At first glance, public relations and human resources seem like two different playing fields. Upon further inspection, you may discover that there are many responsibilities, values, and goals shared by professionals in both sectors. Whether it’s upholding your organization’s image and protecting brand identity or providing services to internal and external stakeholders, public relations and human resources have some things in common. Here are just six ways public relations practices can be applied to human resources:
Focusing on Relationship Management and Interactions
Public relations practitioners are charged with protecting the interests of their organization. PR professionals specialize in managing their company’s relationship with the public, which includes customers, donors, partners, sponsors, news media, as well as internal clientele. These professionals are known to some as “peacemakers” or “people pleasers” because they have the responsibility of keeping interactions positive and fruitful for the interest of their clients and organization. This skill can be translated to human resources management, as HR professionals focus on maintaining a positive work environment for their employee pool. If employees of an organization are happy, then, odds are, as an organization’s most critical advocate, the employees will be better able to represent the organization in a more positive light to the public.
Building Staff Loyalty
One of the most important parts of a public relations practitioner’s work is building brand loyalty. You have nothing in the public relations world if your brand has no audience to identify with. Because PR professionals spend so much dedicated time researching, testing, “trial-and-erroring,” and learning about their audiences, they retain a positive image and identification with said audiences. If human resources professionals spent as much time building loyalty and rapport with organizational staff, the amount of advocacy they would receive from the employees in return would be enough to maintain a strong, positive image with the public.
Displaying Perfect Customer Service
Public relations personnel often find themselves having to appease. With that being said, customer service skills and client feedback are very important and necessary. When an employee has a complaint or concern, nothing could drive him or her away quite like cold, unreceptive human resources personnel. One of the best things an HR professional can be is kind, understanding, and a good listener. Part of what makes an organization successful are the attitudes and opinions of its personnel, so these employees should never be met with disdain or resistance when it comes to solving a problem. Employees are a critical part of an organization’s ability to deliver, so when it comes to handling employee matters, spare no expense.
Delivering Good Communication
This should come as no surprise since we already know good communication should be at the root of every job in every industry. Even if you work in manufacturing on an assembly line, nothing good can come from inaccurate, untimely, or ineffective communication. Public relations professionals have an obvious need to be good communicators. As advocates, storytellers, and story pitchers, it’s important to understand what information you need to know and how exactly you plan to get it. In addition, PR professionals prepare company executives for important interviews with important, sometimes hard-to-please news media representatives. Identifying talking points, topics to avoid, and strategizing an impactful message all require keen communication skills. Similarly, human resources personnel should be effective communicators. Personnel information is some of the most sensitive and important information an organization may send out to its employees; therefore, it should be accurate, timely, and anticipate/answer potential questions before they’re asked. Deadlines should be transparent, important links and takeaways should be emphasized and accessible, and HR professionals should always make themselves available for needed clarification and questions.
Providing Organizational Representation
As you may have deduced earlier, one of the most important parts of being a public relations practitioner is advocacy. In public relations, this can be for several things – clients, products, and so forth. However, in both public relations and human resources, you will find that advocacy for your organization is most important. Credibility relies on advocacy; therefore, if you, as a PR professional or HR professional, won’t even advocate for your organization, no one else will because you’ll have little credibility. Advocacy can, at times, cause ethical and moral dilemmas for PR professionals who are expected to represent their organization and its decisions in the most positive light. Overall, this skill proves useful in drawing in new clientele and retaining existing clientele. It also increases the reputability of your organization. The same can be said for human resources advocacy. Human resources personnel are expected to be the face of their organization to existing clients, recruits, and potential candidates. Just think – the first person you typically contact to learn more about a job opportunity is a representative of the human resources department. They are tasked with making a strong first impression and being an advocate for employees and their satisfaction at their respective organizations.
Conducting and Staging Interviews
PR professionals have a pivotal role in orchestrating interviews for organizational leadership and, in some cases, even have the responsibility of conducting and participating in interviews of their own. Because of this, it is important for PR practitioners to know what to say and what to ask. What they say as well as the way they say it can decide how different organizations and individuals feel about the practitioner and any organizations or clients it may be affiliated with. It is equally important for human resources professionals to know how to conduct and prepare for interviews. A good impression is equally critical for HR professionals, and they ultimately need to know what to say, what not to say, what to ask, and what not to ask just like PR professionals. Individuals in both professions are often tasked with being spokespeople for their organizations, which makes interviewing of the utmost importance. And, with only one first impression to make, getting it right the first time is a must.
Public relations and human resources industries have to provide information to different audiences, uphold organizational morale and image, and act as courageous, informed spokespeople for an organization. Although there has been a historical separation between these two disciplines, many responsibilities, values, and goals are shared between personnel in human resources and public relations. As a student of public relations looking for opportunities to bring my education and skillset to the demanding, dynamic field of human resources, I intend on bringing all six of these principles with me in future job endeavors.
Can you think of any other ways public relations skills can translate to human resources duties and responsibilities?
Header photo courtesy of Everything-PR.com
