Over the last year I have found my love of baking again – not so good for the waistline, but I have found it a real tonic during the lockdown periods. I have baked cakes, traybakes, muffins, cookies – you name it I have baked them!
One of the things I have found quite interesting is that whilst there can be a common theme in terms of ingredients – flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder for example – there are also recipes that include quite unique ingredients such as carrots, ginger and marzipan.
What has this got to do with the two disciplines of marketing and HR, I hear you ask?
The function of HR is to attract talent, ensure employee wellbeing, deliver training, monitor performance management and drive personal development; as well as identifying future recruitment plans as a company grows.
Whilst businesses can be fortunate and can keep long serving employees, staff churn is inevitable. So, the marketing role in assisting the HR function is to keep the business constantly looking like a company someone would want to be part of.
Consequently, you might not think marketing and HR go together, but just like baking, when the ingredients are mixed together, they work very well – just like that perfect cake.
So, how can marketing help with recruitment? There are a number of areas:
1. Brand profile
It is the role of marketing to consistently promote the brand and the services of the business. This is increasingly important when you want to attract new talent to an organisation. If no-one has heard of you or does not know what you do, how are they going to make a judgement about whether they want to work for you?
Being present in your local area and to be seen as a “good employer” is therefore crucial. Whether this is through sponsoring a local football team, giving a speech at the top industry event, or having a large following on your social media pages, having a brand presence is vital.
Candidates make job decisions based on impressions of a company’s brand.
According to Glassdoor research, 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply for a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand.
2. Showcase the team
Quite often you can visit a website, and it lists products, case studies, how the business started etc, but you do not find a “people” page. I find this quite odd; a business cannot exist without people, so why not showcase your team?
I appreciate that not everyone likes having their photograph taken nor wants their image on a website. There are ways around this and in my experience, most people like to feel “part” of the business and feel quite pleased that they have been recognised as part of the organisation; so, making sure you have a good team page on your website can pay real dividends.
3. Website
This is your window to the world.
If it does not look professional, up to date, user-friendly, demonstrate that you are a friendly, compelling, and interesting company to work for, then potential candidates will not move along to the application process.
Demonstrating that you care about your employees, provide training, have fun at work, treat employees as individuals and provide them with tailored career paths are all things that will mark your business as a company to work for.
Therefore, you need to ensure that this is updated on a regular basis and includes sections on your website such as meet the team, join us, what its like to work for us, news stories about promotions and general good news stories about your employees.
4. Review sites/scores
As with customers, there are many beneficial reasons to survey your employees. Many organisations do this to improve their business. Gaining valuable insight will allow you to address concerns and employee sentiment. It can also help with prioritising the needs of the business and your strategic plan.
There are many ways to conduct employee surveys within your organisation. Popular systems through Glassdoor, Google My Business, WorkBuzz and Net Promoter Score®, or NPS® can be used; or you could create your own bespoke survey.
Forbes produced a great article last year which listed 14 crucial questions to ask on employee surveys. Whilst the “score” can be judgemental, the fact that you actively engage with your employees demonstrates that you are a company that cares and wants to improve.
5. Social media
It goes without saying that your marketing department will use some social media channels as part of their marketing activity. This is highly likely to be the first place that the younger generation will visit to research a company. Being active and engaged on these platforms will appeal to prospective candidates.
One piece of advice I always give my clients is to pick your channels wisely; and once you have committed to them – be active. If you do not have the resources to be on many, stick to one or two that you can spend the time posting on regularly and being engaged in responses.
6. Awards
Not everyone is a fan of awards as there are a vast array to enter; and it can take time to compile your entry, often with very little result. However, if you can find awards that you can constructively enter – and even be shortlisted for – then time spent researching, can be time well spent.
Awards profile your business; and typically have a PR campaign around them to promote winners, shortlisted companies, and sponsors.
Here are five reasons why simply entering an award could be good for your business:
- Free PR
- Benchmarking
- Employee motivation
- Increased credibility
- Attract new employees.
Would you not want to work for a business with an award “Best Business to Work For? Check out these.
7. Employee advocacy
Employee advocacy is simply the promotion of a company by the people who work for it.
People advocate for their employers on social media all the time. A Facebook post such as, “Just received this lovely birthday cake from my boss. Thanks!”
Research shows that, on average, employees collectively have social networks ten times larger than a corporate brand does. That means your advocacy program can drastically extend your reach.
Employee shares are seen as more authentic than corporate shares, and people are more likely to engage with the content. Employee shares have double the click-through rate of corporate shares.
You will need to set objectives for your programme, but the top three tips are:
- Let your employees have a voice in choosing content that resonates with them
- Make them part of the content planning process
- Recognise their success.
One platform, LinkedIn, has recently launched a new tab on the Analytics company pages so that you can now track Employee Advocacy.
Summary
Recruitment in any business can be costly. Not just in terms of the cost of a recruitment agent, or advertising costs, but predominately in the amount of time it will take your HR department to administer the applications. Also, if you are not successful on the first attempt, another campaign just doubles the cost. It also means that you have a vacancy; and whether this is a replacement role or a new one, the work that person should be doing is not getting done.
So, decreasing costs and reducing the time a post is vacant is definitely beneficial to the business.
Having a “waiting list” of potential candidates can dramatically decrease your recruitment budget, so why not promote your business as one of choice; and actively encourage interested future candidates to contact you?
Working with a marketing function in this way to showcase your business as a “best place to work” will result in a more streamlined and efficient recruitment process. It will also help with employee satisfaction and advocates.
Just like that mixture of ingredients at the start of the baking process, as standalone items marketing and HR don’t necessarily gel together; but mixed in the right way and baked properly, a delicious cake ensues…………
If you would like to talk about anything marketing on an outsourced basis, please get in touch by giving me a call on 07966 192597 or sending me an email.
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Read my testimonial from one client where I helped them with their recruitment programme.