I recently sat down with Mia Doskas, Social Advocacy Manager at Henkel, for a LinkedIn Live to talk about how Henkel approaches employee advocacy on a global scale.
Mia has been managing the programme together with Aileen Scriba for the past year, but the global Henkel Hive Social Advocacy programme itself has been running for more than six years. That longevity matters. It tells you this isn’t something built for quick wins or short-term visibility. It’s something Henkel has invested in, shaped, and embedded over a long time.
We’ve been working with Henkel for many years now, and what I value most about conversations like this is how quickly they move past surface-level tactics. When a programme has been running for that long, you move past tools performance and focus on behaviour and what advocacy actually feels like for people day to day.
That context is especially important right now. Trust is hard to earn, and people are far more likely to connect to other people than to brands. Research shows that 92% of B2B buyers trust recommendations from employees over brands, which is why employee advocacy only works when it feels genuine and grounded in real expertise and storytelling.
Henkel has understood that for a long time.
How Henkel has built employee advocacy into the business
One of the things Mia explained very clearly is that employee advocacy at Henkel has never been treated as a single initiative or a standalone tool. From the outset, it’s been built as a system, with different elements supporting one another rather than competing for attention.
“[..]We have three focus areas. First of all, we focus on the strategy and customized concepts for our teams. Second focus area is the enablement, where we support our employees to empower and strengthen their LinkedIn skills. And last but not least we have the Henkel Hive platform, which is called Henkel Hub. our advocacy tool that offers our Hive members content & inspiration that is easy and save to share via their social accounts.”
What that means in practice is that people aren’t pushed into activity before they’re ready. Strategy helps individuals and teams understand why LinkedIn matters in the context of their role. Enablement shows up through bootcamps, masterclasses, and ongoing coaching rather than one-off training. The Henkel Hive Hub gives people a safe place to start, with relevant, pre-approved content they can adapt and add their own perspective to.
Something I strongly agree with is Henkel’s focus on professional branding rather than personal branding.
That distinction matters as it removes a lot of pressure and uncertainty. This isn’t about asking people to perform online or share personal opinions. It’s about helping them talk about their work and expertise in a way that feels appropriate, credible, and aligned with Henkel’s values.
Why global doesn’t mean one-size-fits-all
When organisations think about scaling employee advocacy, the instinct is often to organise by region. Different countries, different cultures, different approaches. On paper, that sounds sensible. In reality, it often misses where the real differences sit.
What Henkel has learned, and what we’ve worked through together over time, is that role, context, and social media maturity are far more useful lenses than geography. Most people fall into familiar patterns wherever they’re based. Many are on LinkedIn but inactive. Some are posting occasionally but without confidence or consistency. A smaller group are already comfortable and visible. Understanding where someone sits in that journey tells you far more about what they need next than knowing which country they work in.
This is where our Social Maturity Matrix that we introduced in Henkel has been particularly valuable. Rather than assuming everyone needs the same enablement, we’ve been able to assess how different groups show up on LinkedIn and tailor support accordingly. For some, that means starting with profile confidence and clarity. For others, it’s about moving beyond resharing and into original content. That shared framework gives Henkel a practical way to design enablement that feels relevant rather than imposed.
Mia explained, “It’s really a coaching assessment. It’s about asking the right questions and listening, because otherwise it becomes a one-size-fits-all approach, which just doesn’t work when it comes to social advocacy.”
This becomes especially obvious at leadership level. When Henkel runs executive sessions, the same patterns tend to repeat regardless of region.
“If you run a few executive trainings, like we are doing, you suddenly see that it doesn’t really matter where those sessions take place. Whether it’s one region or another, executives are actually pretty similar in how they approach this.”
Sales leaders tend to focus on networking and relevance. Communications teams think about positioning and narrative. Technical experts often underestimate how valuable their knowledge is to others. Those behaviours show up everywhere, which is why role-based enablement has been so effective.
From our side at Tribal Impact, this is where long-term partnership really comes into play. Over time, you build shared language around maturity, confidence, and progression. You stop reacting to structure and start designing enablement based on behaviour, which is far more sustainable.
Confidence, honesty, and how people get started
One of the most consistent barriers to employee advocacy isn’t lack of interest or capability, it’s lack of confidence and experiences of imposter syndrome. Many people want to participate but hesitate because they’re unsure what’s appropriate, particularly in values-led and compliance-aware organisations. That hesitation, rather than lack of motivation, is what tends to hold people back.
At Henkel, the Henkel Hive Hub has been designed specifically to address that moment.
“As soon as we talked about the Henkel Hive Hub… that it’s content they can subscribe to… which is pre-approved… then it was a big difference for them and a big aha effect.”
That sense of safety makes the first step feel manageable. People can start by sharing content they trust, add their own perspective, and build confidence gradually. Over time, behaviour changes. People move from resharing to creating, and from occasional activity to something more consistent.
I also appreciated how thoughtfully AI fits into that journey. It wasn’t positioned as a shortcut or a content machine, but as a support tool. Used well, AI helps people brainstorm, shape ideas, and overcome the fear of the blank page, particularly for those who lack confidence in written English or worry about getting started.
Mia made the point that this only works when people learn how to use AI properly.
“You need to learn to brainstorm with it. It’s not just asking. It’s asking over and over again.”
In that context, AI becomes another way to lower the barrier without removing the human voice. It supports confidence rather than undermining authenticity.
Leadership behaviour and the permission effect
Leadership behaviour plays a quiet but powerful role in any employee advocacy programme. Leaders don’t just endorse activity; they shape how safe others feel to participate.
At Henkel, leadership enablement isn’t about turning executives into content machines or asking them to post more frequently. It’s about helping them show up in a way that feels human and believable, because that behaviour normalises participation for others.
As Mia put it, “It’s one of the most important things because you need the role models, of course, in order to make the social advocacy program a success in the end.”
What makes the difference here is how leaders show up. When leaders only ever share polished, brand-approved updates, it reinforces the idea that LinkedIn is a formal, risk-averse space. Henkel has taken a different approach, encouraging leaders to share experiences and reflections from their working lives, not just announcements.
“When leaders show up authentically, sharing, for example their own experiences, it gives a kind of permission to everybody to do the same.”
That permission effect reduces fear and builds confidence over time. Employees start to believe they don’t need to sound like the brand to represent it well, which is where sustained engagement really comes from.
Why presence makes the difference
Henkel Hive didn’t grow because of a big launch or a perfect plan. It grew because people were supported over time and allowed to build confidence at their own pace. That’s what happens when employee advocacy is treated as part of how the business works, not something extra bolted on.
One of the biggest differences has been visibility and partnership. The Henkel team didn’t hide behind an internal page or try to do this in isolation. They showed up, joined existing conversations, and used shared frameworks like our social maturity metrics to understand where people really were and what support they needed next.
As Mia said, “You need to be also the face of the program and connect to the people. This made a big difference for us this year.”
That’s what we see work time and time again at Tribal Impact. Confidence grows when support is visible, practical, and close to the reality of people’s day-to-day work.
