Employee Testimonials: What Are They and Why Are They Helpful?

Most companies are familiar with the idea they need to have testimonials of their products or services. But sometimes we forget about the biggest product we have: our company itself. Our company is our greatest asset, and we need a great way to show the culture and benefits to potential employees. That’s where employee testimonials come in. 

What are employee testimonials, and why are they important? We’ll walk you through the ins and outs of employee testimonials, how to make the most of them, and where to get started creating your own. 

What Are Employee Testimonials? 

An employee testimonial is an official statement from an employee on what it’s like to work for your company. They might explain their experience or a day-in-the-life while working at your company. Some testimonials will even encourage others to work for your company. In general, an employee testimonial will typically cover some of the following: 

• Company values
• Company culture
• The employee’s role and responsibilities
• A typical day
• Employee’s professional—and potentially personal—development while at the company
• Benefits
• Why others may want to work for your company

There are a couple of types of employee testimonials that dictate what shape the testimonial takes. 

Types of Employee Testimonials

• Journey testimonials. A journey testimonial shows how an employee progressed or accomplished something at your company. For example, an employee who started at an entry level position and rose to be on the management team would probably use a journey testimonial to share how they progressed. The essence of a journey testimonial is to show how your company is a place of progression and growth. 
  ‍
• Interview testimonials. For an interview testimonial, you would have a team asking specific questions to employees and recording their responses. Interview testimonials can be a great way to gather many shorter responses from employees. They can also be a great way to pull out quick insights from employees since you’ll be asking the questions. 
  ‍
• Experience testimonials. Experience testimonials can go two ways: an employee can describe their general experience at your company, or they can describe a specific experience that was memorable. Both of these can be valuable to your company, so it wouldn’t hurt to have employee testimonials that do both. The details of an experience testimonial are what help bring these to life and make the testimonials memorable. 

Styles of Employee Testimonials

Employee testimonials can be created in many styles and formats that can communicate to different audiences and achieve different purposes. It can be beneficial to create several testimonials in different styles to communicate with different groups of people. But what are the styles of testimonials? These are some of the most common types companies use: 

• Text. Whether it’s a journey, experience, or interview, you can present the testimonial as text. Very often companies will include short snippets of text on their website or in other locations that include employee testimonials. Text is a great way to show employee testimonials in a quick and digestible way for people to easily see what it’s like to work for your company. 
  ‍
• Photo. Photos of the employees can really help bring a testimonial to life and show the real person behind the story. Adding a photo next to the text testimonial or on top of it can really bring the experience to life. Text on the photos can also make the employment testimonials easy to share and spread. 
  ‍
• Video. Photos can help show there’s a real person having an experience, but video testimonials can take that to the next level. The viewers can actually see the employee tell their story and describe their experience, which can be a great way to connect with potential employees. Video testimonials also offer you the opportunity to incorporate additional footage of the workplace or other B-roll footage that could increase viewer interest. 
  ‍
• Blog content. Blogs are a great place for testimonials in a unique form. Companies sometimes have employees write blog posts outlining and discussing their experiences at the company. These blog posts allow employees more room to recount meaningful experiences and years of progression. Blog content can also be done by including several employee testimonials in one post discussing what it’s like to work for your company. Blogs are a great way to make the content fun and easy to read. 
  ‍
• Social media posts. Like blogs but smaller, social media posts are a great way for an employee to recount experiences in a casual and accessible manner that makes sharing easy. Employers can share testimonials or let the employees write some posts themselves. Depending on the social media platform, you could also include photo and video as a part of the testimonial as well. 
  ‍
• Social media takeovers. Another way to use social media for your employee testimonials is to do a “takeover,” where an employee uses a story feature to show people what their day is like. They might film videos of their day and post it to the story, and they might talk and answer direct messaging questions people might have. These takeovers are a modern way to connect with people who might be more active on social media than they are on your website. 

Why Are Employee Testimonials Important? 

When it comes to running a business, you know that one of the most important aspects is having top-tier employees who are incredibly talented to do the work. These employees are the ones who generate big ideas, create products, discover new solutions, perform day-to-day operations, and make the business wheel go round. No company can operate well without great employees. 

But getting great employees is more competitive than ever. Thousands of employees quit their jobs each month—with nearly 4 million people quitting in April 2021 alone. The pandemic has shifted how many people work and what’s important to them with their employment. Money isn’t the only reason people accept jobs now. Culture has become increasingly important, and potential employees will do research on your company and its culture to determine if they want to apply and interview.

Employee testimonials can help these potential employees who are researching your company to see what you have to offer. They’ll be able to hear from your current employees about the culture, what it’s like to work there, and how they’ve progressed—all of which can help your company look like a great place to work. Testimonials provide a unique insight into the day-to-day life of your company, as well as who’s already there and what they’re like. 

One other way to think about the value of employee testimonials is to consider what happens when there aren’t testimonials easily accessible. Having no testimonials leads to issues with brand trust, loyalty, better employee engagement, community, and transparency. If you don’t let employees speak about their experiences, it creates an issue with your company being transparent and potentially shaking some of your brand trust. Including testimonials can help people see what it’s like to work at your company and help with loyalty, engagement, and transparency. 

But what about negative testimonials? What happens when employees post negative testimonials about their experience with your company? Would it be better to have no testimonials at all? Not necessarily. Honest testimonials still help with transparency. And while it could be difficult to allow negative testimonials, your team can still be honest and discuss what’s been improved since that employee’s experience. If new policies are in place or new management has been instituted, you could discuss how your company has improved the culture since that employee’s experience. 

Overall, employee testimonials are important because they make you more competitive in the hiring pool. As the best talent in the industry looks for where they want to be, testimonials will help you be a compelling choice. Testimonials also help with branding, transparency, and loyalty. 

5 Real Employee Testimonial Examples

Since employee testimonials can be so powerful, what do they look like in practice? We’ll walk you through 5 real employee testimonial examples from companies you’ve probably heard of to show what testimonials look like and how they can benefit your company. 

Nike

Nike is an iconic company, and they want to make sure potential employees see that. On Nike’s website, they include a variety of employee testimonials, so there’s something for everyone. There’s a video testimonial that’s done in a classic Nike style—with inspirational footage and music to help inspire other people to come work for Nike. In addition, Nike features a montage on the page of snappy testimonial quotes, powerful photos, and their company values. The entirety of the testimonial page matches Nike’s brand and culture, while giving insight into how the company brings its values to life and what it’s like to work for Nike. 

The combination of video, photo, and text is a particularly effective move Nike makes with its testimonials since it provides many ways to access the employee experience and to learn more about what it’s like at the company. 

Aldi 

Aldi has strong branding for their employee testimonial page on their website. The page starts with a discussion about how their employees are the most important part of the company—and demonstrates that by showing “a day in the life” videos. The rest of the page features short videos that really dig into what it’s like to be an Aldi employee. These videos are a powerful use of video because they don’t just show the employees in the Aldi store but also their lives outside of work—and how Aldi has helped them. These testimonials are a deep dive into Aldi’s culture and a great use of video testimonials. 

P&G

Procter & Gamble takes a unique testimonial approach and addresses a common new employee anxiety: what’s the first day of work like? P&G interviewed employees on what their first day was like and used those as their employee testimonials—in quote, text, and photo format. The testimonials also include employee goals with the company and how the culture at P&G has helped them succeed. There’s a large library of these first day testimonials that let people explore the culture while also helping them know what to expect on their first day with P&G. 

Teradata

Teradata uses a fun, modern approach to their employee testimonials by utilizing Instagram story takeovers. Employees at the company get access to the Instagram account for a day, and they show potential employees about their experience with the company and what their day looks like. Using story takeovers also helps show that Teradata is an innovative company and a fun place to work. It also helps them build brand trust and transparency by letting employees use the account. The takeovers are saved on the Instagram account, so anybody can watch them at a later date and see how fun it is to work for Teradata. 

Marriott

Marriott utilizes the Instagram post to help show employee testimonials—with a great focus on diversity and inclusion. Employees are featured in social media posts with their experiences working for Marriott. With the hashtag #WomenOfMarriott, these posts help show that the company is committed to diversity and inclusion—something that’s very important to many potential employees. Many potential employees can see Marriott’s commitment to an inclusive culture, and that can help the company show its core values and draw in talent. 

VideoPeel Can Help 

Here at VideoPeel, we use employee testimonials ourselves to help recruit and retain top tier talent. We personally know how powerful a tool employee testimonials can be—we make sure we implement them to help showcase our company culture and what employees can expect here at VideoPeel. 

Because we know the power of employee testimonials, we want to help your company create testimonials that will show your potential employees exactly what your company has to offer. VideoPeel can help you collect video testimonials, gather images and other files, and easily put them up on your website or other pages for all of your potential employees to see. 

Ready to try VideoPeel today to start creating your employee testimonials? See Plans to get started!