Companies tend to think of HR and marketing as separate entities and working in parallel. But in reality, the two functions share more similarities than an organization would expect. HR and marketing roles intertwine in many ways, making the two departments an ideal match for several successful collaborations.

Each team has the function to attract, educate, and retain both the interests and attention of today's talent market. While their target personas and "product" or "service" are different, their implementation, execution, and desired outcomes of respective activities are actually closely related. HR and marketing both work daily to enhance the external public opinion and internal satisfaction of employees, using key messaging and branding techniques to boost morale and industry perception.

When HR and marketing work together, it becomes easier for companies to stand out in a saturated market, building their brand and increasing awareness simultaneously. Cumulative workplace success is achieved when marketing and HR combine forces, working towards improving the following initiatives that have a significant impact on their people.

Company branding and employer branding go hand in hand

In order to stand out from the crowd and attract top-tier talent, companies should prioritize employer branding. Luckily, branding falls within every marketing department's wheelhouse. When HR takes marketing's advice on how to brand your company in a positive light, web traffic increases alongside the volume of job applications received for vacant positions. To receive those applications, though, HR and marketing need to work together to empower their people and sustain a culture that potential job candidates want to be a part of.

Technology and social media have created an open channel for employees and candidates to communicate and share their experiences online. As found by a recent Hibob survey, prospective employees are utilizing company websites (32 percent), Glassdoor (20 percent), and social media profiles (19 percent) to gain knowledge on a company throughout the application process.

Since HR is trying to improve brand awareness and build a credible reputation in its company's space, social advertising should be fine-tuned by the marketing department. This means that Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Facebook should be curated by marketing and HR as a duo to guarantee that your people's experiences and testimonials attract followers that strive to become new hires.

Recruiting talent requires a marketing skillset

Marketing teams often facilitate data dives and have the ability to strategically attract job candidates for certain positions through market research. HR teams can take advantage of the market research that marketing performs by using these insights to craft job descriptions, tailored to the persona they wish to draw in. Not only will HR know who to target and on which platforms, but job post collaboration results in well-versed, compelling copy that catches the eye of an audience, and drives them to click on your company's career page. Marketing teams can help HR ensure that the descriptions are connecting with their intended audience and therefore, making a splash in the open market.

Marketing also has the ability to generate precise answers about specific job applicant qualities through their data dives. The department can provide answers to HR questions such as the type of workplace and benefits someone is looking for. Having this information on hand assists HR through the interview process and streamlines the hiring process, allowing HR to handpick potential candidates before they've even walked through the office doors.

The onboarding experience is constantly tested

HR and marketing would be a wasted combination if they didn't team up on improving their company's onboarding experience for new hires. Together, the departments can ensure new employees are properly welcomed to the company and are updated on all company events, meetings, and training sessions.

A strong onboarding process has been proven to improve new hire retention by 82 percent, and your marketing and HR teams should collaborate to make sure this statistic applies directly to their company. Otherwise, you'll lose the estimated 64 percent that leave a job after having a negative onboarding experience. This increases the need for marketing and HR to make these experiences positive for new joiners at your company.

As a dynamic duo, marketing and HR can smooth out the onboarding process and make it as pleasant as possible, by creating a program that effectively transitions new hires into their roles seamlessly.

Data dives can pool together information and details, the majority taken from surveys, that show what people want starting from day one on the job. Through this education, HR can implement certain training lessons and onboarding initiatives that include mentor programs, access to specific digital tools, company-wide tours, and department ice-breakers.

Employee retention is parallel to customer retention

Being loyal to company values and communicating clear, consistent internal messaging retain talented employees. Your company's marketing department can concisely and regularly convey company values through powerful collateral and forward-facing sentiments emphasizing these values both internally and externally. HR can align with this messaging when communicating with its people to keep a sense of transparency and consistency within the office environment.

It's important to practice transparency and act upon the values your company preaches, otherwise, your employees' actions may not align with organizational values and productivity levels will drop. Furthermore, new employees will be more apt to apply to a company with a strong culture and meaningful principles.

Marketing and HR should join forces for the greater organizational good. As a pair, HR and marketing have the ability to increase brand power and drive recruitment techniques forward, while retaining loyal employees through effective onboarding and ongoing alignment and communication. Leveraging one another's expertise ultimately improves operations at a company. In 2020 and beyond, companies would be wise to place a continued reliance on these teams working together.

Rhiannon Staples is CMO at Hibob.

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Why marketing and HR need to work together

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