Manufacturing revenue will amount to more than $7,958,000 million this year, so it’s no doubt a thriving industry. But which manufacturers will outperform their competitors?
Answering this question requires looking at numerous factors, but one that may go overlooked is this: Those with a formal employee influencer program are more likely to experience rapid growth.
In fact, nearly 31% of high-growth organizations have an employee advocacy program in place — more than double the average of other companies.
If your company hasn’t adopted one yet, now’s the time to activate your employees’ social networks and reap the countless benefits of employee advocacy for manufacturing.
How Employee Advocacy Addresses Manufacturers’ Unique Challenges
What is it about an employee social-sharing solution that’s so valuable for the manufacturing industry in particular?
It aids in recruitment.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 11.7 million people employed in the manufacturing sector. But while the industry continues to experience financial growth, it’s losing its human capital.
The average age of its highly skilled workers is 56 and nearly 25% of them will retire in a few years. In fact, 80% of manufacturers say it’s important for them to meet workforce demands.
In other words, the manufacturing workforce is shrinking, and HR needs to find ways to improve employer branding and catch the eye of new, skilled workers.
That’s where an employee influencer program comes in.
An employee influencer solution like EveryoneSocial empowers employees to share company content, showing their personal networks that they’re proud of the place they work. And that’s exactly what potential employees want to see.
Eighty-four percent of job seekers say an employer’s reputation is important, and 90% percent say they’ll apply for a job at a company that actively maintains its employer brand.
It improves company culture, employee engagement, and retention.
The manufacturing sector has an estimated employee engagement rate of 25%, trailing the national average by 8%.
And it doesn’t help that the industry also has a culture and image problem.
”Warranted or not, the sector doesn’t appeal to tech-oriented talent like other industries and, thus, often struggles to attract digital-savvy candidates that are necessary to stimulate growth and push innovation,” according to Betterworks.
Implementing an employee influencer program is an effective way to improve company culture though and positively influence employee engagement.
Why? Because it keeps employees informed, helps them feel connected with managers and colleagues, and gives them a voice, improving two-way communication and helping workers feel more comfortable providing feedback.
In fact, 77% of employees say a strong culture allows them to do their best work, and 74% draw a correlation between culture and their ability to serve their customer base.
Employees who participate in a social-sharing program are also more likely to feel empowered and remain at the organization.
It makes them more competitive.
In addition to recruiting challenges and an aging workforce, the manufacturing industry also must compete against international firms with substantially lower labor costs.
But with a formal employee influencer program in place, manufacturers can create a more informed and engaging environment that fosters productivity, communication, and innovation.
Research shows that engaged employees are 17% more productive than their peers, so the manufacturers that commit time and resources to turning employees into influencers will reap the benefits of a more productive workforce.
It increases pipeline and shortens the sales cycle.
“The effective use of digital channels to drive leads, sales, and MRR are some of the primary … challenges the manufacturing industry faces.”
Again, an employee advocacy solution like EveryoneSocial can help with this.
For one, when employees tout their company and its products on social media, the brand’s reach expands and more people become aware of — and interested in — those products.
Social-sharing programs also aid manufacturers’ sales teams by enabling them to better connect with and engage with current and prospective customers.
This is called social selling, and it pays off in a big way: Social selling programs drive increased pipeline, better win rates, a shortened sales cycle, and up to 48% larger deals.
It connects and informs frontline workers.
Many manufacturing workers are frontline workers who may not have a desk or even a company email, so it’s no surprise that 44% of these workers feel disconnected from their employer or that 27% of them say they’re underappreciated.
But a social-sharing solution like EveryoneSocial provides deskless workers with the resources they need to be informed, feel connected, and do their best work.
No matter what a manufacturing employee’s role at the company is, being able to engage with company news and information is beneficial, especially when it can be accessed on the go via the EveryoneSocial app.
3 Advocacy Tips for Manufacturers to Run an Employee Influencer Program
Now that you understand the value of employee influencers in the manufacturing sector, let’s explore four key ways you can get the most out of activating your people’s networks.
1. Choose the right software.
You can certainly launch your employee advocacy program without actual software. You can manually share and track links in a spreadsheet, share posts via Slack or internal newsletters, or opt for a social media tool that has a secondary advocacy feature.
But none of these options are a pure play employee advocacy solution like EveryoneSocial.
If you want to truly empower your workforce and tap into the power of employee advocacy, you need a platform designed to do exactly that.
Not only does EveryoneSocial streamline content and simplify social sharing, but it also has numerous features that’ll actually motivate people to share, such as leaderboards, content emails, notifications, and more.
Don’t have an employee advocacy budget just yet? No problem. Sign up for our free forever plan.
2. Establish goals.
Before you start inviting employees to create and share company content, determine what you want your program to achieve.
Will you primarily use it to improve employer brand and recruit employees to your manufacturing company?
Or will you start with your sales team so they can better engage in social selling?
There’s a lot to consider, so do your research, determine what would benefit the organization most, and be sure to develop a strong content strategy.
3. Prep employees.
Not every person is comfortable on social media, and even those who are used to engaging online might not understand the unique ways that employee advocacy can help them. Here’s how to ensure they’re ready to become influencers for your organization.
Train them. Seventy-five percent of workers are never trained on how to engage professionally on social channels, but research shows that they want to learn.
What do they want to know?
According to a Social Media Today survey, they want their employers to train them on how to foster engagement, how to use specific social channels, how to create a content strategy, how to generate and nurture leads, and how to become brand advocates.
You’ll also want to explain the benefits that participation in your employee influencer has for workers, such as expanding their personal networks and helping them build a personal brand.
Another important thing to cover with employees? Your social media policy, so if you don’t have one, now’s the time to create one.
Establish a social media policy. The manufacturing industry can be heavily regulated, so it’s important to have a policy in place to guide workers, in addition to providing them with social training.
Not only does this help protect the company, but it also encourages employees to participate in your social-sharing program more because they know the parameters of using social media at work.
However, half of workers say their company has no such policy in place. Yikes.
If you’re one of those, check out this guide to creating social media rules that also features social media policy examples from some of the world’s top brands.
Take precautions. One of the main reasons why manufacturers may be hesitant to encourage social media usage at work is because they worry that employees might post the wrong things.
It’s important to remember though that you hired your people because they’re a good fit for your culture, so you can trust them to represent themselves — and the company — online.
And with EveryoneSocial, you can take a few precautions to ensure that your company and its people are protected online by doing the following:
- Add your social media policy. Upload your social guidelines to the platform, so every employee can easily refer to them at any time..
- Use disclosures. These are phrases or hashtags that are added to all shares that originate from EveryoneSocial. American Family Insurance, for example, uses #iWork4AmFam.
- Include pre-written share copy. Want to ensure that certain pieces of content are shared only with specific copy? That’s easy with Everyonesocial. Add the exact copy you want people to use, or simply toggle a button to allow users to craft their own.
- Create private groups. If there’s some content you want accessible only to certain employees — such as those that hold certain manufacturing licenses or certifications — take advantage of EveryoneSocial’s private groups feature to allow only those users to see, engage, or share that content.
Manufacture Incredible Results with EveryoneSocial
Today, an employee social-sharing platform like EveryoneSocial is key for manufacturers to compete for workers, sales, and more.
Try out our ROI calculator to see just what we can do for your organization.
