| | September 2023MANAGEHRMAGAZINE.COM8MARKETING AND SALES, OK... BUT MARKETING AND HUMAN RESOURCES?By Felipe Sanchez Lopez, Sr Marketing Manager, Grupo ImperquimiaIn MyOpinionIt is very common to hear that there must be a close relationship between the Sales department and the Marketing area. Companies are committed to create a team with constant feedback between these two areas and it is very common to have meetings, workshops, events, etcetera, to align the expectations and objectives. It seems that this gap is getting smaller, and organizations now have a symbiotic scenario where Sales and Marketing are not only co-workers, but friends.The result? A beautiful communication and marketing strategy where everyone is aligned... but perhaps no one has realized that there is a part of the organization that was left out and that, without it, unfortunately the strategy can be seriously compromised. How much? Difficult to say, but maybe will be too late for some companies. The effect of exclusion of the most human area of the companyLet's get to the point, how much can the Human Resources department help or hurt the brand?I remember one family day event that Human Resources organized. The company had recently obtained a certificate for its sustainability practices in the use of plastic, but what was the surprise that upon arrival all attendees were greeted with plastic bottles without the recycled certification. The surprise did not end there, the food supplier was using a competitor's products.Yes, probably the biggest area of opportunity was communication, but I saw a bigger problem: Marketing had not involved the organization in its strategy, perhaps they failed to think that Human Resources is one of the main generators of brand ambassadors.And this process starts even before hiring.Recruitment, the first contact for brand building.Many recruiters forget that candidates are also consumers. Factors such as canceling interviews, disappearing during the process, not sending a thank you email, have an impact on the perception of the company. Possibly that candidate the next time he is in front of a shelf prefers another brand and if this is multiplied by the hundreds of processes that are carried out per year, we could have an impact on the market share.Another point that I frequently see is the inconsistency with the digital platforms that Human Resources uses for the selection process, which are normally disconnected from the brand's website, but where we can find problems such as the incorrect use of institutional colors, duplicate vacancies or vacancies that are months old. Finally, we have errors when uploading files, which lead the user to a feeling of frustration and associate the company or brand with a negative image.Maybe the selection process is perfect, but is it reflected within the company?Brand loyalty is also built within the company.John, has been hired as an accounting assistant, according to protocol Human Resources gives him his contract, work tools and on this occasion an eco-friendly bottle with the company logo. The day progresses and they begin to talk to him about the company, its history, its brands, and the global strategy; later they introduce John to his team and at the end of the day Human Resources says goodbye to this new collaborator passing the responsibility to his boss of the specific training. However, his boss is also recently hired and went through the same process where he was not told in detail about the values transmitted by the company's brands.Felipe Sanchez Lopez
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