Strategy for Employer Branding.

1. Building Compelling Brand with Marketing & HR
Human Resource and Marketing are the two functions of the organization which just can’t
afford to work in silos. Every single effort of collaboration bring its glorious share of
innovation, speed of execution and a higher than expected productivity, yet many global
behemoth are still not able to understand this idea and let their respective departments sit
comfortably in their respective dugouts without even releasing what the organization is
missing and what’s next to lose in future war of resources and growth that comes with razor
sharp decisions and with loads of risk factors from everywhere and for everyone.
Global Talent war is the top concern for every CHRO and thus the answer is employer
branding which is a sure shot remedyfor present & future talent crunches. Now the question
arises who needs to take care of this prime objective of an effective employer branding and
its relevant placing. Is it functionA (HR) or functionB (Marketing) or collaborationbetween
A&B is the answer. Many organizations just don’t have an employer branding strategies in
place and therefore if their functions start avoiding and start marking their territory on this
very objective, the organization is bound to lose a lot more than desired. Now to see the
brighter side, this kind of vacuum brings in a space where HR & Marketing can limitlessly
collaborate on this critical agenda from which every different function of the organization
can directly or indirectly benefits.
And yet there are cases where the two functions have not collaborated even though having a
lot many commonalities than differences. Both are a people driven functions which heavily
focusses on motivating and influencing with many other common competencies. A good
understanding of people and psychology in these functions goes a long way in their
execution& productivity. Let’s gather some more skills & potentials that they can gain from
each other and will have the ultimate impact on the present & future business sustainability
and prospects.

2. What Marketing can teach HR?
 Market Segmentation: “Market segmentation is a marketing strategy which involves
dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers, businesses, or countries that have,
or are perceived to have, common needs, interests, and priorities, and then designing and
implementing strategies to target them.” (Via. Wikipedia). In the same way HR can segment
their talent populationwith developing and directingcustomizedemployeevalue proposition
for prospective talent leads and thus overhauling their employer branding strategies from
time to time. In future war of talent let the talent come to your doorsteps and have an option
to choose from diverse range of values proposition that can in turn attract many other talents
in the market. Develop EVPs depending upon roles and responsibilities, a notion of one
shoes fits all won’t help anymore.
 Seize technologies and be updated with changing market algorithm: Embracing latest
technologies can be used to engage with future leads that can turn valuable employees and
know the pulse of the current crop of workforce through the latest technology of gathering
data and responses. HR also tends to have their latest technology and machineries but
marketing as a department are two steps further in implementing and taking it seriously
because of the quarterly pressure of the ever increasing numbers. They engage and interact
with their customer on various platforms and through various means and technologies to
always have the first mover advantages. They know the tricks to reaffirm and revisit their
finding when the relevant statistics are not met. For eg: A marketing function’s way of
working with their customers onsocial mediaplatforms are very different from HR function
where depending upon the customer’s moods and preferences, market sentiments the
products are targeted and a pull effort are made whereas there are many instances where the
HR tools of attracting, engaging & retaining their talent remain the same for many quarters
which doesn’t bring any element of excitement.

3. What HR can teach Marketing?
 Impacting People behavior & strategies: Marketing function has products and services
which can be made valuable and a demand can be created in market only when the
employees who are working on it understand the product well. The function should
understand the employees thoroughly and thus help them in giving assignments based on
their strengths. Change or tweak strategies depending upon the culture of the function and
employees who will bring number at the end of the day. By working with the HR department
the Marketing function will have opportunities to better understand the employee
engagement initiatives, employee’s behaviors, beliefs and future challenges which can come
from employee’s side. Results from HR analytics can be precursorsfor developingmarketing
strategies which ultimately the employees have to fulfill & achieve.
 Make a People driven function not a number driven function: HR function should make
marketing understand that no business is sustainable without employee who have relevant
skillset. At the end of the day number are important for them but they need to understand the
people who are bringing these numbers. An organization exist internally first and then a
sound external existence is possible. Indeed the function is as good as the people who work
for it and companies are as good as the skills people bring to the tables. Making every
functiona people driven functionwith an ideal complement of system & processes will spark
innovation and will have an impact on customer and stakeholder year on year. Growth of
employees should be the first agenda of the function and ultimately the numbers will come
by.
At the end of the day Marketing & HR should know that collaboration is a skill and it takes
some practice. To benefit the most from this qualitative collaboration some of the ground
work should be in set beforehand.

4.  A common understanding and agreement should be made on the purpose &
accountability: Acknowledgement should be there that whatever decision is being taken is
for the organization betterment and every strategic decision which involves both the
functions will help the organization and in turn their respective function too. Any failures to
yield result will not be the bone of contention and will not impact future collaboration as
both the function have equal stakes and responsibilities.
 Roles & responsibilities transparency: To avoid major confusion on area of
responsibilities and to cull out duplicity of roles and work a regular meeting mechanism
should be in place. Conflict will bring its own share of creativity.
 Impact Analysis & measurement: Prepare dashboards & metrics to measure the efforts
from respective functions and help in demonstrating the ROI of the strategy. It can also help
in revisiting past performances and in knowing how far the effort has yield results.
These are critical andalso excitingtimes for boththe functions, they complement each other
in the closest way and therefore managing the internal working of the employer brand is the
joint responsibility of Marketing and Human resource for the organization’s sustainability
and development.