In the battle for high-value talent, managers need to think like marketers, creating job offerings and employment relationships that provide mutual value for firms and their employees. This article provides a 3-stage framework for the application of marketing techniques to the recruitment and retention of high-value employees. In the first stage, the 4Ps of the marketing mix are used to create compelling job offerings that attract high-value employees. In the second stage, firms use relationship marketing concepts to build long-lasting employment relationships that create mutual value for the firm and its employees. The third stage involves the outcomes of high-value employment relationships, which include greater employee commitment and satisfaction, which then lead to greater employee advocacy of the firm and lower levels of employee turnover. The ultimate proposed outcomes of this approach are increased performance and stability of the firm.
Jeffrey Pfeffer (1994) has argued that in today's information-based economy, human knowledge and innovation are the firm's only non-imitable sources of sustainable competitive advantage. In an increasingly competitive global economy, the firm's success is dependent on its ability to attract, retain, and engage high-value employees: those who have the skills, performance, and motivation to fully realize the firm's strategic objectives (Corporate Executive Board, 1999). As firms compete for top talent, managers are increasingly compelled to think like marketers, using the perspectives and tools developed to attract and retain customers in the recruitment, retention, and management of high-value employees (Maurer & Liu, 2007). Taking a marketing perspective on human resource issues reveals previously unseen conceptual and practical similarities between the two disciplines, and provides a basis for integrative, strategic consideration of such issues.
To date, the fusion of marketing and management concepts has been somewhat piecemeal, providing useful, but narrow applications from one field to the other. Practitioner-based management literature has advocated the use of marketing concepts and tools to address a variety of human resource challenges, including designing compelling jobs (Corporate Executive Board, 1999), managing HR services (Collins & Payne, 1991), and recruiting employees (Redman & Mathews, 1994). Within the field of marketing, the concept of internal marketing (IM) has been proposed as a means of applying traditional marketing concepts and the marketing mix to develop a customer service orientation among employees (Grönroos, 1990).
In this article we go further, offering a framework that illustrates how marketing concepts and tools can be applied in the development and management of high-value employment relationships. We begin with a brief overview of relevant marketing concepts, and then present the framework, explaining how these concepts can contribute to effective people management.
The time is ripe for a new overarching perspective on managing people that recognizes human knowledge and innovation as critical sources of sustainable competitive advantage. It has become clichéd for firms to declare, “People are our greatest asset;” however, many do not reflect this aphorism in their strategic HR practices. In the 21st century, it will be the organizations that dedicate attention to both internal and external market relationships that thrive.
An increasingly competitive global labor market requires that high-value employees be actively sought out, retained, and fully engaged, rather than externally motivated or coerced to contribute. In this article, we have outlined a framework for the application of marketing concepts to the creation and development of mutually-beneficial, high-value employment relationships. This fusion of ideas from the fields of marketing and management helps invigorate discussion and re-envision the employment relationship as an ongoing exchange, which, if managed and nourished, can deliver mutual long-term value.
However, this approach must be applied with caution. Although it is instructive to view employees as similar to internal customers, and to view the employee-employer relationship as similar to a marketing relationship, employees are not customers in the traditional sense of the buyer-seller relationship. As such, we encourage a careful adaptation of marketing techniques for the internal market, and a full consideration of the differences between seller-customer relationships and employment relationships.
