The lack of clarity around HR’s role and its value has been a persistent challenge for decades. To help address this challenge, McLean & Company’s new resource offers best practices on examining how HR creates value for key audiences, crafting segmented HR value propositions for each audience and selecting and implementing tactics to promote HR’s value.
As HR’s role has evolved from an administrative function to a critical strategic partner, there remains a lack of awareness of the scope of HR’s work and responsibilities. This is further reinforced as HR’s value to the organization is typically more visible through long-term intangible benefits, such as value on investment, rather than the often-expected short-term returns on investment. To help senior HR leaders curate tactics to effectively promote HR’s value and increase support among key audiences, global HR research and advisory firm McLean & Company has published its new blueprint, Market the Value of HR.
According to McLean & Company’s 2023 HR Trends survey data, when HR’s involvement in important organizational initiatives is widely communicated to non-HR employees, they are 2.2 times more likely to trust their HR organization. The firm’s survey data also points to improved perceptions of HR’s effectiveness, noting that when HR services are successfully marketed to non-HR employees, they are 2.5 times more likely to feel that the HR organization is highly effective.
“Marketing HR’s value is not about sharing a list of the tasks and functions HR manages,” says Lexi Hambides, director of HR Research & Advisory Services at McLean & Company. “When using an intentional selection of marketing tactics, HR is better able to showcase the meaningful impact of its work on the organization and reinforce positive perceptions of HR across various audiences and key players. Successfully promoting HR’s value requires significant relationship management. Identifying HR’s champions and engaging highly influential individuals sets a strong foundation for maximizing the impact of HR’s marketing efforts.”
In addition to enhanced trust and perception of HR’s effectiveness, the firm’s new resource highlights a myriad of benefits that occur when HR’s value is effectively marketed to key audiences. These benefits include:
- Strengthened ability to secure buy-in from key players.
- Increased awareness of HR’s role, scope of work, and responsibilities.
- Higher self-efficacy among HR team members.
- Increased likelihood of HR champions.
To help HR leaders achieve the plentiful benefits of marketing HR’s value within their organizations, McLean & Company’s blueprint has been organized into three easy-to-follow sections:
- Discover: Review the changing role of HR and need for marketing HR’s value. In the first section, HR leaders will familiarize themselves with the persistent challenges HR faces when promoting its value and understand the benefits of effectively marketing its value to key audiences, including enhanced trust and improved perceptions of HR’s effectiveness.
- Uncover: Identify HR’s audiences and craft segmented HR value proposition statements that articulate HR’s impact on each audience. In the second section, the resource provides leaders with insights to successfully identify and examine HR’s key audiences, define how HR creates value for each key audience, and craft segmented HR value proposition statements and set segmented goals to guide marketing efforts.
- Promote: Select champions within each audience and tactics for reinforcing HR’s value. In the third and final section, HR leaders will learn to identify champions and select tactics to support promoting HR’s value, learn to communicate HR’s value effectively, and facilitate cross-functional collaboration. Next, the section will guide them through how to foster audience touchpoints with HR, empower HR team members, and evaluate the effectiveness of efforts to promote value while understanding the necessary steps to reinforce the value of HR.
McLean & Company advises senior HR leaders and their teams that using promotional tactics to increase awareness of HR’s scope of work and impact on organizational outcomes is key to overcoming the lack of clarity around HR’s role and value. Effectively marketing HR’s value also supports building a strong foundation for future buy-in, investment, and support for HR initiatives, ultimately setting both HR and the organization up for long-term success in the future of work.
McLean Signature 2024 Conference
To register for Signature, McLean & Company’s premier industry conference for future-focused HR leaders, please visit the official Signature event page. This year Signature will take place from October 27 to 29 at Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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