When does the rebirth of the HR/Marketing collective occur? It's right there in our family tree.

I keep seeing much discussion about how human resources needs to be more business savvy and strategic and how they should work more closely with recruiting, internal and external branding, marketing and public relations. Outsource the backend administrative work and and work on identifying, hiring and developing long-term employees and growing the business.

I'm reading The Trouble with HR - same theme. Last night Amybeth Hale (The Research Goddess) initiated an important conversation about how recruiters should care about marketing and PR - similar theme. Brand for Talent recently posted a New Role in HR: A Hybrid, in that marketing should be a part of HR - same theme.

Wait a minute. Roll back tape. Almost, almost -- there it is!

C'mon. Really.

Aren't entrepreneurs and small businesses with initially limited to no staff this exact idealistic strategic hybrid? Like most of business in the HR marketplace and beyond?

Don't we:

Identify and market need and then plan and execute product/service development?
Identify, hire and development staff to build, market, sell and support said product/service development - i.e., talent management and business development alignment?
Conduct performance management reviews, offer training and development opportunities, employee recognition programs, etc.?
Create company and product/service brand messaging and marketing/PR strategy to generate publicity, traffic and leads and identify future talent?
Launch a blog and participate in social media to do the same?
Currently have no HR representation so we outsource payroll and backend administrative work?

The entrepreneurial bosom has been incubating this HR/Marketing collective for decades and yet as companies grow, these roles specialize and fragment and disconnect. I understand that we as small business leaders cannot be all things to all people and do them all well, but still, the framework is right there.

How is it we can bring them all back together again? When does the rebirth of the HR/Marketing collective occur?

It's right there in our family tree.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now joinHRmarketer on Twitter!)

Labels: business growth, entrepreneur, human resources, marketing, social media