On the face of it, marketing and human resources can look very different. After all, HR is about people strategy, talent management, recruiting, hiring, firing, policies, and seemingly endless compliance, all of which can feel like a focus on what’s happening inside the organization. Marketing, on the other hand, seems to constantly scan the external horizon, assessing data, trends and customer behavior, building and boosting a brand, creating content, maximizing digital presence, and much more.
However, HR and marketing may have more in common than it first seems. HR is tasked with attracting and retaining the best people. Marketing is tasked with attracting and retaining the right customers. Not surprisingly, a marketing-HR partnership can be the key to building a brand that draws great talent and loyal customers.
Areas of Strength
A successful HR-marketing partnership starts with understanding what each party brings to the table and what each party is responsible for.
HR knows what kinds of jobs need to be filled and the requirements for a qualified candidate. HR professionals must ensure that communications about open jobs are non-discriminatory, accurate, and comply with laws like pay transparency requirements.
Marketing professionals know traditional and digital channels for communicating about careers at the company. They are steeped in brand – color, logo, images, language – that create a polished message that reflects the culture of the company. Best of all, marketing pros may have their finger on the pulse of the best approaches to reach the best candidates.
One of the benefits of an HR-marketing partnership is the mechanics of messaging. Marketing messaging uses a consistent company color palette, fonts, various logos, graphics, and curated images. Marketing can help HR create communications that paint a consistent picture (literally) of the organization.
Marketing pros excel at crafting language, too. While HR must ensure clarity, accuracy, and legally compliant messages, marketing specializes in language that catches and holds someone’s attention.
Anyone who has ever filled an open job knows the focus so often is on getting the word out quickly through job sites, careers pages, and networking, then waiting until the applications come in. Marketing can bring an element of strategy to searching for talent. Rather than each singular event of a job posting, a marketing strategy approach may include building employer-brand awareness on digital platforms and social media sites.
The marketing team can identify ways to include careers information in blogs and company publications. There may be opportunities to feature departments where there are or will be open jobs.
Think Like a Marketing Professional
If your organization doesn’t have a marketing person, team, or department, HR can build a marketing mindset. Here are some tips and ideas:
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Remember that a job posting isn’t the same thing as a job description. Job seekers will lose interest in a lengthy posting that includes too much detail and not enough marketing. To hold a job seeker’s interest, share the most important functions of the job and the necessary qualifications. Then use a little more space to talk about the company’s culture and total rewards, the “what’s-in-it-for-me” that is important to most job seekers.
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Be consistent in the use of logos and branding language. If the company has a tagline, make sure it is the same every time it’s used, including punctuation.
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Look at all the ways your company communicates to potential customers, even things like company vehicles, signage, product packaging, sales brochures, and annual reports. What do your customers see that you want prospective employees to see as well? How can you incorporate more customer messaging into your talent messaging?
The best HR-marketing partnership is built on the common awareness that the whole company benefits when it works as a team to attract two of its most important elements: enthusiastic customers and engaged employees. Please contact Employers Council for further guidance on this subject at info@employerscouncil.org.