27 Aug 2015

5 reasons marketing can be HR’s best friend

Silos and stereotypes exist in most companies – it’s hard not to get settled into a team and create your own little world. In addition, you might characterise another department under a generic umbrella. In some ways, the office can be pretty similar to the school cafeteria. You sit with your friends and that’s it.

For example, if you’re in HR, have you ever thought about sitting with those folks in marketing? Sure you might think they’re those ‘creative, slightly geeky types’ who get excited about HTML code and the positioning of the company’s logo on an advert, but what they can offer the company internally can be as valuable for you as their external messaging is for the business.

1. Communication is key

Your company is made up of individuals, people who have different skills, training needs, values and different ways of taking things in. You can’t please everyone all the time, but what’s important is trying a variety of ways to reach them. Communication is crucial when building morale and managing wellbeing. It can help to create an open and honest culture that your workforce will really thrive on.

This is where Marketing can help. Get inspiration from how they communicate what the company offers the outside world. From email campaigns, TV commercials and advertorials – what kind of messages are they putting out there? What works for certain types of people and how do you position your message so it has the maximum effect. It’s not just about what mode you use, but what you’re trying to achieve with it. It’s also about setting the right tone with your choice of words and images. Speak to your marketing colleagues about the initiative that you’re trying to communicate and get their advice on how best to communicate it effectively to staff. You have access to communication experts free of charge – make the most of them.

2. Showing off your brand

As an HR professional, you have a very unique position within a company. You work with the people and know how their teams tick. Without your department, it’s unlikely that employees will have completely unbiased representation, plus you’ll generally know what’s working with the staff and what isn’t.

With this in mind, you might want to encourage more people to join your organisation and be part of the team. Marketing might help make your company popular within its industry but how can you make it competitive with recruitment? Show the job market why candidates should apply to work there. What makes your company a great place to work? Marketing may work with different agencies to get their message across and there’s no reason why HR couldn’t do the same. Connect with people from recruitment companies and go from there.

3. Be a data king

Companies use data in so many different ways. From financial numbers, to environmental impact and competitor insights among many others, it might be difficult to wade through all of this to work out what’s going to benefit your staff. Marketing can use most of this to determine how to position the company within the industry – what kind of business do you want to be seen as. They use it to see how well campaigns are doing as well as how well the company is performing as a whole. This is especially true of online and social media advertising. Data is key in making these campaigns as targeted and effective as possible.

So how can HR use data effectively? Along with measuring diversity within your workforce, data also gives you a great idea of how your benefits package can be built and where wellbeing could perhaps be improved. For example, look at the take up rates of particular benefits and see which ones are actually being used. Statements to show the value of your benefits package for example are a great way to demonstrate to your employees how much extra on top of their salary you’re offering them. With stress and mental health being a huge topic within UK businesses at the moment, having a clear idea about the effects of these issues on your employees and taking steps to measure mental health can help you make a case to leadership if this area needs improvement.

4. Workplace innovation

Marketing teams are generally quite fortunate in the sense that they probably have access to the latest technology for their jobs. They might have gadgets like professional cameras for promo shots and videos, maybe even studios and creative break-out areas that help drive their inspiration. Yes, the Marketing department might work in a different way to others, but that doesn’t mean that this can’t be a good push to improve the rest of the organisation.

Check out other marketing companies and creative agencies to see how they design their offices. There has been a link between a good workspace and productivity, so why not maximise the chances of motivating your workforce by giving them a brilliant space to walk into every day. Give your staff freedom of expression, not everyone will want the same thing so if they’re are given the chance to be creative with their own desk or area, it will certainly help those Monday morning blues. Let your employees work how they want to work. And what about flexible working? Marketing roles aren’t usually measured on a punch-in-punch-out basis, so what if this was rolled out to the rest of the company? Being less strict on how many days someone’s in the office and instead focussing more on output could help the work-life balance and overall wellbeing in the workplace.

5. Be more social with recruitment

The world of social media has moved firmly into the workplace over the last few years. Many companies use LinkedIn for recruitment, but this could be an even more powerful tool if connected to their marketing campaigns across social media. If your company does have a Twitter feed or LinkedIn company page, look at the tone of voice and style they use on these and try to use consistent language when posting recruitment adverts. The brightest candidates will check out the social media of a company before applying for a job and presenting a coherent message across all channels will signal to them that this a company that is collaborative, forward-thinking and brand aware.

The social media team will probably have a content calendar, to help them schedule their posts around relevant events or dates. See if they can share this with you so you know what they have scheduled for the coming months and see if there is a way to tie this in with your recruitment postings. For example if they are planning a major campaign around a sporting event like next month’s Rugby World Cup think about how that might be relevant to the wording you use for your job advertisements.

As well as finding fresh new talent, the social world is great when it comes to developments in the recruiting field, like new ways to conduct interviews and an evolution of different software to use. LinkedIn especially is a great source of advice and information, helping you to expand your knowledge and connections within your field. If you don’t feel confident about building your own profile, speak to your marketing colleagues who should be able to help you navigate the site better and give you tips on best practice to make the most of what’s available. Plus being a member yourself of groups on LinkedIn and following pages on Twitter means you’re always kept up to date with upcoming events, like recruitment fairs and employee benefit conferences. It is the quickest and easiest way to keep up with industry developments, new research, competitor activity and so much more.

So take the time to meet your marketing colleagues and find out a bit more about their plans and resources. Working closely can only mean good things for you both and it’ll also help to break down other silos that might exist around your company.

This article was supplied by Unum.