Often – and we’re guilty of this at B2B Marketing too – we spend a lot of time talking about marketing’s relationship with sales, but not with other departments. When David Rowlands, editor at B2B Marketing, recently spoke with Andrew Colwell, marketing director at Fleetsolve, Andrew mentioned that the relationship between the two departments has grown significantly closer over the course of the pandemic, and not without its benefits. With that in mind, David spoke with Andrew and his co-worker Liz Brocken, HR business partner, on the B2B Marketing Podcast to learn more.
For context, Fleetsolve helps major UK businesses achieve a cost-effective, reliable and sustainable energy future, predominantly via its carbon-zero, bio-fuelled combined heat and power units (CHPs). This will help the UK achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, as legislated by the UK government.
Changing requirements = changing relationship
Andrew claims that Covid-19 meant the relationship between marketing and HR grew out of necessity. For instance, Covid-related team communications were crucial for disseminating factual information. But also, as time progressed and the months went on, things like WhatsApp and Teams were really useful in allowing comms to come back the other way (from staff).
But, as the pandemic progressed, other things also stood out. Fleetsolve was in a significant growth phase, growing and recruiting throughout the pandemic. The company even moved HQ to a new site, 10 times larger than the previous site. As a result, the recruitment model had to change and become more efficient, with less reliance on a traditional recruitment agency model, and with a much greater focus on alignment with HR because of the focus on digital recruitment. This meant that marketing principles needed to be applied to the recruitment process in order to attract the best people, much like a typical marketing campaign aims to attract the best customers. This meant that marketing was working with HR by applying its knowledge in audience targeting, digital messaging, content, outreach, etc., all the way through to collateral and onboarding.
Liz said: “For me, it’s been vital over the last 18 months for HR and marketing to work closely together, because communication and engagement have been key. We’ve had the majority of our workforce working from home, and we’ve had to use different ways of working, different channels of communication, and so on.
“We’ve also had to work closely with the marketing team to look at how we can recruit at pace, engaging talent, etc. The two departments have had to work closely to get that end result, and having an engaged workforce has been absolutely key.”
A permanent change? Yes
Crucially, Andrew and Liz mentioned that the relationship is never going back to the way it was. “The climate has changed,” says Liz. “People want different things, whether that’s hybrid working, or fully working from home. From a recruitment perspective, that means it’s going to be more challenging, so working with the marketing team to put the right tools in place to attract the right people to market our brand is key going forwards,”
Andrew added: “The last 18 months have been a generational challenge, but they’ve also given us a great opportunity too. This whole closer alignment piece is something that probably wouldn’t have presented itself as quickly as it has. Why would you go back? It would be daft!”
The importance of brand
So, marketing and HR are clearly starting to work much closer together, and in a way which meets each other’s’ needs. However, what challenges will the two departments face together as we begin to exit the pandemic? Is it purely the obstacles of digital-only recruitment, or is it more nuanced?
For Andrew, it’s definitely much bigger than that.
“Just hiring marketing professionals is just one small part of it. When people are looking for work, they’re looking at who they want to work for. It’s just like with anything else. For instance, if you’re looking to buy a pair of trainers or choosing a house, you do your research, and make a considered choice. For us in marketing and as a business, we need to understand that the talent that is out there – our recruitment pool – is as important a stakeholder to persuade and engage with as our customers are, and as our prospect businesses are.”
Liz added: “It’s building the brand, for me. You can’t recruit great talent if they don’t know you’re out there, or they’re not aware of your brand. Andrew’s done some fantastic work building our website and getting us known within the industry, and I think that’s vital to getting the best talent.”
Clearly, ensuring a stronger relationship between HR and marketing is not just about making the recruitment process easier – it’s about actually increasing the pool of talent you’ve got to choose from. Ultimately, no business can reach its potential without the best people, so ensuring the two departments are working in tandem here has a pretty clear benefit.
As we move into a new stage of the pandemic, Andrew claims we’ve become accustomed to that remote working set-up.
“Now, we’ve got to get into a more integrated, inclusive and involved process of different types of internal communications and team interactions,” Andrew says. “So that balance has to be right. How do we best secure the benefits of hybrid working patterns going forwards? What is right to be virtual? What is right to be face-to-face? How do we retain? How do we engage our people? How do we ensure they want to be with us, and act as ambassadors to the people they know within the industry, so that they look at us and go ‘Those guys are doing a great thing over there, you know? They really look after their people. They communicate with them and engage with them. They’re not just doing great things with their customers – they’re really helping with their team as well.’ That’s a really attractive place to be.”
Still dithering on building the relationship? Get a move on
Andrew claims: “Marketers need to go and see how they can help, rather than if they can help. Undoubtedly, they can help. Use your knowledge and skillset to deliver the value that you can to other internal functions. HR may just be one. There may be other departments you can offer real value to.
“One of the things that marketers have always said is ‘nobody understands us. They don’t understand the challenges we have.’ Well, go out there and show what value you can deliver, and what your role is across other different departments. It’s always a positive when other functions have a deeper understanding of the value that marketing can deliver.
“As Liz said earlier, the dynamic in the relationship has changed. It’s about understanding what both can deliver. My advice to all marketers is to reach out and show what you can do.”
Liz added: “For me, it’s been a two-way relationship where we’ve both learned a lot about each other’s roles, and what we bring to the organisation. I think that will really define our roles for the future, because now, more than ever, people are a priority, and getting the culture right in an organisation is key. Without marketing the brand, we’re not going to get the right people and the right culture, so it’s really important in engaging marketing, as we can attract great talent, making the recruitment process much easier.”
