Over the last two decades, marketing has evolved rapidly, keeping pace with new technology and ever-shifting consumer behavior. “Marketing leader as a live orchestra conductor” is an analogy I’ve always appreciated. The conductor must pay close attention to the subtle and overt cues coming from the audience, and the tempo and energy of the musicians. It’s a simple way to explain that one person can’t be an award-winning creative director, growth marketer and operational wizard, but they can certainly lead all those experts to success.
The same analogy applies to today’s human resources leaders, given their responsibility to care for an organization’s most valuable asset – its people. While I can’t speak to most aspects of the diverse roles of HR leaders, there is one that is very familiar to me – marketing.
When it comes to benefits – an HR leader’s objective of creating awareness, driving engagement and utilization is ultimately a marketing one. They must understand, connect with, and motivate their audience to action – and communicate the value of each benefit in a way that inspires employees to use it. Sound simple? It’s not. And it’s even harder for a team of folks who do not have the breadth of creative and technical resources that most marketers have at their disposal.
I have the pleasure of working alongside many innovative HR leaders, and while none of them say they are in the business of marketing, respectfully, I disagree. Modern HR leaders are expected to know and segment their people, develop value propositions, drive engagement with a broad array of products and services and deliver ROI.
When my team and I collaborate with HR leaders to develop creative ways for employees to use their health and care benefits, we’ve found there are a few shared principles across both our functions.
Align on goals
Start with the why: why are we implementing this program or benefit? The answer to that question will define the outcomes. Perhaps it is a company-wide increase in 401K contributions, or a reduction in ER visits for urgent care needs.
Next, consider the how: how will we get signal that the initiative is moving in the right direction? This question will help to set the indicator metrics, such as the number of people who completed a training curriculum or downloaded a virtual care app.
Invest in a platform
Whether you are a benefits leader, marketer, or operations leader, you know that there are an overwhelming number of specialized point solutions that can help you to achieve critical business outcomes. Many HR and marketing teams dedicate significant resources to managing point solutions and getting them to work together. Seek out a unified platform that is easy to use and reduces the burden of point solution management, and then grow with it.
Lean on your vendor partners
Naturally, we rely on our vendor partners to help deliver outcomes. Our vendor partners also help with more intangible support of providing outside perspective and industry context. Select partners who excel in the areas where you are struggling. Measure them not only by the results they deliver, but also the insight they bring and how they make you more efficient.
Befriend your finance partners
Too frequently, marketing and HR teams fear their finance partners, worried that their only goal is to reduce costs. Set goals, assess ROI and adapt with your finance partners. Bring them into the mix, talk to them about what you are trying to achieve, deeply understand your organization’s risk tolerance.
Embrace experimentation
Understanding human nature is the bread and butter of both marketing and HR. The problem, to borrow from the behavioral economist Daniel Ariely, is that humans are predictably irrational. Though people don’t behave randomly, we can’t easily predict what they’ll do, which means we need to experiment when trying to reach them. Build time into your experiments to get feedback from your users, learn about their experiences and pain points, then adjust your outreach accordingly.
Never skip the debrief
Let’s face it, so often when we run campaigns, the results are neither good nor bad, but meh. Meh results don’t give you a clear signal on which action to take next. The best way to learn and iterate is by digging into the results and talking through the findings with a diverse group of stakeholders.
Team HR, welcome to marketing! Your friends in the marketing department are never more than a ping away and are excited for the opportunity to connect and engage with you!