The Importance Of HR & Marketing Working Together

This article was first published in the downloadable first issue of markonmag. The article has since been updated and expanded upon by Nicole Rachel Kwan.

Wait, what? Marketing and HR are not that different?

No, really! Even in HR, you can still think like a marketer.

What comes to mind when you think of human resources? It might be administrative work, like processing payroll, employee benefits, and scheduling interviews. 

Although that is a part of what HR does, building a strong employer brand has become more important for HR departments across the globe. 

This is where the intersection between HR and Marketing comes in: while marketing manages the brand image towards customers, HR helps with crafting the employer brand for potential employees. 

But first, let’s learn more about the two fields.

What is the difference between marketing and HR?

Internal versus External focus

No matter which field of marketing they are in - be it trade marketing, partnership marketing marketers have to communicate with external stakeholders. It focuses on communicating your brand’s value in order to convince people to purchase from you.

On the other hand, HR tends to focus on internal stakeholders - current and potential employees. 

A diagram of the external and internal communications of Marketing and HR.

Day-to-day activities

Marketers often spend their time brainstorming creative ideas and developing campaigns to attract and engage customers. They would also be evaluating the impact of their marketing efforts, and aim to optimize future campaigns.

Human resources (HR) professionals spend their time hiring and developing training programs. A bulk of HR time is spent on responsibilities such as benefit plans, processing payrolls, recruitment and onboarding, and many other employee-centric activities.

If you only pay attention to the day-to-day responsibilities and target audience of Marketing and HR, you might not see the commonalities between them!

So…

What do marketing and human resources have in common?

Consider from this perspective: the recruitment part of HR is all about “marketing” an intangible product – the work experience at the company. 

The “product” includes everything from the job scope, career development, and growth opportunities, to the culture of the company, work environment, and employee experience. Through their marketing of the work experience, HR/recruiters hope to attract top talents to work for the company.

Let’s draw a parallel here to marketing: Marketers are always finding novel ways to communicate a differentiated value proposition to their target market.

Their goal is to increase brand awareness, customer engagement, and ultimately drive sales (one of the features of being a good marketer!). 

HR professionals are often on the lookout for compelling reasons and ways to evoke the candidates’ interest to work at the company and retain talented employees. 

The role of both departments overlaps with their common goal of communicating the organization’s strategic vision, purpose, ideas, and values to the various stakeholders.

To achieve their goals - hiring top talent, or increasing sales - both Marketing and HR have to design a valuable product and communicate it well to their target audiences.

What is the relationship between marketing and HR?

As HR transforms to be a strategic partner to the business, how can you as a marketer apply your marketing knowledge into the HR context?

The most successful campaigns are often centered around how well marketers know their existing customers and deliver a great customer experience. As organizations increasingly recognize people as one of their greatest assets, revamping their candidate and employee experiences has become one of the top priorities at forward-thinking HR departments.

How do marketing skills help HR communicate with potential employees?

You might vaguely recall this concept from marketing classes called STP: Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.

These are three fundamental steps in marketing, for marketers to get the right message to the right people.

Hence, what marketers can offer to value-add in an HR department are their abilities to segment the competitive candidate market and current employees. 

Next, marketers can help identify the needs of the employees and think of innovative strategies to cater to them. 

Let me illustrate this with an example. In today’s multi-generational workforce, we find that the needs and lifestyles of Gen Z and millennials vary considerably from that of Gen X and Baby Boomers. 

For instance, younger demographics are more tech-savvy and they desire a sense of purpose at work, more autonomy and feedback, flexibility in working hours and location, as well as a fun working environment. 

How do marketing skills help HR develop positive candidate and employee experiences?

How do we then choose the right channels to reach out to them, and what could be some of the compelling messages crafted that would resonate with them? 

Marketers would be much better equipped with the knowledge and skills to conduct in-depth research to understand the needs and be innovative in brainstorming ideas to cater to them.

Going back to the idea of the work experience as an intangible product, marketers would be able to gain insights into the needs and preferences of different workforce groups, and translate these insights into an all-around, valuable offer to attract potential employees, and retain current employees.

Moreover, marketers use tools such as customer journey maps to visualize the customers' experiences, from the first to the final touchpoint, and identify areas for optimization. 

Likewise, mapping out the employee journey for different segments helps HR to identify the moments that matter for each segment and redesign the candidate experience or employee experience to drive greater emotional engagement and impact.

Why is a strong employer brand important?

In this candidate-driven market, organizations are placing higher importance on having a differentiated and prominent employer brand to attract and retain top talents. 

While the company brand plays a role in defining the employer brand, the employer brand focuses on expressing the culture, work environment, and values of the company. These matter more to candidates.

According to this article by Hubspot on employer branding, 86% of workers would not apply or continue to work for a company that has a bad reputation, whether it’s with former employees or the general public. That’s how important it is to have strong (and good) employer branding.

How can HR help in branding?

HR has increasingly incorporated various branding and marketing tactics into its talent acquisition strategies to attract a wider pool of candidates. 

Some examples include harnessing the power of storytelling and employee advocacy by featuring employee-generated content. For example, some companies display “A Day in The Life” or “Why I Applied” videos on their career page.

Employers also use social media channels such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube to promote aspects of the company that make them great employers.

HR recruiters also use marketing skills, such as persuasive copywriting skills to write job descriptions that sound much more compelling and exciting to candidates.

Bringing HR and Marketing together

The lines between HR and marketing have blurred so much that their roles have become closely interlinked. 

What this suggests is that students who have dual knowledge in both marketing and HR fields would be able to stay ahead in the forefront of the competitive job market and successfully market their company as an employer of choice. 

Even in an HR department, you can still think like a marketer. Focus on finding a unique value proposition to communicate, revamping candidate and employee experiences, and don’t be afraid to be creative with your tactics!

If you want to learn more about marketing and gain insights into the different fields, check out the content in our online marketing magazine!