For decades, public relations has focused on managing external stakeholders: the media, consumers, analysts, and investors. But in the digital age, a new and powerful voice has emerged from within organizations: employees. These internal stakeholders—once kept behind the curtain—now have direct access to audiences through LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and Glassdoor. They post, share, review, celebrate, critique, and most importantly, influence.
Welcome to the era of employee advocacy—where your staff is not only your company’s backbone, but also your most credible brand ambassadors. For PR professionals, this shift represents a massive opportunity—and an equally significant challenge. If you ignore the employee voice, you risk reputational blind spots. If you activate it authentically, you unlock a force more powerful than any paid campaign.
This op-ed explores how PR professionals can harness employee advocacy, the risks of neglecting it, and real-world examples of brands that have turned internal culture into external credibility.
Why Employee Advocacy Now?
Three converging forces have made employee advocacy one of the most critical elements in modern PR:
- The Trust Crisis
Traditional institutions—media, government, corporations—face record-low trust levels. According to Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer, employees are now the most trusted voices about a company, ahead of CEOs, journalists, and even NGOs. - The Transparency Age
Social platforms and employee review sites (Glassdoor, Blind, Indeed) mean companies can no longer control the narrative from the top down. Internal practices become public quickly—sometimes virally. - Remote Work Culture
Post-pandemic, remote work has flattened hierarchies and encouraged personal branding. Employees now communicate in public more frequently, and their networks have become part of the company’s extended reach.
What Is Employee Advocacy in PR?
At its core, employee advocacy is the voluntary promotion of a company by its people. This could include:
- Sharing company updates on social media
- Speaking at conferences or webinars
- Writing thought leadership articles or blogs
- Reviewing the company positively on public platforms
- Engaging in brand campaigns or storytelling efforts
Unlike influencer marketing, this is not transactional. It’s built on trust, culture, and empowerment. The most effective employee advocates feel proud, valued, and heard.
From Risk to Reward: The Power of Employee Voice
A single employee post can go viral—for better or worse. PR professionals must think of employee content as both a potential crisis trigger and a brand asset.
Positive Example: Adobe’s #AdobeLife Campaign
Adobe encourages employees to share their daily work life, achievements, and community involvement using the #AdobeLife hashtag. The campaign has generated millions of impressions, improved recruitment, and enhanced Adobe’s employer brand—all organically.
Negative Example: Amazon Warehouse Employees on TikTok
In contrast, Amazon has faced ongoing criticism from warehouse workers sharing their experiences with grueling conditions. These first-person videos have sparked public outrage, influenced unionization efforts, and forced the company into defensive PR stances.
Lesson: Empowered employees create stories that stick. Disempowered employees create stories that spread.
Creating a Culture of Advocacy
You can’t force advocacy. You must earn it.
PR must collaborate with HR and internal communications to build an environment where employees want to share:
- Psychological safety: Employees need to feel they can speak honestly without fear of retaliation.
- Transparent leadership: When leaders communicate authentically, employees follow suit.
- Recognition and inclusion: When employees are seen, they shine light back on the company.
PR’s job is not to script employees—but to equip them. That means:
- Providing branded toolkits (images, hashtags, templates)
- Offering training on personal branding and responsible social use
- Celebrating employee voices and contributions publicly
- Giving employees early access to campaigns and content
Make employees co-creators, not just consumers, of your PR narrative.
Who Owns Employee Advocacy?
PR professionals must take a leading role—but not the only role.
Effective employee advocacy requires cross-functional collaboration between:
- HR: For onboarding, engagement, and cultural programs
- Internal Comms: For messaging and alignment
- Marketing: For brand voice and campaign integration
- Executives: To model advocacy from the top down
Ideally, a centralized employee advocacy manager or team lives within PR or Comms and helps activate, train, and support champions throughout the company.
Authenticity Over Amplification
Beware the temptation to manufacture employee advocacy. Overly scripted programs, mandatory social shares, or reward-based incentives can backfire and breed cynicism.
Instead, focus on authenticity.
Example: Microsoft’s LinkedIn Culture Movement
Microsoft encourages employees to post freely on LinkedIn about career milestones, tech projects, and values. There’s no pushy script. Employees speak in their own voices, and Microsoft supports them with trust, not pressure.
The result: Microsoft ranks among the top companies for talent magnetism and has one of the most engaged employee communities on LinkedIn.
What About Dissenting Voices?
Employee advocacy doesn’t mean silence during controversy. In fact, allowing space for criticism can build more credibility than policing it.
Example: Google Walkout (2018)
20,000 Google employees staged a walkout to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment claims. Instead of shutting it down, Google allowed the protest and acknowledged the concerns publicly.
The PR win? Google showed it could listen—even when it hurt.
Suppression only fuels leaks and whistleblowing. Encouraging transparency, even when uncomfortable, builds long-term reputational resilience.
Metrics That Matter
Employee advocacy can (and should) be measured. Key performance indicators (KPIs) include:
- Social media reach and engagement from employee shares
- Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
- Employee-generated content volume
- Brand sentiment analysis across employee networks
- Referrals and talent acquisition conversions from employee posts
- Internal comms open rates and participation in advocacy programs
The ROI is real: Brands with active employee advocacy programs see 24% higher profit margins and 47% more brand visibility online, according to a LinkedIn Workplace Study.
Empowering Different Types of Employee Advocates
Not all employees will be loud online—but all can be advocates in their own way. Identify different advocacy personas:
- The Influencer: Has a strong online presence and regularly posts content
- The Evangelist: Speaks proudly about the company offline
- The Educator: Teaches, mentors, or leads internal initiatives
- The Tester: Gives product feedback and improves internal processes
- The Community Builder: Connects peers and fosters culture
Each of these roles contributes to the brand. PR professionals must find, empower, and reward them accordingly.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
Employee advocacy blurs the line between personal and professional. To avoid legal or reputational missteps, PR teams must work with Legal to create clear guidelines:
- Social media use policies
- Disclosure rules (especially for publicly traded companies)
- Confidentiality training
- Crisis protocols (e.g., how to respond to misinformation or leaks)
However, avoid heavy-handed controls. The goal is empowerment, not surveillance.
Employee Advocacy During Crisis
During a crisis, employee advocates can be your brand’s best defenders—or harshest critics.
To prepare:
- Build trust before the crisis hits
- Keep employees informed early and often
- Equip them with facts, FAQs, and updates
- Encourage authentic but respectful discourse
- Monitor sentiment inside and out
The best PR during crisis often starts within. If employees feel respected and included, they’ll support the company’s story.
Looking Ahead: Advocacy as Brand Architecture
As Gen Z becomes a dominant workforce demographic, employee advocacy will only grow more vital. This generation is vocal, digital-first, and values-driven. They expect employers to not only talk the talk, but live it—and they’ll post receipts if that’s not the case.
PR professionals must evolve from brand defenders to brand builders—collaborating internally as much as externally. The next era of public relations is not about pushing messages. It’s about facilitating belief.
Final Thought: Employees Are the New PR Department
In 2025 and beyond, every employee is a spokesperson. Every Slack message, LinkedIn post, and company review contributes to the brand narrative. PR teams must stop treating internal audiences as afterthoughts. Instead, they must center them.
The brands that thrive in this environment are the ones that empower, trust, and celebrate their people. Because in the end, the most trusted stories are not told by the company—but by the people who power it.
