According to a recent LinkedIn survey of 4,000 talent and recruiting leaders from around the world, a strong partnership between the CMO and the human resources leader is more important now than ever before. In fact, nearly half of recruiters expect that recruiting will increasingly resemble marketing over the next five to 10 years.
Improving the candidate experience and bolstering the employee brand is becoming a priority for more and more recruiters. After all, as Forbes points out, the same people who buy your products are the same people who apply for jobs, and they have equally important roles as “one pays you cash and the other grows your business.”
So why don’t we talk to these audiences in the same way? We should. In today’s intensifying competition for talent, your company can’t afford a gap between marketing and HR. The messaging that employees consume during the recruitment experience must align with the messages they hear as customers moving through the buying journey.
This means that as CMOs assume a more prominent role in the C-suite, they must partner closely with HR to lead the charge in creating a strategy that infuses the company’s vision, mission and values throughout the recruitment experience in a clear, compelling and consistent manner. By ensuring that recruitment materials are anchored in the company’s Corporate Messaging Platform and that key messages are pulled intentionally and strategically through every touchpoint, from the website to job listings, in-person interviews and beyond, CMOs and HR can give their company a serious competitive edge. And by aligning their goals and creating recruitment materials that promote the brand and ensure a consistent employee experience, HR will gain a deeper understanding of the company’s needs. This enables them to not just hire individuals with the right skills, but construct a clear, compelling and consistent talent plan that attracts and retains employees capable of driving improvement vital to the company’s long-term success.
Sixty-three percent of recruiting leaders expect an increase in hiring volume. It’s time to move away from ad hoc job ads, and take advantage of a strong partnership between marketing and HR leaders. By creating a strategy that weaves a clear, compelling and consistent message throughout the recruitment experience, CMOs can begin to infuse the company’s vision, mission and values into the hearts and minds of employees and transform them into company advocates — even before their first day.
