5 Questions to Obtain Employee Testimonials
When job candidates want to learn about your company, many go straight to your website or social media pages. In “The Future of Recruiting” study, 61% of those surveyed said they visit a company’s online presence before they apply for a job. And 67% of millennial job seekers review social media pages to discover your culture, and prep for interviews.
Why Employee Testimonials Matter
Beyond brand copy and curated social posts, job seekers value insight from employees.
To get a sense of what your people say about their jobs, job seekers visit sites like Glassdoor, Great Places to Work, and others where past and current employees can post reviews. And, as The Future of Recruiting report points out, what job seekers find isn’t always positive: 33% of posters have shared at least one negative review of a past or prospective employer.
By using employee testimonials, you can give your people a different way to share positive information.
Employee testimonials, whether told via quotes, short video stories, or social media posts, can help job seekers learn about your employer brand, and get a sense of what the workplace culture is like, from your employees.
Testimonials can play a key role in your larger recruitment strategy:
- Testimonials can help you gather and share authentic, first-person accounts of what it’s like to work for your company or organization.
- And they can help you attract candidates that align with your culture.
How to Recruit Testimonial Volunteers
Identify your people.
There are a number of ways you can recruit employees to share testimonials. For example, you can send a company-wide email blast, post an announcement in the employee newsletter, ask managers to help promote your efforts, or to share a few names with you.
Aim for variety.
Look for a range of employees that will help you showcase your company’s range and diversity. This includes the personal (a mix of ages and backgrounds) as well as the professional (job functions, titles, and years with the company). Having a solid mix of feedback will also give you more content to work with when it’s time to start using testimonials.
Decide how you’ll share testimonials.
How you share testimonials can come down to time, budget, and how tech savvy your team is. In some cases, you might be looking to post short employee blurbs on your website. Or, your company might create a series of short videos to use on social media. Knowing how you’ll use them will help guide your process.
5 Questions to Help You Obtain Employee Testimonials
Whether you’re recording interview-style videos, gathering insight via email, or taking notes during quick face-to-face meetings, keep questions open-ended, and focused on the company (and their jobs). After you gather some basics (how long they’ve worked at the company, their job title, etc.), the following five questions can help you pull more in-depth insight from your volunteers:
- What is the most interesting thing about working here, and about the work you do?
- What are three benefits you’ve discovered about working here that you weren’t aware of when you started?
- What are your thoughts about the company’s vision and direction, and your role in helping us achieve them?
- What advice would you give a job seeker who’s thinking about applying for a job with us?
- When you tell people about your job, what’s one thing that surprises them, or gets them excited about the work you do?
Once you’ve completed interviews, and/or gathered notes, here are a few next steps:
Review and analyze the answers you receive.
This can help you identify trends, and organize responses to help you see where feedback overlaps, or where contradictions exist.
Edit and prepare employee testimonials for use.
If you’re using written testimonials, consider editing copy in order to highlight key points you want to draw out. While employees might have shared great insights, shorter, specific testimonials can be a good thing. Consider breaking longer replies into smaller soundbites to use in different places (website, social media, print material, etc.)
Get employee sign-off.
This step is especially important if you’ve edited their words. Let employees review and agree with your changes before you share with a larger audience. Also, you can use this time to thank employees, and provide a link where they can share testimonials with their network.
Finally, be clear about the testimonial process all the way through.
Transparency can go a long way when it comes to making sure employees are comfortable with the testimonial process. From beginning to end, let them know what you’re looking for, what they’ll get for participating (some companies give gift cards, for instance), and where the content will appear.
Job seekers trust what they hear from employees, and testimonials are a great way to get your employees involved in the recruiting process.
