlier post, Leslie Gaines-Ross introduced Civility in America, a study jointly conducted by Weber Shandwick, Powell Tate and KRC Research. With the issue of incivility growing in the media (mentions in global media nearly doubled in less than five years), we thought it would be a good idea to pull some important facts out from the study about how incivility impacts business.
First, the situation today…
As the economy recovers and companies look for fresh and meaningful ways to connect with consumers, executives need to address a problem in America today: Consumers see a growing trend of incivility in society coupled with low levels of respect for big business. An integral component of reputation recovery includes reinforcing – through deeds and communications - a commitment to improving civility.
- The past few years have not been kind. Most Americans (71%) believe that the financial crisis and recession made the level of civility in America worse. Only 20% feel that civility was not impacted by the tough economic times and even fewer (9%) report an improvement in civility since the crisis.
- Nearly half of Americans believe incivility is prevalent among company CEOs (49%) and four in 10 believe incivility is prevalent inside companies and workplaces (40%).
- In a previous Weber Shandwick and KRC Research survey, only 14% of U.S. executives rated CEOs positively and in an AP-National Constitution Center Poll, only 8% of American adults reported having confidence in major companies.
Americans Hold Businesses Accountable for Incivility
Consumers don’t simply complain about incivility, they react to it in ways that could influence the success of a brand. A full three-quarters of them believe people should boycott products from uncivil companies. Consumers report that they have indeed punished companies for uncivil behavior in a variety of ways…
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Americans who have ever…
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Total Americans
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Decided not to watch a television program or listen to a radio program any longer because you were uncomfortable with its lack of civility or its tone of conversation
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63%
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Decided not to buy from a company again because someone from that company was uncivil in the way they treated you
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56%
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Reevaluated your opinion of a company because its tone or conduct was uncivil
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55%
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Advised friends, family or co-workers not to buy certain products or services because you felt a company or its representative was rude or uncivil
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49%
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Canceled a subscription to a newspaper or magazine because you thought it was uncivil
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18%
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Corporate America is Expected to Make a Difference
The majority of Americans (79%) hold businesses highly accountable for improving the state of civility. Among the ways in which companies can improve their civility reputation…
- Set a civil example. Nine in ten Americans (91%) agree that business leaders should set an example and always behave with civility.
- Address uncivil behavior inside the workplace. Eight in 10 Americans (82%) believe companies should have zero tolerance policies for incivility.
- Hold the marketing chain accountable. Three-quarters of Americans (75%) feel that companies should pull advertising on shows or websites that include uncivil behavior and nearly two-thirds (63%) agree that companies with uncivil advertising should be fined.
Next week we’ll share more focused research from the study.
