Employee comms becomes a CMO priority | WARC | The Feed

Employee comms becomes a CMO priority

Communicating with a brand’s employees has long been relegated to corporate newsletters or town hall meetings, but CMOs are increasingly looking to their own employees for inspiration as the brand values become more of a recruitment consideration.

Why it matters

Increasingly, marketers need to work with other functions within the organisation – such as human resources – to further the aims of the whole business.

“This is a key area where brand can play in terms of attracting future talent,” said Ty Heath, Director, Market Engagement, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn, following her presentation at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. “People see how powerful your brand is and want to work for your brand, which lowers your cost to have them join and helps them stay at your company much longer. 

“All in all, it’s something marketing can bring to an organisation in partnership with the human resources team,” she said. 

What CMOs are saying on the Croisette

“By opening up meetings to 300-400 people – optionally – for full transparency, authenticity [becomes] our internal medium and agenda….it increases employee engagement, their perception of being part of it and being able to contribute to discussions” – Attila Cansun, CMO, No7 Beauty Company.

“The question you always have to ask yourself as an employee is: do the organisation which I work for and my values align to each other? And sometimes they don’t. If they don’t, that’s okay, you can pivot out. For us, it’s about always having conversations” – Sandra Lopez, CMO, Microsoft Advertising.

“In a world where consumer expectations and employee expectations are constantly changing … you’ve got to move with it, you can’t just sit there and be upset that they did” – Lindsay Radkoski, VP - National Marketing, Wendy’s USA.

“There’s one more stakeholder not to be forgotten: HR. We are in the deepest war for talent ... So where’s our position? How do we stay attractive?” – Christian Deuringer, Head of Global Brand Communications, Allianz.