A recent suggestion that HR has a lot to learn from marketing professionals when it comes to packaging and branding workforce messages -- and might even do well to turn over parts of the HR function to marketers -- has raised some eyebrows.
According to an executive briefing by the Madison Performance Group -- entitledHR or Marketing: Who is Better Equipped to Manage Employee Engagement? -- "marketing has evolved particularly fast in using digital media to deliver messages that are more efficient and impactful" when it comes to building a more engaged workforce.
"Precision marketing practices -- that build personalized relationships with the brand -- have helped marketing gain new respect and status within the organization for its ability to attract, retain and leverage profitable customers," writes Mike Ryan, senior vice president of marketing and client strategy for Madison, a recognition and consulting firm based in New York.
"Some business leaders," he writes, "wonder if marketing shouldn't also be charged with building and maintaining the corporate connection with employees."
Ryan says the C-suite "wants HR to do more than communicate processes and procedures." On the contrary, "top executives want HR to own the internal employee customers."
While companies "haven't yet moved the employee-recognition program over to marketing," he says, "the fact that the question is being asked suggests that HR [professionals] should consider adopting some of marketing's practices as they work to create meaningful relationships with employees."
It's true, says Mark Royal, a senior consultant with Hay Group's Chicago office, marketing professionals do have wisdom to share.
They "could provide useful guidance," he says, "related to segmenting audiences, tailoring messages and leveraging different communication channels that would serve HR professionals well in reaching an increasingly diverse workforce in ways that resonate and motivate."
But should marketing own engagement initiatives within organizations?
"Definitely not," Royal says.
In fact, Hay's research with Fortune's Most Admired Companies list suggests that the success these companies have in engaging employees "is due, in no small part, to the fact that they do not let [engagement efforts] rest within any particular functional area," he says.
"Instead, [Most Admired Companies] emphasize the role of line managers throughout the organization in championing and driving engagement efforts."
In addition, he says, while effective communication is critical, the words need to be backed up with appropriate action.
"HR professionals," Royal says, "can provide expertise in developing the right leadership skills, connecting employees with meaningful growth-and-development opportunities, structuring effective reward-and-recognition programs to motivate and acknowledge employee efforts, and so on."
But, says Kenneth W. Thomas, a Monterey, Calif.-based engagement consultant, co-author of Work Engagement Profile and author of Intrinsic Motivation at Work, employees have more choices now related to HR services and professional-development,
Work is more flexible and virtual, he says, and "people are more empowered" as a result.
"They have the option of taking those HR services and using them or not," says Thomas, "so how they're marketed becomes a key to how they'll be used, particularly going forward."
He calls it a "marketing mind-set" and he does think HR could -- and should -- adopt more of it, though he doesn't think HR "has to subcontract all its activities to marketers."
Barry Hall, principal and leader of global research in wellness for New York-based Buck Consultants, agrees a marketing mind-set could go a long way in helping HR leaders craft corporate messages and promotional campaigns that might influence behaviors -- such as greater responsibility and accountability for healthy lifestyles and wellness-program participation.
"If HR leaders were to march down the hall to their marketing departments, they'd see things they're doing down there that HR isn't even capable of yet," says Hall.
Corporate marketers, he says, are just now perfecting strategies such as behavioral economics (the study of how people make choices), anchoring and framing (promoting an item completely out of reach, financially or otherwise, so a slightly lesser goal seems do-able), and loss aversion (capitalizing on a person's aversion to losing out on an opportunity, which far surpasses the pleasures of winning or gaining something).
"So many aspects of behavioral economics are going on out there" in terms of encouraging corporate and client behavior, Hall says. "The research and applications are just now being formed."
So as to which discipline is best prepared to manage employee engagement, Hall says the answer is "simple. No discipline within any organization is more committed to the development and optimization of its workforce than the HR team."
"But to be truly the best at generating emotional connections that drive long-term value and loyalty, HR will need to start acting, and executing, like marketing," he says.
Perhaps that's true in terms of crafting the message itself, says Royal, but "ultimately, the success an organization has in fostering and maintaining high levels of employee engagement will be dependent on the extent to which work environments are structured to support it."
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