Employee generated content is the photos, videos and posts your own people make about their work, published on your brand channels or their personal ones. Done well, it is the most believable content a brand can put out, because it comes from someone who actually does the job. Done badly, it is a forced dance in a branded T shirt, or worse, an unlabelled ad that breaks UK rules.
This guide covers what it is, why it works, a seven step programme, sourced examples and the UK rules.
The short version
- Expertise beats enthusiasm. Buyers want staff who know things. In LinkedIn research, industry experts and business leaders rank well above generic employees as creators people watch.
- Reach is real but older than you think. LinkedIn's often quoted 10x connections and 2x click through figures date from its Elevate era, around 2016, so treat them as direction, not a 2026 benchmark.
- Pay and protect your people. Currys pays every colleague who appears in its content. Sprout Social found 61% of consumers think staff should get extra pay for social promotion.
- Label it when it is advertising. CAP guidance names employees as connected people. If staff promote products on their own accounts at your request, it needs a clear Ad label.
- Start small and structured. A volunteer group, a simple policy, a content menu and one owner beats a company wide memo asking everyone to post.
What is employee generated content?
Employee generated content (often shortened to EGC) is content created by staff rather than by the marketing team or an agency. It covers three related things that are worth keeping separate, because the rules and the effort are different for each:
- Employee advocacy: staff resharing brand posts, job adverts or news to their own networks, usually on LinkedIn.
- Employee generated content: staff creating original posts, from a warehouse picker explaining how orders are packed to an engineer filming a fix.
- Employee creators on brand channels: staff who appear as recurring faces on the brand's own TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, which is what Currys does with its store colleagues.
It sits between two formats we have covered before. It is close to behind the scenes content, but the person telling the story is the employee, not the brand. And it is different from user generated content, which comes from customers. The difference matters legally: your staff have a commercial connection to you, and customers usually do not.
Why employee generated content works
Reach. LinkedIn's own Elevate material says that "on average, a company's employees have 10x as many connections as the company has followers" and that employees see "a 2x higher click through rate than their company sees" on the same content (LinkedIn Elevate). The same document says only 3% of employees share company content, yet those shares drive a 30% increase in total engagement. These figures are from around 2016, so use them as a direction of travel. The CIPD makes the same point in more recent practitioner guidance: "personal posts often receive significantly more engagement than content shared by company pages" (CIPD, August 2025).
Trust. The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer found people trust "people like me" as much as scientists to tell the truth about new innovations, both at 74% (Edelman, 2024). Staff who show the work behind a product borrow some of that peer trust.
Expertise. This is where most programmes go wrong. LinkedIn research with 1,716 B2B tech buyers in the US, UK and India found 82% say creator content influences them, but look at which creators they actually watch:
Creator types B2B buyers watch on LinkedIn (% of buyers)
"Employees" as a generic category comes last. But employees who are industry experts or leaders are the top two categories. The lesson: do not ask staff to be cheerleaders. Ask them to share what they know. The 2025 Edelman and LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report backs this up: 95% of nearly 2,000 managers said high quality thought leadership beats traditional marketing at showing what a supplier can do, and 79% said they were more likely to champion a vendor in an RFP if it publishes it consistently (Demand Gen Report, July 2025).
How to build an employee generated content programme in 7 steps
1. Pick one business goal
Hiring, B2B leads, product discovery and brand preference need different people and different platforms. Programme managers in DSMN8's 2026 benchmark most often chase awareness, but fewer than half run it for leads:
What employee advocacy programmes are for (% of programme managers)
2. Recruit volunteers, not conscripts
Start with 5 to 15 people who already post or who light up when they explain their job. Sprout Social started its Employee Creative Network with six people and grew it to about 100 (Sprout Social).
3. Write a short policy
One page: what staff can share, what stays confidential, how to label ads, who to ask, and how often to post. DSMN8 found the share of advocates with no training or social media policy fell from 38% to 29%, which means nearly a third still have none.
4. Give people a content menu
The top challenge managers report is "uncertainty about what content to share" (18%). Fix it with formats: a 30 second explainer, a day in the life, a myth busted, a mistake and what we learned, a question customers ask every week. Our Gen Z content ideas and YouTube hooks guides have more formats and openings.
5. Make it easy to film
A phone, a clip on microphone and an hour of coaching on framing, sound and the first three seconds are enough.
6. Agree pay, consent and approvals
Decide whether appearing is part of the job or paid extra, put it in writing, and agree a light approval route for anything about products, prices or results. See the rules section below.
7. Amplify the winners and measure
On LinkedIn, Thought Leader Ads let a brand "request their permission to sponsor" an employee's post from the company Page (LinkedIn). Track reach, engagement, profile visits, applications or leads per post, and report monthly. Our LinkedIn video guide covers specs and formats.
Employee generated content examples
| Brand | What they did | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Currys (UK) | Store colleagues star in comedic TikToks, often in uniform and in store. "All colleagues that appear in our content are paid for doing so." | One colleague post drew 32m organic views across channels (Famous Campaigns, 2025). TikTok followers grew from 85,400 to 185,667 in a year (Shorty Awards entry, self reported). |
| Sprout Social | Employee Creative Network grew from six to about 100 employee creators. | Share of video impressions from employee creators rose from 3.8% in 2024 to 29.5% in 2025 (vendor, self reported). |
| AGL (Australia) | Chief Customer Officer's LinkedIn post promoted as a Thought Leader Ad. | 10x reach versus her connections and 2x her organic engagement rate (LinkedIn case study). |
| Croda (UK) | LinkedIn employee advocacy programme with 150 to 200 active advocates. | 23m connections reached since 2019 and 5,000+ web conversions (Hootsuite case study, vendor). |
All results are reported by the brand, the platform or a vendor and have not been independently audited.
Currys is the clearest UK case. Its CEO credited "brilliant social campaigns" for helping a new generation discover the brand, and reported brand preference up from 21% to 26% over three years (Marketing Week). Its social lead told Famous Campaigns the team sets a bar of "100k minimum" views per video (Famous Campaigns).
Do employees need to label posts as ads? The UK rules
This is where employee generated content gets serious. The CAP Code applies to anyone "personally or commercially connected to the brand", and the ASA lists "owner, employee, shareholder, director" (ASA, Recognising ads).
"Both brands and influencers are responsible for ensuring that ads are obviously identifiable." ASA guidance on recognising ads
In 2022 the ASA upheld a ruling against Prettylittlething over posts by Molly Mae Hague, who was paid as its Creative Director. Even though some followers knew her role, the posts were "not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication" and future posts needed a clear label such as "#ad" (ASA ruling). Our ASA influencer guidelines post covers which labels work.
Two more rules apply. The CMA's fake reviews guidance says a concealed incentivised review "could include a trader requesting a member of staff to write a review of the trader's product" (CMA208, April 2025). So never ask staff to review your products without disclosure. And on data protection, the ICO says employers "should avoid relying on consent unless they are confident they can demonstrate it is freely given" (ICO), and that staff should be told in advance if their personal information will be published (ICO, employment records). Get legal advice for your situation; this is guidance, not legal advice.
| Situation | Our recommendation |
|---|---|
| Staff post about products on their own accounts because you asked, paid or rewarded them | Treat it as an ad. Use a clear Ad label at the start. |
| Staff appear on the brand's own channels | Usually obviously brand content; still agree pay and usage in writing. |
| Staff share career news or reshare job adverts unprompted | Ask them to state where they work in their bio or post. |
| Staff reviews of your products on review sites | Do not ask for them. If staff review, the connection must be clear. |
| You want to keep using footage after someone leaves | Agree this up front in a written release, not after the fact. |
Advertain guidance based on CAP, CMA and ICO material. Not legal advice.
Employee generated content checklist
| Check | Done when |
|---|---|
| Goal | One business goal and one owner are named |
| People | 5 to 15 volunteers recruited, with their managers on board |
| Policy | One page policy covering confidentiality, labels and approvals |
| Menu | At least five repeatable formats with examples |
| Kit | Phone mount, clip on mic and an hour of coaching |
| Paperwork | Pay, usage and what happens when someone leaves are in writing |
| Labels | Ad labels agreed for any requested product promotion |
| Measurement | Monthly report on reach, engagement and the business goal |
Advertain guidance.
If you want help building an employee creator programme or turning your team into on screen talent, see our work (including Formula E, where we drove 7M+ views across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok) or get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
Is employee generated content paid?
It can be either. Some brands treat it as part of the job, others pay extra. Currys pays every colleague who appears in its content, and Sprout Social found 61% of consumers believe companies should compensate employees extra for social promotion. Whatever you choose, put it in writing.
Do employees need to use #ad when posting about their employer?
If the post promotes your products and you asked for it, rewarded it or control it, yes: ASA guidance treats employees as connected people and a clear Ad label is the safest choice. Unprompted career posts are different, but staff should still make their employment clear.
How do you start an employee advocacy programme?
Pick one goal, recruit a small group of volunteers, write a one page policy, give them a menu of formats, make filming easy, agree pay and consent, then amplify the best posts and measure monthly.
Can employees review their own company's products?
Not without making the connection clear. The CMA says asking staff to review your products can be a concealed incentivised review, which is banned under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
