The role of marketing is not limited to promoting products and services to an external audience. Marketing has acquired a much bigger role in the success of organizations. HR has also acquired a similar role and rather than just talent acquisition and nurturing talent, its role has expanded to focus on several more internal factors that drive organizational success. A partnership between these two functions can also drive higher success for organizations and help tap into new sources of competitive advantage.
Whether in terms of employee engagement or brand image, marketing and HR can form meaningful partnerships to drive higher competitiveness. Organizational culture is also an important factor that can drive higher employee productivity. However, the culture is not the responsibility of the HR function only anymore. In this area too, HR and marketing functions can partner to create the type of culture that drives the highest employee engagement and productivity as well as promotes a superior brand image.
Communication is the key to achieving higher success. However, it is important to align HR and marketing objectives to grow the rate of employee engagement and cultural alignment with organizational objectives. This can be made possible through communication. HR and marketing can partner on strategy formulation and communicating objectives to employees.
An alignment between HR and marketing can also help businesses in other areas like bringing an organization-wide change or alignment to improve the company’s image among consumers and employees alike. There is a lot of marketing involved in HR management too. For example, companies want to promote a superior image on social media and other digital channels including the ones they use to hire the right candidates for the firm. HR and marketing functions can partner to decide upon the right channels and the right messaging strategy to use for hiring and promoting the company’s image externally and internally. There are several areas where the two functions can partner to grow the effectiveness of the company’s business strategy. In this way, both functions will be able to maximize their impact and visibility through collaboration.
While the HR function might benefit more in terms of employee engagement using support from the marketing function, the marketing function can also benefit by engaging HR managers in various areas while formulating strategies to attract new customer segments or entering new markets. Across several companies, this partnership has emerged crucial in areas like diversity and inclusion. Large and global firms are recruiting employees from more diverse backgrounds to reflect the diversity of their customer base. HR managers can collaborate with the marketing managers to make their recruitment strategy more focused and impactful. Marketing managers can also help the HR managers learn about the most important market changes that might require a change in the company’s HR strategy. A collaboration between the HR and marketing functions can be profitable for the entire organization. However, leadership plays a central role in creating this mutually beneficial relationship. Communication is critical to strengthening this relationship and deriving expected results.
From the company’s mission and vision to organizational culture and several other areas like recruitment and branding, companies need to focus on the HR-marketing partnership to have the highest impact from their business strategy. Cross functional collaboration can also bring additional benefits for organizations since employees in both functions can gain support from each other in many critical areas. Communication is the key to developing and strengthening the partnership between the two functions, both of which play a central role in the success of the entire organization. Now, companies have the right digital tools at their dispense to facilitate a mutually beneficial relationship between marketing and human resource management. This relationship can also be used to improve the level of teamwork inside the organization. Is the HR-marketing partnership indispensable to organizational success? Yes, it is. HR leaders and CMOs have played a definite role in the success of businesses. When the two partner, they will help improve results manifold.
Abhijeet Pratap is a passionate blogger with seven years of experience in the field. Specializing in business management and digital marketing, he has developed a keen understanding of the intricacies of these domains. Through his insightful articles, Abhijeet shares his knowledge, helping readers navigate the complexities of modern business landscapes and digital strategies.