Your Best Brand Advocates Are Already on Your Payroll

When companies think about building brand advocates, they often look everywhere but inside their own walls. They spend millions of dollars and enormous amounts of time and energy investing in influencers, paying for testimonials or launching expensive social media campaigns, while overlooking the people who actually interact with and embody their brand every day – their employees.

That’s a significant missed opportunity.

Your employees aren’t just one of your most important audiences. When they feel informed, engaged and connected to your purpose, they can become your most credible and impactful brand advocates. When they are forgotten or treated as the last in the line of communications priorities, however, the results can be incredibly costly to both your organization’s future and bottom line.

Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace study reports that only 20% of employees were engaged in 2025, the lowest level since the pandemic. While the U.S. reported slightly better numbers at 31%, that still leaves two-thirds of employees who don’t feel engaged at work – creating significant productivity, turnover and profitability issues. In fact, Gallup estimated low engagement cost the global economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity in 2025 alone.

The issue isn't necessarily that companies aren't communicating with their employees. It's that leaders often mistake simply sending information as effective communications.

The 2025 Axios HQ Workplace Communication Research underscores the important role meaningful leadership communication plays in organizational success. In fact, the study showed that almost 80% of employees reported that the quality of leadership communication directly affects how well they understand organizational goals.

The biggest disconnect? While 80% of leaders said their internal communications are clear and engaging, only 50% of their employees agreed. In fact, only 9% of employees said they were entirely aligned with their organization's specific business goals. That’s not simply a communications gap. That is a costly business performance gap.

All is not lost. The same Axios study found that for employees who clearly understand their company goals and feel engaged, there were positive effects on productivity (63%), motivation (59%), satisfaction (54%), collaboration (45%) and problem-solving (44%). Leaders also reported that strongly aligned employees helped their organizations operate more efficiently (62%), increased revenue and profits (53%) and maintained or grew their customer base (49%).

Too often, employees are treated as the last audience in the communications plan rather than one of the first. A company develops the strategy, prepares the external announcement, briefs customers or investors and then asks, “What do we need to tell employees?” Internal communications becomes another box to check rather than an integral part of how the initiative is planned and executed.

“Don’t announce externally and inform internally. Plan for employees from the beginning.”

That thinking overlooks something incredibly important. Your employees aren't just an internal audience. Your employees don’t stop being employees when they log off. They’re customers, shareholders, members of the communities where you operate. They’re LinkedIn connections, partners, neighbors, fellow parents on the sidelines and friends at dinner. When someone asks, “What’s it like to work there?” or “What is your company really about?” their answer caries more credibility than any marketing campaign can ever manufacture.

You can’t, however, ask employees to advocate for a company they don’t understand, trust or feel connected to. While consistency is important, simply repeating information for the sake of information isn’t the answer. You must:

• Give employees context, not just information. Don't just tell them what is happening. Explain the why behind the decision, how it connects to the business strategy and what it means for them and the partners they work with be that customers or stakeholder they serve.

• Connect their work to the bigger picture. Employees should understand how what they do every day contributes to the company’s overall goals and strengthens your place in the market.

• Equip managers to communicate confidently. Your internal communications team can't carry the entire burden. Employees need context from the people they interact with every day. Gallup reports that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement, making this an especially important investment. Give managers the information, training and resources they need to answer questions and communicate effectively.

• Make communications a two-way street. Employees need opportunities to ask questions, provide feedback and feel heard. Be prepared though. This may mean adjustments after an announcement. Nothing erodes trust and engagement faster than feedback that is never addressed, followed up on or considered.

• Share employee stories worth telling. Share the stories behind the numbers leaders see in their regular reports – the customer wins, community impact, innovation, employee accomplishments and business milestones. Highlighting those successes helps employees feel recognized, appreciated and strengthen their understanding of what makes their organization distinctive.

There is a compelling business case for making internal communications priority. According to Axios, organizations that increased their investment in internal communications were more likely to report improvement in engagement, retention, market reputation, customer retention, market share and new business revenue than organizations whose investment remained flat or declined.

Ultimately, the goal shouldn’t be to turn every employee into a spokesperson. It should be to create employees who understand your business, believe in where it's going and feel confident talking about why their work matters.

The bottom line – your employees are already talking about your company. The question is whether you've given them the information, context and confidence to tell your story well.