HR’s 3 Roles in HR Marketing

Marketing starts with human resources. Previous notions of HR and marketing responsibilities have associated them as separate, albeit still complementary, roles and efforts. However, the relationship between HR and marketing should be thoroughly unified and collaborative for an organization's betterment.

Efforts to support and build organizational culture while recruiting new members that fit into that culture is an extremely important, yet extremely difficult, responsibility. Yet, per a Robert Walters’ Whitepaper, 67% of professionals feel they have been misled about the company culture during the recruitment process. These same professionals attribute marketing and HR as two of the four leading drivers of company culture. 

As HR and business leaders, working together with your marketing teams and having knowledge of marketing operations is instrumental. This transforms a potentially critical business risk around into creating an optimized and stronger company.

3 Primary Aspects:

HR has a unique viewpoint into an organization’s well-being and future potential that is often underutilized in HR marketing. HR, as a department and career, has three primary commitments to HR marketing efforts and campaigns. These aspects help direct, inspire, and facilitate a better company culture and encourages better new matches into organizations.

1 - Vision & Company Culture

No organization exists without some sort of vision for operations, employees, or their future. However, some fail to explicitly state that vision causing HR, marketing, and other departments to only see the partial vision and core goals.

When it pertains to the HR and HR marketing vision, company culture has never been more important. In a Glassdoor survey, 77% of adults would consider a company’s culture before applying, plus 79% would consider mission and purpose before applying. 

Company culture, according to Indeed.com, is a set of both shared core values and practices within an organization, internally and externally. When a culture is well-defined and applied to marketing, it appeals to top applicant prospects who will then go on to uphold and prioritize those values.

What can HR do to uncover and shape company culture:

1) Research Your Company’s Employees

- Referred to as a “Culture Audit.”
- This may sound strange at first, but your organization’s current members can tell a lot about what your organization prioritizes.
- Think of it as a culture-based iceberg!

2) Create Posters With Creative Marketing

- These should contain explicitly stated topics such as a mission statement or company values/vision

3) Bring in a Third-Party to Audit Your Culture

- Research the best-fit before doing this, but a culture consultant company can be extremely helpful in revealing the underlying assumptions you and your HR team may not see!

Further, mission statements can be a helpful framework to guide this vision to help develop and manage human resources programs-such as HR marketing.

TIP: If you, or your organization, is experiencing a lack of strong direction or leadership this could be your chance to show initiative! Learn how!

2 - Strategy

Without a strategy, a vision will never be completed. HR marketing strategies should be an in-depth “how” you plan to achieve the vision. Whether it is a talent pool, career page, or social media campaign; keep in mind that overtime these strategies should adapt to the organization’s needs and culture. Or if the traditional methods of recruiting are not working for your organization, try a new approach and method to get the ball rolling! 

Be as specific, authentic, and consistent as possible, to help both HR and marketing enact the vision. Candidates can sense inauthentic and inconsistent messaging, which will push potential great candidates away from applying.

Benefits to building a cohesive strategy that reflect your brand and culture include:

- Better Engaged Employees
- Positive Company Perceived Opinion
- Higher Employee Retention
- Increased Productivity & Profitability
- Quicker Open-Position Fill Time
- Reduced Hiring & Recruitment Costs
- Right Candidates, the First Time Around

TIP: Confused on how to create a high-quality talent pool? Use these definitions to help you build out your strategy

3 - Delegation & Partnership

A single person cannot man a ship by themselves, the same applies to HR marketing. Clearly, there are a lot of elements to effectively carrying-out HR marketing.

Marketing and HR efforts should always go together and this requires HR to give some responsibility to the marketing team or a third-party. It can be hard to allow others to execute the vision, but sometimes a new perspective can be more helpful and drive better results.

HR in the role of visionaries and strategists are wildly more important to marketing than most know. HR and business leaders may feel lost and unsure how to go about promoting synergy between the departments. 

Here are some helpful tips to get the ball rolling:

• Schedule Recurring Meetings
  Whether it is daily, weekly, or monthly, HR and marketing meetings regularly can start and enable further conversations about HR marketing.

• Sync with Senior Leadership
  Upper leadership often has been around longer than most organization members, so start with the beginning! Sync up and ask them questions about HR and marketing, explaining why they should be more interconnected. 

• Suggest Floor Plan Adjustments
  Close proximity between the two departments encourages conversation and collaboration. Though this may seem a logistical nightmare, synergy and interdepartmental friendships would be guaranteed.

• Interdepartmental Trainings & Seminars
  Schedule recurring training sessions and seminars about current/past/future initiatives, projects, or just a think-tank to show both sides of the coin to the HR and marketing teams.

Connecting with your in-house marketing team about their responsibilities and roles can be a helpful resource. However, they may not fully understand the reasoning behind your inquiry. In that common scenario, reach out to experts,attend webinars, or connect with fellow HR professionals to get insight on how to proceed.

TIP: HR can be a demanding career that can become dull after time. Read these 5 ways to connect with fellow HR professionals to avoid the inevitable burnout!