What is Employee Generated Content?
Employee Generated Content (EGC) is stories, testimonials, videos, and content created by employees of an organization. It’s a form of User Generated Content (UGC): a tactic which has taken the marketing industry by storm. Companies have found that messages, videos, and testimonials from real consumers are more impactful —and more effective than polished, company-generated content. In the consumer world, UGC provides an authentic, cost-effective way to engage with their audiences, build trust, and elevate their brand. When it comes to recruiting, Employee Generated Content (EGC) is on the rise, providing a space for authentic storytelling, and for employees to paint a clear picture of life at your company.
This content can be shared across all your company channels like on your career site and social media. By highlighting the stories and experiences of real employees, it helps to show the value and lends credibility to your employer brand and EVP.
Why is Employee Generated Content important?
As the talent market gets tighter, savvy teams have noticed the many parallels between recruiting and marketing: and EGC is a natural extension of this. We know that customers trust information more when it comes from real people like them —and EGC is no different.
Jobseekers today are discerning. They’re increasingly skeptical about the claims employers make about themselves, but are much more likely to trust opinions from their peers. EGC helps put a face to your employer brand — the stories told by employees are much more engaging and memorable than traditional, static career site content, and more effective at convincing jobseekers to hit “apply”.
EGC in statistics
Employee Generated Content has become a major driving force in today’s hiring landscape. Its impact on jobseeker engagement is clear:
61% of jobseekers are more skeptical 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.
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 jobseekers 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 more likely to apply to your vacancies.
Improves interview-to-placement rates
Giving applicants 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.
Allows jobseekers to self-select out
EGC gives applicants an authentic idea of 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 organization work. EGC allows organizations to ‘walk the walk’ and showcase their diverse team.
Increases traffic to your career site
By building a bank of Employee Generated Content, you can increase your career site’s visibility to a wider audience. With a content-focused approach, your chances of attracting top talent grow as your career site traffic rises.
Combats negative reviews
Your organization’s score on review sites such as Glassdoor can easily be skewed by one negative review from a disgruntled ex-employee. EGC helps to present an accurate window into life at your organization straight from your team.
Improves employee morale
Asking your employees to contribute EGC helps to keep them engaged in their role by recognizing them as experts in their field, helping them to showcase their work and grow their personal brand. This helps to 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 builds trust and boosts engagement with potential candidates. But, creating content is a time-consuming task. Plus, managing branding, and ensuring the messaging is consistent with your company’s EVP can be a challenge with so many stakeholders involved.
Clinch Employee Connections solves these problems by letting career site visitors dictate the topics they want to learn more about. They can ask direct questions to relevant employees or take part in live-chat sessions. Your employees generally only need to spend 10-15 mins a month answering questions to help build up a bank of valuable content —across blogs, videos, and discussion forums. We also train your nominated employees in how to respond to candidates and can set approval levels to help you easily manage what content is shown to candidates.
Find out more
Want to see Clinch Employee Connections in Action? Book a demo with us today to see how you can use employee stories to elevate your career site content.
