HR is the New PR

Hold on to your hats, folks.  Your HR team is the new face of PR.  Human Resource departments aren’t just cubicles full of paper processing, copy making, policy writing drones, they are the future of your company’s business success.  Ask any corporate human resource professional, and they will tell you that they wear many hats from recruiting, to referee, operations expert, legal counsel, trainer, and now branding, public relations, and marketing experts. Yes, you heard me correctly, Public Relations & Marketing Experts.

• Internal Marketing. HR executives and their teams are the face of the business for the department’s customers, your employees.  They spearhead and execute benefits campaigns, are leaders of the corporate culture, and meet with top executives to develop new employee initiatives like flexible work schedules, tuition reimbursement, employee development programs, and diversity initiatives without a graphic designer to boot.

• Master of Surveys. Effective HR teams use a variety of tools to gauge the temperature of employees past and present through the use of all associate surveys, focus group meetings, and exit interviews much like retail companies like Starbucks or Target do to measure their own customer or guest experience.

• External Marketing. Every outside interaction, your human resource team has with outside representatives, companies, organizations, and candidates is a form of marketing that can be relevant to the business.  Many product driven companies evaluate the number of touches, a company must have before a potential customer becomes a buying customer.  In the competitive world of recruiting and talent capital management, the same holds true.

• Advertising Ninjas. Human resource teams often use outside agencies or consultants to develop video and marketing materials to highlight and promote a company attribute or part of the culture that is attractive to their target candidate market.  But for those who do not, they are often solely responsible for campaign development, execution, and promotion using advertising platforms both tradition and non-traditional including radio, television, community, agency, or organization endorsements, and social media.  HR happens in the trenches, and can’t afford to wait for the PR company on retainer to write a press release or script for a radio commercial.  In most cases, we needed it yesterday and so we adapt.

Take for example the following HR professionals who have already leveraged social media and other forms of marketing and personal branding to develop a market and niche for themselves.

• HR Bartender.  Sharlyn has great content served to her readers in a fun and casual way.  Her website helps her generate conversation, further the HR industry, and is good for business.

• Punk Rock HR. Laurie is one of the leading HR blogs in the industry and brings a funky and honest approach to what is really on the minds of those in the HR industry.

• Steve Boese. He is a HR technology expert who along with his co-host, HR Minion have the only live HR Blog Talk Radio Show.

• Upstart HR.  Ben helps to educate HR professionals from someone from with experience in HR but also in running a family business.  He has a passion for helping HR professionals obtain their professional HR certifications.

• HR Capitalist. Kris is an HR blogger who is changing the industry.  A VP in HR and long time blogger, his topics discuss all areas of HR from technology to recruiting to performance management.

Tagged as: advertising, branding, HR, human resources, ninjas, PR, public relations, Social Media