Stop Complaining About Influencer Culture. Start Hiring It

Making videos at work was once a good way to get fired, often conflicting with the carefully scripted messaging designed to protect brand reputation. In fact, one consultant at Indeed says it’s a common complaint they hear from employers: “People don’t want to work anymore; they just want to be influencers.” But is that really such a bad thing?

Today, corporate influencers are proving their value in front of the camera, turning face time into positive brand impact. The creator economy has produced a subset of workers who know how to build audiences, tell stories and earn big wins fast. These qualities can help employers compete for both customers and talent through memorable branding — and that begins with authentic storytelling. 

Few do it as well as Staples employee Kaeden Rowland. Earlier this year, she began making on-the-clock TikToks, roaming the aisles of her upstate New York store and explaining the perks of its printing services. Suddenly, shopping for office supplies wasn’t so boring. In March, Staples’s chief marketing officer credited a boost in traffic across stores to Rowland’s videos.

The secret? Rowland was just herself. Also known as the “Staples Baddie,” her unfiltered approach to employee-generated content was the antithesis of a traditional corporate ad, and it resonated with Staples’s audience. So the company leaned in and made Rowland an official brand partner. 

Encouraging in-house employees like Rowland, or hiring outside influencers, to tell your story can strengthen your brand because authenticity is hard to fake. 

“Employers need to know how to earn people's trust, and having real people as ambassadors of their brand is a great way to make authentic connections,” says Jenn Herrity, career coach at Indeed. “People respond to real people. That's why investing in partnerships with influencers and employees who are committed to the brand is the right strategy.” 

Creators are building skills employers need   

According to a recent Indeed skills survey, most talent leaders agree that problem-solving and critical thinking (60%) and communication and collaboration (47%) are the most vital workplace skills. But many employers find that traditional hiring methods don’t easily reveal those high-demand candidate qualities.

Successful creators embody them every day, putting themselves out front and identifying moments, interpreting audience behavior and translating both into compelling, shareable stories. They also develop skills that don’t always appear on a resume: building community, analyzing performance and adapting to trends in an instant. 

“Your employees are your best advertising, so give them the trust and the time to build something for you."

-Lara Sophie Bothur, content creator and Deloitte Voice for Innovation

Overcoming hesitation and risk in hiring content creators

It’s natural to worry that influencers could jeopardize brand credibility or jump ship the moment they earn some social cachet. But experts say those concerns can be managed through clear expectations and thoughtful partnerships. 

“Understanding your goals will help you decide what type of creators to work with in a way that resonates and builds trust with your audience,” says Lindsey Gamble, vice president of creator strategy and innovation at IZEA, an influencer marketing company. 

Gamble, who has built creative marketing programs for brands including PayPal and Burt’s Bees, warns talent leaders not to recruit creators as an afterthought. “Influencer marketing only works when you build a holistic ecosystem between your creators and your marketing and distribution channels,” he says.  

Employee-generated content as an employer brand strategy

People know when they’re being marketed to and aren’t fooled by boilerplate career pages. Snackable content like TikTok videos can strengthen an employer’s value proposition (EVP) by giving candidates real visibility into what it’s like to work at the company. 

“Job seekers tell me over and over that they want flexibility, stability, growth and purpose,” says Matt Berndt, head of Indeed’s Job Search Academy. “Does your EVP clearly communicate what your organization offers its workers?”

The answer to that question matters because candidates increasingly trust the face of a brand more than its corporate messaging. In this way, creators improve recruiting by humanizing brands and helping companies empower employees to tell their stories.  

Independent influencers like Natalie Marshall, known as Corporate Natalie, have built large audiences by satirizing work-from-home life during the pandemic. It was her relatability that catapulted her into sponsored partnerships with brands including Dell and Dunkin’.

“It’s a really different game now,” Herrity says. “It's not about polished campaigns. It’s about showing up authentically.”

Sometimes, that genuine moment finds a brand by accident.

When Erin Gillman, a PR assistant at the luxury brand Tory Burch, posted a TikTok of herself directing car traffic outside the 2026 Met Gala while sporting Tory Burch footwear, she was instantly dubbed Red Flats Queen. The company seized the moment, enabling Gillman to leverage partnerships with brands including Dove and Sony Pictures Classics. 

This was more than just virality. The lesson is how a collaboration between a company and a creator can strengthen brand storytelling. For employers, this works best when creators are supported rather than treated as a side project. 

Of course, this doesn’t work at all if a company expects employees to do their jobs plus create content and build audiences without additional compensation.

“You have to invest in your people, not just the content,” Herrity says. “You should make it a role that makes sense so they’re incentivized to keep creating for you.”

What happens when a company embraces creator talent

In 2022, Lara Sophie Bothur was a tech consultant at Deloitte when her social post explaining carsharing to her 101-year-old grandfather caught fire. That viral moment inspired Deloitte to create a new role for Bothur: Voice for Innovation. German business magazines soon crowned the Berlin-based Bothur the country’s first full-time corporate influencer.

“I didn’t want to be an influencer,” Bothur says. “But I had a big mission, and I think the mission is bigger than the title.”

Now a self-employed global speaker, Bothur works with dozens of brands, including Google and Salesforce, to distill complex tech topics for a broad audience. Her experience shows how organizations can benefit from creators when they’re treated as collaborators. 

“Your employees are your best advertising, so give them the trust and the time to build something for you,” Bothur says. “Not everything is on the shoulders of the brand; it’s a joint responsibility and success between you and your employees.”

How to put creator skills to work 

This is where taking a risk on creators can reward the company. “Tap into that human voice,” Gamble says. “You want to partner with your creators in a way that resonates with your audience.” Consider these steps: 

    1. Audit for transferable content-creator skills. Think about what translates to successful, long-term business outcomes:  

• Audience-building
• Brand storytelling
• Public communication
• Performance data and analytics 
• Adaptability and trend awareness

2. Know your objective. Relevance is often more important than reach, Gamble says. Creators succeed because they develop and nurture relationships rather than burn through one-off moments. 

3. Give creators room. It’s important to balance creative freedom with brand guidelines. “With the exception of the Super Bowl, you can’t reach everyone with one message,” Gamble says. “You need to have different messages, and the way to do that is through creative thought leaders consistently telling great stories.” 

4. Formalize the role. If an internal employee is generating real business value through content, that deserves recognition and investment, Herrity says. Build it into their scope and compensate them accordingly.

The question isn’t whether you should hire influencers but whether you recognize the business skills successful creators are already demonstrating every day. Employers may find that the talent they’ve been overlooking is exactly what they need.

Indeed provides this information as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your recruiting or legal advisor, we are not responsible for the content of your job descriptions, and none of the information provided herein guarantees performance.
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