The relationship between recruitment marketing and corporate marketing teams is like a tango — while each has their own direction and style, both are moving towards the same objective: amplified brand presence. It’s a partnership where recruitment marketing seeks to complement and amplify the efforts of its corporate marketing counterparts. But how do we choreograph this dance to ensure both teams move in unison?
Historically, recruitment marketing and corporate marketing teams have operated in silos, each focused on distinct objectives and audiences with little to no overlap. This separation has led to missed opportunities for collaboration, creativity, and alignment. Yet, when these teams join forces, they can create candidate experiences that align with brand messaging, fostering a seamless experience for all to engage with the brand.
Think of it this way: Your favorite brand wants to hire you. Wouldn’t it be unfortunate if your candidate experience with the brand didn’t match your consumer experience? It could be enough to put you off the brand entirely. Both teams have a considerable stake in the process.
The solution? Un-silo. Here’s how.
Building the Bridge
The journey towards collaboration can be daunting, but it begins with the openness to engage and understand each other’s strengths. Recruitment marketing can extend the reach of corporate marketing’s efforts beyond consumers, to potential candidates, weaving in brand messaging and values to create a resonant employer brand. Corporate marketing often has market research insights and promotional activities that are valuable in building awareness. For recruitment marketing, this research can provide insights into candidates and messaging that will resonate with them.
This partnership strengthens the candidate’s journey and elevates the brand in the eyes of consumers and potential employees. A bad candidate experience, however, has lasting negative effects for both teams.
A case study of Virgin Media showed they were losing $6 million annually in sales revenue due to poor candidate experiences. The power of networking and social sharing compounds this impact and can have damaging consequences to a company’s reputation — and ultimately their bottom line.
Initiating the Dialogue — Questions for Collaboration
To spark this collaborative effort, talent leaders can initiate conversations with corporate marketing teams by asking:
- How can we ensure our messaging is consistent across all platforms?
- What are the overarching brand pillars and objectives we should consider?
- In what ways can we support each other’s goals and amplify our brand’s presence?
Fortune 10 teams value working with an external recruitment marketing agency to help facilitate these relationships and address bandwidth gaps. According to a Workfront study, 80 percent of marketers said they were overwhelmed and understaffed. Delegating recruitment marketing tasks to an agency allows marketers to focus their valuable time on other important aspects of their strategy.
Opening the door to collaboration sets us up for cross-functional success. Differences may occur, but if the door stays open and both teams keep talking, we have a better chance of achieving our goals.
Craft a Unified Experience, From Consumer to Candidate
Creating a cohesive experience from consumer to candidate requires a thoughtful evaluation of the engagement lifecycle. It might mean tweaking messaging, aligning on content strategies, or implementing candidate-focused initiatives into marketing campaigns.
What’s most important, though, is to clearly communicate recruitment marketing’s target audience (candidates) and its value to corporate marketing and the organization. When we do this, we can establish a shared vision for success and have a more strategic approach.
Use Data to Demonstrate Impact
Data is the ultimate truth-teller. Let it speak, and it will bridge the gap between skepticism and belief.
Presenting concrete metrics that show the impact of recruitment marketing efforts — from increased brand engagement to higher quality applicants — talent leaders can highlight tangible benefits of the partnership. Demonstrating how strategic employer branding and targeted candidate communications can contribute to an organization’s success is key to getting buy-in.
With that support, a huge uptick in sustained collaboration can occur, simply by keeping everyone informed. Sharing regular updates on those metrics reinforces our efforts and ensures everyone feels included in the overall strategy.
Un-siloing for Success
Un-siloing is understandably challenging, but it’s essential to achieving success in today’s interconnected world. As we navigate the complexities of the ever-changing job market and consumer landscape, the ability to present a unified brand can be a decisive factor in attracting and retaining top talent and customers.
It’s important to recognize this is more than a strategy — it’s a mindset shift. It may take time to build those relationships. However, it’s worth pursuing because, by embracing partnership, we fortify our organizational identity, making our brand a beacon of excellence for top talent and consumers.
The author, Shavon Banket, is Director of Strategic Content at Shaker Recruitment Marketing.