Marketers Can Take a Page Out of Human Resources' Book to Manage a Brand's Reputation

While experts have long advocated for eliminating silos within companies, the marketing and human resources teams have historically never had much reason to collaborate. In fact, they’re kind of polar opposites: One is distinctly external while the other is internally focused. Now, however, HR priorities like recruitment, retention and relationships are increasingly becoming key marketing focuses as well. That’s because marketers are realizing the hiring process impacts overall branding—and revenue—so they are working more closely with HR to ensure a better overall experience. For companies that have worked on this synchronization, the result is both better relationships and bottom lines, as well as the potential for product innovation. HR's impact on a brand is "a huge blind spot" for many marketing departments, according to HR podcaster Chad Sowash. But at several companies, an "incredibly horrible" hiring process includes applications that require an average of 30 minutes to complete, resulting in “millions of individuals who are actually being impacted negatively by a brand,” Sowash said. Another glaring oversight in the process is not realizing applicants can easily be customers, and perhaps even brand loyalists. “We're talking about individuals who are not just looking to buy a product, they're looking to give you 40 hours a week, blood, sweat and tears,” Sowash said. Yet unlike customers and prospects, most applicants never hear a peep back from the company, which goes against the marketing ethos of giving feedback and engaging with consumers. Reputation management is essential Even giants like Amazon aren't immune: An October 2022 report found its turnover rate costs the company $8 billion annually. Like many workplace changes, this issue has become more prominent in recent years due to the pandemic and resulting recruiting and retention challenges. That’s in part because any negative feedback from unhappy applicants, such as on employee review site Glassdoor, could spell trouble for future recruitment efforts. “Oftentimes, reputation management isn't necessarily something that fits in HR, but HR could be pretty severely affected by it if the company isn't doing a good job of managing its reputation on review sites,” said Chris Ross, vp and analyst at research firm Gartner for Marketers. However, if marketing and HR work together on reputation management and overall brand narrative, brands can better position themselves to attract both talent and customers. Better UX leads to better relationships The most obvious place to start collaborating is by streamlining the hiring process, according to experts. For example, much like consumers don’t have to register on a website to make a purchase, they shouldn’t have to do the same with a company when applying for a job. And even if a candidate isn’t the right fit, the brand should still engage that person past a boilerplate email. In fact, brands should look at job seekers like customers and interact with them the way the marketing and sales departments do. Back in 2010, AT&T realized its “employment-related messages [needed] to be genuine,” according to Jenn Terry-Tharp, vp of global strategy at programmatic job advertising platform Joveo, who was associate vp of employment branding and technology at AT&T from January 2016 to June 2020. While at AT&T, she found a peer in the marketing department who “was invested in making sure we created content that reflected what it was like to work at AT&T and at the same time, pay homage to the legacy and potential of what we were becoming.” The result, according to Terry-Tharp, was an employee referral rate of more than 40% and a reduction of 30% in advertising cost per hire. "Because we were aligned with the consumer marketing team, our message was honed to impart what it was really like to work at AT&T," she said. "This allowed candidates to self-select out of the process early and resulted in less 'unmatched' candidates for the recruiting team. We were able to spend more time on candidates that were most likely to be a good fit." Engagement Errors HR encompasses more than recruiting and retention; it’s also about building relationships and solving problems. But most brands miss these opportunities to engage. Jeriad Zoghby, global lead of omnichannel commerce at advertising services firm Accenture Song, said one company client, whom he declined to name, had 10,000 reviews for a product on an ecommerce site where a "conspiracy theory" around a product kept popping up. But the brand responded with the same message to every complaint—including a comment complaining about the brand's repeated responses themselves. “Buying is seamless, as is the ability for consumers to provide feedback in real time and at scale," Zoghby said. "We are at a point now where consumer feedback becomes industry insights, and not hearing [consumers'] voices can be a missed opportunity for the brand.” Finding alignment Experts say HR and marketing departments that haven’t teamed up yet would be wise to start working together—especially now. “When applicants are considering a job, it is a preview of what it will be like to work there,” Terry-Tharp said. “If a candidate goes weeks or months inside the applicant black hole with little more than an auto response, they are less likely to choose you as an employer.” Indeed, the Talent Board’s 2021 Candidate Experience report found high levels of resentment during the applicant process, which often resulted in severing ties with the company, including using its product or service. “If you are successful in aligning messaging and tone of voice," Terry-Tharp said, "you boost both resonance and reach."