Many businesses are now seeing the benefits of HR and marketing departments joining forces, to work together for a common purpose in order to improve or develop their corporate culture. To get the most out of marketing, businesses are realising that their work starts with investing in their employee experience of the brand.
On an average day, the marketing department manages the brand and reputation from an external point, whilst HR manages the internal brand and reputation to create a positive employee experience. By blending the two departments, you create a more holistic brand experience that is created from the inside out.
There is a number of reasons why your marketing and HR should join forces…
It makes recruitment easy…
Organisations are taking their recruitment seriously by adopting a recruitment marketing approach, in order to attract the right candidate from within the talent pool. Which, depending on the industry can be very small. Recruitment marketing requires both departments to work together to carry out the hiring and placement, so they can create excitement and a buzz about the company in order to provide a great employee experience of the brand.
The buzz and excitement is drawn from knowing what keeps employees engaged, company benefits they value and what a day looks like for the roles that require filling. This is where the two departments can take a collaborative approach, so they can build a good reputation for the business both internally and externally to attract new talent.
Getting social…
The role of using social media is now part and parcel of the recruitment process, with some firms adopting social media as their primary tool for creating the corporate brand awareness and the posting of jobs. It requires close collaboration between HR and marketing teams to create an interactive social media platform, to publish jobs and identify talent with the required skillset. This gives HR an easy way to review profiles, send emails and set up interviews. It’s a simple and cost effective route whilst gaining access to a wider pool of talent.
Keeping your people…
Now you have the workforce with the skills and expertise you need to build a successful business, the next challenge is keeping them. Employee turnover is one that keeps most business owners awake at night. It can be a result of not providing training or flexible working that can create a high turnover rate within a business. This is why it is key for businesses to develop a retention strategy if it wants to survive the war for talent.
In order to create a retention strategy, it requires an understanding of what employees want and look to other businesses who are successful at keeping their people. This is where the marketing team can carry out the required research both internally and externally, to help HR with carrying out engagement strategies to encourage a great working environment. Which all works towards retaining your people.
Creating brand advocates
By creating the right culture within your business, creates a great brand experience internally and externally. So, if you keep your people happy, you keep your customers happy. Your people can so easily make or break your brand and reputation, depending on their behaviour and information they put out into the world. This requires marketing and HR to communicate with employees the behaviour, vision, mission and what the brand stands for, in order to create a team of brand advocates, who are often on the front line delivering the experience you want your customers to have.
HR and marketing will need to create a set of policies and brand guidance that communicate the right kind of values an employee will need to demonstrate.
Innovative thinking…
Businesses are under constant threat from competition, now more than ever there are new entrants into marketplaces, who are creating ways to challenge market leaders. So businesses that have an innovative approach, will help towards them standing out in the crowd.
And it starts with those behind the brand. No one knows a brand more than its employees, they understand who their customers are and their needs and wants. Which is a great opportunity for organisations to tap into their ideas and suggestions on how to create new ways to do business or work smarter, for example. When you join marketing and HR together, you can uncover many opportunities not thought of before. By getting feedback and suggestions, you have employees who feel part of the business. This will no doubt uncover ways to be more innovative and can work towards creating an innovative way of thinking within the business.
Working in harmony…
When working in harmony, marketing creates the promotion campaign to help HR attract top talent and HR helps marketing develop a customer focused experience. Together they promote a positive experience of the brand and build its reputation within the marketplace. They dynamic duo you could say.