Should Recruitment Marketing Sit Under Marketing Or Talent Acquisition?

by Devid Smith Marketing Automation Services and Technology

Where does recruitment marketing belong? The more important question is where should it sit within your organization to be most effective: under Marketing or under Talent Acquisition?

Suffice it to say, that there is no one right or wrong answer here. Every organisation has a unique set of hiring goals, budget, hierarchies, culture and internal processes that will contribute to what works best for your recruitment marketing function.

Recruitment Marketing under Talent Acquisition

PROS-

● Sheds light on the day-to-day challenges of recruiters which will help map strategic priorities

● More visibility into longer-term recruitment strategies

● Clarity on how the team is performing against hiring targets and metrics

● Uncover what resonates with candidates through first-hand recruiter encounters

● Seamless and efficient access to the recruiting team

CONS:

Difficult to balance priorities due to limited bandwidth as one person often supports the entire team making it harder to be all things in supporting an employer brand (social, digital, candidate experience, metrics) from strategy to execution

● Lesser insight into the marketing’s team strategy, approach and brand narratives

● Tough to build the business case for enhanced recruitment-related technology, tools and programs or enlist the services of a recruitment marketing agency

Recruitment Marketing under Marketing

PROS:

● Easier to leverage resources aligned to communications, creative assets, digital platforms and analytics

● More internal and external visibility into what is happening throughout the entire organization

● Much easier to repurpose work already happening within the team because of increased awareness of what your marketing peers are producing

● Better access to expertise around marketing and communications principles and best practices

CONS:

● More challenging to stay as connected to recruiters and hiring priorities

● Difficult to make sure that marketing continues to keep Recruitment Marketing priorities front and centre, given its one objective among many on this team

● Customer and industry content tends to take priority sometimes given that it aligns with revenue-generating goals

As you can tell, there are a number of positives – and challenges – associated with sitting on either team. But regardless of which team you’re on, try to build strong partnerships with the other one. This enables you to work together to leverage each of your expertise and knowledge areas to be more effective at attracting great talent to your organization.