Employee advocacy programs and Engagement of Employee on Social Media Channels- A case study analysis of The Post Office UK

Abstract

A UK based organisation, namely Post Office, aims at assessing the effectiveness of its employee advocacy programs in terms of increasing the engagement of its employees on social media platforms. For this purpose, the company has enrolled its employees in a 30-day Social Club training course which aims at growing the influence and professional confidence of trainees on social media to benefit the brands they work for. Henceforth, the report aims at exploring the effectiveness of this course for Post Office’s employee advocacy and employee engagement initiatives. This research has evaluated the employee advocacy initiative of the company Post Office in the light of two theories namely Kotter’s eight stage change management model and the organisational decision-making process model. A detailed review of these models signifies that the 30-day social club course can prove to be beneficial in terms of increasing the engagement of the employees towards advocacy. Other than this, the use of the survey strategy and frequency analysis comprising of a total of 11 employees of Post Office has also been conducted. The findings of this primary research revealed that data obtained through the survey signifies that engagement on social media about Post Office can help in increasing awareness about the company. Moreover, sharing content about the company on social media can empower the employees to effectively contribute towards information sharing about the company in an effective way. Better positioning of Post Office and enhanced public image can also be achieved as a result. Nonetheless, some concerns with respect to the cost and duration of the 30-day course were also raised. Based on the findings of the research, the recommendations that have been made to Post Office include in-house training of employees to make them understand the importance and benefits for the employees and the organisation behind the implementation of the advocacy program, focusing on enrolling the top employees in the 30-day social club course first so that they can lead others by example and motivating the employees to ensure the long term implementation of the advocacy program through rewards and appreciation.