employee

employee · Optional

Appears in

Organization

What is it?

employee identifies a specific person who works for an organization. Each value is a Person node that can carry a name, job title, contact details, and other person-level properties. It is the inverse of the Person property worksFor.

Use employee when you want to surface specific individuals as part of an organization's structured data, founders, executives, or named staff members whose identity matters to how the organization is understood. For a general headcount figure, use numberOfEmployees instead.

Why this matters for AEO

AI engines build entity graphs that connect organizations to people. When a user asks "who is the CEO of Shopify?" or "who are the founders of Stripe?", the AI engine can pull from structured data that links named people to their employer. An organization that marks up its key employees becomes a richer node in that graph.

Named employee markup also supports author entity matching, which is relevant for E-E-A-T signals. A blog that marks the Organization and its writing staff as employee nodes, each with a sameAs link to their LinkedIn profile or Wikipedia page, gives AI systems and search engines a clear chain of identity from content to author to employer.

What the specs say

Schema.org:employee expects a Person value. Someone working for this organization. The plural form employees is also accepted. [Source: https://schema.org/employee]

Google: Not mentioned in Google's structured data documentation for Organization. [Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization]

How to find your value

List people whose identities are publicly documented and stable. Good candidates:

• C-suite executives and founders
• Named department heads
• Authors and editorial staff on content sites
• Customer-facing specialists

Avoid listing every employee in structured data. The goal is to surface individuals who disambiguate the organization or lend credibility, not to replicate an org chart.

Format and code

Single named executive

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Basecamp",
  "employee": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Jason Fried",
    "jobTitle": "Co-founder and CEO",
    "sameAs": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfried"
  }
}

Multiple employees

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Basecamp",
  "employee": [
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Jason Fried",
      "jobTitle": "Co-founder and CEO"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "David Heinemeier Hansson",
      "jobTitle": "Co-founder and CTO",
      "sameAs": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-heinemeier-hansson"
    }
  ]
}

With contact point

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Acquia",
  "employee": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Heather Brockman",
    "jobTitle": "Chief Marketing Officer",
    "email": "press@acquia.com"
  }
}

Webflow implementation

Static pages

Add the employee array to your Organization JSON-LD block in Page Settings > Custom Code. Since named employees are typically a small, stable list, hardcoding works well. Update the JSON-LD block when leadership changes.

CMS template pages

For editorial sites that want to link author pages to the organization, create an Authors CMS collection. On each author's template page, output a Person JSON-LD block with worksFor linking back to the parent organization. On the organization's main page, output the organization block with employee references.

In Schema HQ

The Organization editor supports the employee field as part of the full org schema configuration. Add Person nodes with names, titles, and optional sameAs links. Schema HQ handles the nested JSON-LD output.

Real examples

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Notion Labs",
  "url": "https://www.notion.so",
  "employee": [
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Ivan Zhao",
      "jobTitle": "CEO and Co-founder"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Simon Last",
      "jobTitle": "CTO and Co-founder"
    }
  ]
}

Related fields

• founder
• numberOfEmployees
• member
• contactPoint

FAQ

How many employees should be listed?

There is no schema.org limit. In practice, list the minimum set needed to establish identity and credibility. Three to ten key people is reasonable for most organizations. Listing hundreds of employees in structured data creates noise without benefit.

What is the difference between employee and member?

employee refers to someone in an employment relationship with the organization. member refers to someone who belongs to the organization, which can include volunteers, board members, or community participants. Use employee for paid staff.

Should employee include a sameAs link?

Including a sameAs link to a LinkedIn profile, Wikipedia page, or other authoritative identity source strengthens entity resolution for AI systems and search engines. It is optional but valuable for executives and public-facing staff.