HR marketing: marketing like no other
Human Resources is a field like no other. In the past, HR has played more of a behind-the-scenes role in organizations, but today everything has changed.
In the midst of the Talent War, and even as skills are becoming a benchmark, HR is on all strategic fronts.
1 – Continuity plans,
2 – Digital transformation,
3 – Intellectual heritage,
4 – Adaptation to changes,
5 – Support for growth,
6 – Crisis management,
7 – Security and compliance,
8 – Values and culture.
Meeting such challenges cannot be done without well-established marketing adapted to the specificities of HR.
Let’s take a look at what makes HR marketing so special.
A multi-party decision
To recruit and for the adventure to continue, there must be at least 2: the individual and the employer.
Very often, this turns out to be more complex since the newcomer must integrate and participate in the interest of all.
Using a marketing approach in this context therefore implies very precise targeting, a mutual selection process and, if one wishes to avoid disappointment, a high degree of transparency. Transparency that the consecrated moment of courtship inseparable from too many recruitments, does not promote.
This complexity and the ability that recruiters will have to reason for two and to create objective alliances is one of the great recruitment challenges for the years to come.
Photo credit: Resource Lab. All rights reserved
Photo credit: Resource Lab. All rights reserved
An asymmetric relationship
Rousseau described it well, the social contract is historically the abandonment of a dose of freedom in exchange for a dose of security. the down-sizing , cost killing and the emergence of liberated companies are all elements that undermine this vision.
The fact remains that the employment relationship is considered a subordination by the legislator and experienced hierarchically by its protagonists.
It is even sometimes, beyond speeches, desired as vertical as possible, both by employees who in times of uncertainty rely on the decision of a higher authority, and by employers who see in the harmonization of thoughts and actions a way to be reassured about the proper execution of the business plan and to remove any disruptive element.
To relax social postures and release energies in a positive way, the recruiter must be in turn a publicist, influencer and counter-propagandist, an exercise which in many cases is a matter of great art.
A paradoxical adventure
In his relationship with the company, the individual lives a paradoxical moment. Everyone must officially maintain a professional and reserved posture, yet the company takes hold of notions of ethics, values and even health.
Private and professional life must be separated and duly proportioned, yet digital, BYOD and teleworking threaten this balance at all times.
HRD is the driving force behind changes in the company and guarantees the support of teams, but it has to deal with reversals of strategies and other unexpected changes in the conduct of this delicate exercise.
In such a complex context where the individual can lose his bearings and feel tossed around, the HRD marketer must demonstrate unparalleled subtlety, constant vigilance and a degree of empathy, well beyond what commercial marketing demands of its practitioners.
A sensitive and regulated journey
To put it mildly, human resources are a sensitive and highly observed subject.
While the temptation is great to use the latest marketing automation or growth hacking techniques to federate Talents, this cannot be done without a careful examination of the potential implications, in terms of legal, social and regulatory matters.
The HR Director must therefore demonstrate particular judgment in his marketing practice.
Bringing together subjects as vast as marketing and HR in the same reflection is a difficult exercise and there would surely be many other things to say.
We nevertheless hope that this article lays the foundations for a marketing practice adapted to human resources and would be very happy to receive your comments.
Photo credit: Resource Lab. All rights reserved