HR has the potential to help drive sales too

Taking consumer behaviour and applying it to employer branding, when 67% of all consumer decisions are primarily influenced by word of mouth (McKinsey) how can marketeers use employee engagement to build the public brand and drive sales?

 

Whilst corporate comms and marketing professionals are seen as the communication experts, we shouldn’t forget about the impact that HR professionals have on building a brand. Whilst HR professionals manage the employer brand, we need to look at the wider impact their work has,

 

It is as important to make employees as well as consumers advocates for your organisation. Whilst every advertisement and every newspaper article has an impact on the employer brand, likewise every conversation an employee has about their place of work has an impact on the consumer brand. As marketeers we are always looking to influence word of mouth conversations, isn’t collaboration between MarComms and HR the answer?

 

When an engaged employee discusses their feelings towards their work and employer positively, we know this impacts the employer brand. It influences the listener to consider working there or be an advocate if their advice is requested. It also impacts the public brand as it can influence the decision to purchase their products or services too.

 

Employee engagement is a high priority in the HR community but the marketing community should be listening too and getting involved as this has a direct impact on what they are trying to achieve. Employee engagement is not only part of the solution to employee retention and effectiveness it is the way to build the brand from the grass roots up, influencing potential customers and candidates alike at a micro level.

 

When 90% of customers identify word of mouth as the best, most reliable and trustworthy source about ideas and information on products and services (NOP World) who is better placed to spread the word but those in the know, actual employees.

 

We rely on our marketing and communications experts to support the drive for increased sales and greater awareness. We task HR with reducing the overall recruitment expenditure by focusing on employee retention.

 

If HR professionals and marketing professionals worked together to focus on every organisations greatest resource, its people, two of every organisations constant challenges can be impacted – decreasing the cost of recruitment and increasing the number of sales.

Employees’ voices are getting louder

When conducting some research on Facebook (I had already caught up on what my own network had been up to so had some free time) I was surprised to find a group that had been set up to discuss the grievances of a person in a large multi national company. Even though it was one individual in the US and there weren’t that many people in the group, it got me thinking that from “small acorns large oak trees grow”.

Employees no longer have to fight for a voice. With the advent of social media networks like facebook, as individuals we are all empowered to air our views to the wider community. In this case there were over 500 people on facebook who were either working for or had worked for the organisation across the world. That doesn’t include potential employees or customers. With this kind of network the voice of a single employee just got louder.

But is this company listening? And are organisations in general listening? A group of this nature has the power to do a great deal of damage to the company’s employer brand if it gains momentum. It can show the employer brand to be just words and images in an ad or a poster if not translated into postiive action by the company itself. This is a great opportunity for the organisation to actually respond and get involved in the conversation. This can have a twofold effect – 1. confirming to their current workforce that they do listen, whatever the outcome which indicates how important their employees are and that ; and 2. communicating a sense of their culture to the outside world that says they are modern, open and honest which is what a lot of people look for in an employer.  

When companies spend thousands of $$$ building an employer brand through the traditional routes and press their agency for a return on investment – any headway made can be wiped away by a simple conversation being had out of ear shot. Its time for companies to start listening and join in the conversation because the conversations will only get louder as more people join in.