5 Ways Marketing and HR Can (and Should) Work Together

Internal communication is when you connect with your employees. You use this connection to keep them informed and to instill a shared understanding of the company's goals and values. 

Internal communications work by keeping employees up-to-date on everything happening in your organization. It facilitates clear communication between departments and is the key to combat rumors. 

In today's society, we face a constant overload of cluttered information. This often causes anxiety and fear. That's why in these unprecedented times, internal communications make a difference. 

When employees receive relevant and contextual information, it inspires teamwork, trust, and respect.

In the past, many organizations used newsletters to make announcements and provide information around the office, but people have found that this is no longer effective. With the event of COVID-19 things changed almost overnight, and your employees need more. You need a better way to keep employees informed and engaged with their work while they are out of the office. 

Marketing and HR can work together to design a creative message that will inspire employees. By sharing their practices, both teams can identify opportunities and obstacles, improving engagement for everyone. And when they work together, they can make sure that HR is sharing the same messages internally that Marketing is sharing externally. 

In our webinar with Mike Lieberman, he talks about how important it is for HR and Marketing to communicate with everyone about company policies— including new prospects. 

Employer branding is the way you present your company to potential recruits and internal employees. If you have good employer branding, you will attract better job seekers— and retain more employees. 

The best example is when a recruit asks an employee what it is like to work for your company. Good employer branding means your employee will tell them a compelling story about the workplace culture and company values. 

I'm sure you are wondering why employer branding is so important. But the thing is, whether or not you work on it, you have an employer brand! 

A positive employer brand can potentially cut turnover rates by 28% and reduce your costs-per-hire in half. You can imagine what negative employer branding does — just the opposite! 

Currently, lots of people are looking for jobs. COVID forced a lot of companies to furlough or layoff employees — and many of those people need jobs now. If you have a good employer brand, you will attract the best talent in this group. And when other companies start reopening, and more jobs become available — you'll keep those employees. 

Marketing will know how to promote your brand. While HR will understand what your brand is.

The two can work together when creating your brand. HR will act as the go-between for marketing and the employees. They can communicate to Marketing what image needs promotion.

Recruitment marketing is simply how you market your organization to new talent. It refers to the strategies and tactics used to find and engage with them before they apply for the job. 

You might think that recruitment marketing isn't essential while in a recession. But you aren't looking just to fill vacant spots in your company. You want high-quality candidates. 

It's essential that you hire people who want to stay after the recession ends. You want people who are worth keeping. 

Recruitment marketing is often confused for employer branding. But the two are not the same — one is about developing a brand while the other is about marketing it. 

The first step to launch your recruitment marketing campaign starts with HR feedback. Marketing teams are masters of data, analytics, and messaging— they build strong campaigns. But your HR team will understand your employer brand better. They know what you need and what you are looking for. 

HR will be able to answer the crucial questions: 

• Do you want the most talented candidates out there or people ready to work immediately? 
• What does the perfect applicant look like? 
• What can your company offer them? 

And your marketing team will know what to do with the answers to create your ideal campaign. 

Cisco recently did a great job of bringing the two departments together.

A company brand is everything from your website to your logo — even your tag line. A company brand is what people think of when your company comes to mind. 

The internal work culture and the external company brand must complement each other so new applicants know what to expect. 

Imagine applying for a job and thinking you'll be working in a laid-back environment. Then you start, and the atmosphere is chaos. You'd want to quit, I'm sure! 

Aligning your brand from the inside out is essential to keep employees— reducing costs on turnovers. 

Typically, marketing manages company branding, and HR helps maintain the workplace culture. So when the two work together, you can ensure that your organization keeps its promise. And you don't have disgruntled new employees. 

Your marketing team needs to promote a realistic image of the internal culture. Your external brand should be as accurate and authentic as possible. 

HR and marketing should regularly audit the message to potential job candidates. This will help them ensure authenticity because they can find any gaps and fix them.

A brand advocate is an employee who promotes your company brand through social media. And sometimes, word of mouth. They can do this on their own, or you can set up an employee advocacy program. 

Marketing and public relations need to realize that great content is just one step. But how you share that content is essential. And that's where social media comes in. There is so much potential for social media marketing right now. 

Using your employees and their social media accounts can boost your organization's visibility. And by using your internal brand advocates, you are using a voice that other people can trust. Nielsen determined that 92% of people trust word-of-mouth referrals over traditional advertising. 

That's why Kelly Services wanted to put a social media system together. They harnessed the power of their employees' social media accounts to attract new talent.