Has your HR team run out of gas on your employer brand refresh? If you’re looking to get ahead on the rebranding efforts and need a little help pushing it over the finish line, I want to point you in the direction of your Marketing team. I know they’re busy, they don’t “get” HR, and they are often the barrier to your efforts. But believe it or not, they can actually be your biggest ally!
When it comes to employer branding, branding and marketing are actually more closely connected than you might think.
Your employer brand is how potential candidates perceive the company – from the messaging on job postings to the look and feel of your website – so having it integrated and well-defined helps you build a unified impression to all your constituents, whether they are investors, customers of your products and services, or past, present and potential employees.
And just as marketing is vying for new business by promoting the things that make your company offerings unique, similarly, your recruitment marketing efforts help you identify the right candidates and make sure they learn about your company, so they can make an informed decision when considering a job offer with you.
Your Marketing Team Can Accelerate Your Employer Branding Efforts
They have access to graphic designs, videos, fonts, and a library of stock images that you can repurpose. This means that you don’t have to start your employer rebranding campaign development efforts from scratch.
Your marketing team may also be able to help with any corporate creative and messaging that you want to introduce as part of the employer brand refresh process. They can develop custom templates that are on-brand and aligned with your mission and core values, enabling you to create collateral quickly and efficiently.
This becomes an important value-add because when it comes to an employer brand refresh, understanding your organization’s mission, vision and values is a key piece of information for candidates who are looking to learn more about your culture. It is important that all these pieces of information fit together in a cohesive way.
To create an employer value proposition that resonates with talent as well as your customers, here are some tips to move forward:
- Research – Gather data and insights on what appeals to candidates and existing employees when they look for job opportunities or advancements – both in the short-term and in the long-term – and what drives their loyalty.
- Ideation – Tap into the experience the marketing team has around developing great stories and translate their skills into unveiling your company culture narrative in a way that resonates with candidates
- Development – Take advantage of the marketing team’s creative prowess for imagery, branding, messaging and other creative elements; also leverage their technology skills to create engaging outreach emails/recruitment campaigns to demonstrate your employer brand value proposition.
- Promotion – Leverage marketing teams’ digital reach (social media) to get your message out there; use their media channels for engagement e.g., podcasts for career advice, webinars for industry insights etc.; get insights into customer trends which can help shape your employer brand message and strategy
- Images & Videos – Using stock or custom photography is a great way to develop visuals quickly and easily. Your marketing team will likely have access to plenty of photos and videos that can be used as part of your employer brand refresh—and best of all, they’ll know exactly where to find them! They may also be able to spend some of their money creating specific elements if you ask them nicely
- Targeting – But there’s an even bigger reason why you should include marketing in the mix. The same principles that marketers use to target customers—creating targeted employee personas—can be used to attract quality talent. This is where you get really granular when it comes to the type of people you want to hire: What kind of experience do they have? What kind of qualities will they bring? Do they have a particular educational background? All these factors need to be taken into consideration if you want to attract top talent.
In addition, understanding what motivates people through data is also important so you can tailor messaging specifically for certain types of candidates. It could be something as simple as highlighting a benefit that resonates with them, or talking about how their skills will fit into the company culture you are creating.
The bottom line is that incorporating marketing principles into your employer brand refresh can help ensure that you’re attracting the kind of candidates who will be the right match for your company — both in terms of talent and culture — while also providing an additional layer of protection against expensive hiring mistakes.
The potential of a marketing and HR partnership is great, and the possible applications within your organization are exciting and practically limitless. By leveraging the power of collaboration, you’ll create an employer brand that is comprehensive, interesting, and reflects the values of your organization.
So don’t be dissuaded by the thought of having a “marketing team” involved in your Employer Brand Refresh efforts; they can be your best friend!
So don’t hesitate to collaborate with your Marketing team—let them help you with the heavy lifting for a successful employer brand refresh without breaking the bank!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.
