How bringing marketing and HR under a single leader can help your business thrive
Here are a few suggestions on how to improve employee motivation and retention while also driving greater customer engagement.
Human Resources and Marketing are two distinct departments focused on two very different audiences. Marketing is focused on customers and the external world, while HR is focused on internal matters and the employee as a “customer.” Despite the different audiences, they share similar objectives. Forward-leaning organizations are aligning these functions, putting a single senior executive in charge. This enables the two groups to seamlessly work together to create a strong brand.
When the two functions are disjointed under different leaders, struggle to execute, or go through a crisis, it causes discord and can threaten your success. We’ve seen this time and time again–from Amazon to the Ellen Degeneres Show to Wells Fargo. While many ultimately recover, better alignment between HR and Marketing can save businesses from both short-and long-term damage.
Related: Why marketing and HR need to work together
At Uniphore, we genuinely believe that to stand out and consistently create customer “wow” moments, we must create an environment where our team feels the “wow” daily. As our customers feel the “wow,” it fuels our people even more. Fostering stellar employee experiences and customer experiences go hand-in-hand.
Here are a few suggestions on how leadership can improve employee motivation, retention while also drives greater customer engagement and business results.
Start by listening. Then listen some more.
A great brand always starts with listening – to all people. As an HR leader, I know the power of employees’ voices. Your employees know your business, purpose, culture, and product better than any others. That’s why employee feedback is essential not just to maintain internal morale but to drive success. For example, employees can give you insights into team dynamics and why employee retention is dropping. If you don’t have a regular process in place to listen to, analyze, and then implement feedback, do that now. Employee surveys, skip-level meetings, group tea sessions and open Q&A sessions are easy and effective ways to do this.
By fostering a listening culture that puts people first, employees will be more open about sharing product ideas and customer feedback to ensure company success. Indeed, the same is true of customers.
As a marketing leader, staying in touch with customer needs is vital, and listening to them is paramount. Additionally, employees are another great source of customer information. Salespeople will hear directly from customers about their needs. Product-focused employees will have their fingers on industry trends and new technological advances. Someone in finance may have an idea for a better way to price or drive more revenue for your solution. The point is that by listening to multiple sources of information, you’ll be able to avoid significant missteps and likely uncover new areas of innovation while still having happy and committed employees.
Keep a sharp eye on engagement.
Engagement is the name of the game for both employees and customers. Forward-thinking brands deliver better CX by leveraging technology to track feedback across multiple channels, understand buying preferences, track customer sentiment, product feedback, company loyalty, and many other engagement metrics. Look for platforms that leverage AI, automation, machine learning, and natural language technology to deliver this for your organization.
For both customers and employees, there are three critical strategies to improve engagement:
- Deploy a multi-channel communication program, including email, social media, intranet, and also 1:1s. They engage how, when and where they want.
- Keep messaging consistent and tuned to your audience so they don’t disengage.
- Be authentic and follow up on all feedback. Not following up sends a very negative message.
Be sure you approach all challenges with a commitment to stay close to the two audiences that matter the most—customers and employees—and you’ll weather any storm.
Take action.
As someone who works closely with both customers and employees, it’s not enough to just hear customer and employee voices. Action should follow to drive continuous improvements.
COVID has reinforced our need to focus on our employees at Uniphore. In April, we heard that employees were struggling from the long hours and so we acted on that feedback. We offered a day-off for the entire company for mental well-being. It was very well received and necessary, so we provided a second one in June and another one is being planned for later this month. Employees shared this with others on social media and in private settings, which only helps boost our brand and supports our marketing efforts to continuously find new talent.
Embrace overlap between customer and employee experiences.
When your marketing and HR teams work together, their success can change the trajectory of the organization. Over the past six months, Uniphore has onboarded more than 70 people virtually – who have never met a Uniphore employee or stepped foot in a Uniphore office. This was a seamless experience because Marketing and HR partnered up to ensure the onboarding process of new hires was seamless and efficient.
By leveraging creativity, strategy and applicable tactics used by each group, your organization will deliver better results, including a more connected and engaged customer and employee. There is no set template or a “one-size-fits-all” approach. It is important to reflect on where you are, listen to your audiences–both internal and external–and, most importantly, act on that feedback. That doesn’t mean you take every piece of feedback that is given, but the art of listening and taking action is a powerful formula.
Don’t be afraid to let the employee experience and the customer experience overlap. Examine the practices that delight employees and see how you can implement them with customers. Understand why customers are so happy and deliver that same laser focus on employee satisfaction and watch your profits soar.
At the end of the day, your employees are some of your most effective marketers, and marketing can fuel tremendous employee engagement. Having one leader to ensure you first create an inner employee “wow” to better deliver an outer customer “wow” could be the way of the future.
Annie Shea Weckesser is chief marketing officer and head of people at Uniphore.
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