how do you integrate your marketing, employer brand and company culture?

I read a lot of blogposts on LinkedIn and Twitter about these three subjects. Topical posts include the debate on in-house vs agency marketing, the need for digital transformation, how marketing can align with good customer service, what your recruitment process look like, how you can build a culture for millennials, is beer, beanbags and ping pong enough…? 

What I’m not finding in similar quantities, are articles sharing knowledge and expertise on how marketing, employer brand and company culture combined can drive businesses forward and save costs.

How good is your Marketing function?

An organisation’s Marketing function often operates in isolation. There’s a parallel working with Sales - there has to be - but otherwise the connect with other teams, those that are actually producing stuff, is nil.

Those working with the stuff don’t feed back on what is being done or who they are talking to and Marketing doesn’t always chip away at that brick wall. Marketing drives forward, producing content and externally communicating the messages derived from set campaigns and incorporating brand values. If done well the marcomms are integrated, there is an emphasis on customer advocacy and the message is well received.

This silo often dictates a lack of internal communication with employees. Individuals don’t know what is being shared or why, or how that fits into their role, responsibility, or the bigger picture. Internal communications aren’t integrated, there is no motor for employee advocacy and the employer brand isn’t promoted. This typically means a lull in employee engagement - staff are demotivated and lose the connection with the company.

What about employer brand and company culture?

Like many other people, I’ve read articles that advise the employer brand and company culture isn’t just beer, ping pong or gifted coffee machines for homeworking. This is true - it is much more. It is starting with the company’s vision (and ensuring employees know what it is), defining company values - which are different to Marketing’s brand values - and operating in an honest and transparent way so that the company’s culture is created by the team of talented individuals that work there.

Employees need to be taken on a journey just as much as customers. They need to buy-in to what their employer is selling.

From attraction and recruitment, induction and onboarding, learning and development, through to offboarding - it is a journey, no different to how Marketing and Sales work to winning business and retaining clients. If done well, it can be a cost saver and make a big difference to a business’ bottom line - no recruitment or training costs on permanent loop.

And yet it is overlooked.

Your employees are your biggest advocates. Every touch point - a phone call being answered, to a client pitch - sells your business, and you need employees engaged and bought in to why they are there, why they are important and what they are working towards.

So, how do you do this?

Vision and values

Your Marketing team may know what the business’ vision is and how their strategy works in parallel, but does everyone else?

You have brand values that are utilised with each marketing campaign, but do you have a solid set of company values? If you asked a member of your team, could they tell you what they are? How do you use your company values to create employee engagement? And when do you get Marketing involved?

Does your recruitment process promote those values? Does your HR and Recruitment function work alongside Marketing? How do you promote your employer brand?

What's the message?

Could anyone else in your organisation, besides Marketing, tell you what the business’ current campaign/messaging is? Could your Sales team include it in a pitch if the client unexpectedly mentioned a company blogpost they had read?

How are you leveraging employee advocacy to market your business and sell your product/service? How do you ensure your wider team are fully engaged with the bigger picture, the service they are providing and their link with your customer so every touchpoint means excellent customer service?

How does your Marketing function communicate with teams (and visa versa)? Do you have an internal communications plan?

What about the journey?

What experience are you providing your employees? Does that positive, warm, fuzzy feeling end for them once they’ve been inducted? Or do you have a good onboarding process that allows them to be absorbed by the company culture built by the engaged teams around them?

A wise owl once told me “good people move on” - so how do you ensure your employees continue to speak highly of your company and promote the employer brand when they are offboarded?

Are you running a risk?

With a lack of brand loyalty in today’s commercial climate, employer brand and company culture should be high on your agenda. You may say an internal communications plan isn’t going to bring in revenue, or deciding on a set of company values isn’t going to hit your quarterly target.

What I am saying is that there are distinct connections between an engaged workforce who understand why they do what they do, an employer brand that showcases your business, and a culture that retains staff, motivates and develops them to perform better. This does save costs. And that does effect your bottom line.

What challenges is your organisation facing? How could the power of binding your employer brand and company culture with Marketing provide a solution? I’d be interested in your thoughts.