5 Reasons Why PR and HR Need to Work Together | #hrmanagement #hrexecutive

In today’s complex corporate environment, it’s crucial to understand the synergistic relationship between the Human Resources (HR) and Public Relations (PR) departments. Though traditionally seen as separate entities, their collaboration can offer your company a unique edge. Both HR, which focuses on employee acquisition, engagement, and retention, and PR, which amplifies these goals through strategic communication, play vital roles in shaping the company’s image and culture. This article delves into five compelling reasons why your HR and PR teams should join forces and the benefits that this collaboration can bring.

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1. Create a Unified Brand Messaging and Communication Document

Think of HR as the heart of internal communications, setting the rules, creating brand memos, and putting together recruitment guides. Meanwhile, consider PR your company’s voice, reaching out to external audiences such as consumers and the media. To be most effective, the messaging used to communicate internally should be cohesive with external communications, especially in crises where you need a united front. 

When HR and PR work together, they can create a unified communications document that ensures the brand story, value, and culture are reflected in all internal and external communication to support brand credibility and reputation and increase loyalty across all audiences.

2. Establish a Healthy Company Culture

Often, the HR department can lose touch with the human side of its duties. This might lead to poor employee feedback and negative company culture. When HR and PR work together, they can create company policies that reflect the needs of the employees without eliminating the brand’s value or failing to build a connection with the employees. If there’s poor company culture, employees might be unsatisfied, affecting how they handle company activities. 

3. Develop an Engaging Recruitment Strategy to Hire and Retain Top Talent

The great resignation remains a critical issue across industries. Today’s top talent considers factors such as:

• Working from home
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
• Social responsibility initiatives

Unfortunately, a hefty salary alone isn’t enough to reel in and keep top talent. But PR, with its mastery of brand reputation, can partner with HR to project your company’s unique selling points through an engaging recruitment strategy. For example, software company Atlassian launched a recruitment campaign in 2022 to hire 1000 employees within 12 months. The campaign focused on projecting the work-from-home policies available at the company. This approach works because it focuses more on what most top talent is asking for today, a flexible working environment.

4. Foster Employees’ Participation in PR Campaigns

PR campaigns often spotlight the company’s culture, policies, and successes, and these campaigns usually rely on employee participation. For instance, an ‘Employee Success‘ campaign aimed at showcasing the company as an excellent workplace could fall flat if employees aren’t engaged or don’t have any positive experiences to share.

HR can work with PR to identify the best candidates to approach and get them on board. Since the HR department interacts more with the employees, it will be easier for them to convince employees of the importance of participating in such PR initiatives. 

5. Suggest and Review HR Policies for Better Results

The PR department plays an instrumental role beyond managing the brand’s reputation; it also identifies and engages with relevant industry trends. Such insights can bolster the HR department’s efforts in nurturing internal relationships and fostering employee loyalty. For instance, HR could liaise with PR to devise the best strategies for enhancing employee engagement, with PR using its awareness of industry trends to flag potential policy issues. 

Besides handling crisis management, the PR department is also responsible for preventing crises stemming from internal affairs. A collaborative approach enables the PR team to advise on the effective delivery of communication materials, integration of fresh policies, and revision of outdated strategies. This partnership keeps the company a step ahead, ready to mitigate any public backlash should new employee policies be leaked. Take the recent wave of layoffs in the tech sector that stirred substantial negative press as an example. With HR and PR in unison, you’re better able to control the narrative, and refined communication strategies are devised, thereby ensuring the brand’s reputation remains untarnished in the eyes of consumers.

Form a Strategic PR Partnership for Your HR Team

The collective power of HR and PR departments can propel your company to greater heights. You can accomplish unified communication, a positive company culture, engaging recruitment strategies, active employee participation in PR campaigns, and effective policy review more efficiently when HR and PR work together.

As experienced PR professionals, we understand the nuances of HR and PR, and we’re ready to help you bridge the gap and create an effective, integrated strategy that drives results.Don’t let the potential of an HR and PR collaboration go untapped. Get in touch with us today and start building a stronger, more unified, and successful company.