No one talks about it. But Marketing and Human Resources need each other to succeed. Here are four areas where marketing can assist HR, and vice versa.
Recruiting
Most companies need talented employees now. But marketing involvement is often limited to ordering the “Now Hiring” signs and making sure positions get posted on the website or social media.
Marketing can do more. Like rewriting “now hiring” to make it more sexy. Making job descriptions more appealing. Creating point-of-purchase material that entices and excites. Rethinking the website to bring talent recruitment to the fore. Or using social media to share company culture.
Retention
Robust recruitment marketing has a side benefit of increasing retention. Find passionate employees and let marketing create videos of them talking about what they love about their jobs. Share those on your website and social media – and encourage your team to like and share.
Actively look for ways to hold up team member achievements and successes — on social media but also at the point of purchase and in employee emails and communications — with the spotlight squarely on those top performers and their accomplishments.
Productivity
It may not seem like a marketing function, but finding fun and innovative ways to share goals and wins is a sure way to engage your team.
There’s the classic story of the company owner who took a piece of chalk and wrote on the shop floor, in huge numerals, the number of units his day shift had produced. Nothing else. When those workers came in the next morning, they found it replaced by the night shift with the much bigger number they had produced. It was on. And productivity and pride soared. That’s marketing.
Let marketing and HR brainstorm inventive ways to display goals where the team members responsible for meeting those targets can see them. Find equally compelling ways to show progress toward them — and to celebrate reaching each.
Delivery
A brand stands or falls on how well employees deliver on the brand promise. The more ways HR can find to instill the mission and accountability into everything from the hiring process to ongoing training and support, the stronger the brand will become and the more effective every marketing initiative will be.