Increasing Internal Awareness

Do the employees at your company know what your human resources (HR) department does? Do they know the services that are available? Or do they just think your HR department is responsible for hiring, firing and payroll?

If the employees at your organization are clueless about what your HR department does, you’ve been neglecting something very important: Marketing.

In order to effectively market your HR department internally to your employees, you need to learn how to think like a marketer.

You need to:

• Seize every opportunity to help an employee—Marketers solve problems. That’s their job. So when an employee comes to you with a problem, do everything you can to help him/her solve it. Doing so will not only increase your HR department’s credentials with the employee, but the employee will likely go back and tell other employees about how helpful your department is. Word-of-mouth is still the best marketing avenue.
  
  
• Find ways to add value on a daily basis—You probably hear it all the time, but adding value is one of the easiest ways to prove your department’s worth. That’s why you need to find as many ways as you can to add value—even if it’s just sending a quick e-mail letting employees know that your department is always available if they have any questions/problems. (Read these two HRTools.com Insights for steps to adding value or for examples of how other companies add value.)
  
  
• Seize every opportunity to let employees know what your department does—This requires you to be on-top of everything that’s happening within your organization—everything from events to major meetings to new hires. If you’re on-top of everything, you can easily find ways to “plug” what your department does. For example, if you know there’s a significant event coming up, such as an annual company meeting, come up with ways to add value at the event, such as giving a ten minute presentation on the services your department offers.
  
  
• Communicate—This is probably the most important thing you can do to market your HR department. Communication is SO important. If you don’t communicate, how will anyone know what your department is capable of? Also, it’s important to keep the communication two-way, so employees have a chance to speak their minds, share ideas/thoughts/suggestions and ask questions. You can increase communication with employees and your department, for example, by creating an employee newsletter.
  
  
• Create “leave-behinds”—In the sales world, a leave-behind is simply marketing material a sales person can leave with a potential client. The client can then review the information on his/her own time. A leave-behind for an HR department could be anything from an internal Web site with information on health benefits to a brochure explaining how to use the company’s 401(k) matching plan to a flyer announcing open enrollment. Anything you can “leave behind” for employees to review on their own time.
  
  
• Have an open-door policy—Allow employees to come to you whenever they need to (or have them make appointments if your department is fairly busy on a day-to-day basis). And be sure to let them know you have an open-door policy so they feel comfortable coming to you for questions/problems/issues. Marketers tend to view “transparency” as the key to building a customer base; an open-door policy can help your HR department increase its transparency.

Thinking like a marketer requires you to take a step back and brainstorm ways to get your department—and information about what your department does—in front of employees as often as possible.

Any good marketer will tell you that grabbing your customers’ attentions (in your case, customers would be your employees) takes time and perseverance. But with the right tools, knowledge and patience, you will be on your way to effectively marketing your HR department internally.

Legal Disclaimer

The information contained in this document is for general, informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. This information is not a substitute for the guidance of a professional and should not be relied upon in reference to any specific situation without first seeking the advice of a qualified HR professional and/or legal counsel regarding applicable federal, state or local laws. HRTools, Insperity and their respective employees make no warranties, express or implied, and make no judgments regarding the accuracy of this content and/or its applicability to a specific situation. A reference or link to another website is not an endorsement of that site or service.

Close