😟 Fed up with HR being misunderstood? Build the brand that changes it (pt 2)

TL;DR

😟 Fed up with HR being misunderstood? Build the brand that changes it (pt 2)

💡 15 tried and proven ideas to build your HR brand

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Fed up with HR being misunderstood? Build the brand that changes it (pt 2)

The mistake many HR leaders make is acting like marketing managers, focused on short-term campaigns to launch or promote an HR product.

Strategic HR leaders think like CEOs. And CEOs don’t just run campaigns, they lead full go-to-market engines that drive awareness, engagement, action and advocacy to convert customers for the whole business.

HR has a funnel, just like your business

Think of your HR department like any business. You need people to:

➡️ Know you exist ➡️ Understand your value ➡️ Use you ➡️ Talk about you

That’s a funnel and below are the 4 conversion steps:

1️⃣ Awareness = Top of Funnel

In business, you wouldn’t expect a customer to buy a from a company they’ve never heard of, or worse, one they’ve only heard bad things about. 

Same goes for HR. Your stakeholders need to know your department, understand what you offer and associate it with value. No awareness = no chance of traction.

So, you need to communicate to:

💡Reminder:  Most HR leaders assume stakeholders already know. They might, but it may not be the brand you want them to know (see newsletter #41). Awareness must be built deliberately — just like any strong brand.

2️⃣ Engagement = Middle of Funnel

This is where you nurture. In business, customers don’t convert without trust. In HR, stakeholders don’t “buy into” change from a department they don’t trust. 

(And if their perception from Step 1 is negative, you’ve got to fix that first, because trust doesn’t grow from a broken brand.)

Here, you communicate to:

💡Reminder: Engagement nurtures relationships. No relationship, no influence. 

(And by “relationship,” I don’t mean between a single HR person and a single stakeholder— I mean between your entire HR department and the entire business.)

3️⃣ Action = Bottom of Funnel

In business, jumping straight to this stage means trying to convert a cold lead — no awareness, no engagement, no trust. It’s a slog. And in HR, we know that pain all too well.

But once you’ve built awareness and nurtured engagement, this is where traction starts to happen.

To drive action, communicate to:

💡Reminder: When you’ve built awareness and engagement, action happens faster and it sticks longer.

4️⃣ Advocacy = Beyond the Funnel

In business, advocacy is when customers experience value and start selling for you. In HR, it’s when stakeholders champion what you do without being asked to. That’s when the impact of HR scales.

Advocacy happens when stakeholders:

💡Reminder: This is how HR department shifts from push to pull, from constantly having to prove our worth to being sought after as a trusted partner.

Create traction so your HR team delivers business impact 

As a Chief People Officer, almost 70% of my time is spent connecting dots through communication.

Not because I love talking (introvert here 🙋🏻‍♀️), but because just like customers, stakeholders don’t convert without trust, education and engagement.

That’s why I focus on awareness, engagement, action, and advocacy — to pave a clearer path for my team to deliver real impact.

📌P.S. I’ve included real-life examples in the article below to show how this works in action.

15 tried and proven ideas to build your HR brand

As promised, here’s a peek at the HR go-to-market engine in action — from top-of-funnel awareness all the way through to advocacy.

And no, I don’t do this alone. I set the expectations, shape the message and own the narrative, but it’s the whole HR team that brings it to life 🙌.

Here’s what it looked like in practice, along with the purpose behind each communication channel:

1️⃣ Awareness = Top of Funnel

The goal: Make sure stakeholders know who we are, what we offer and associate us with value.

*Want access this behind-the-scene video? Scroll to the bottom of the newsletter.

2️⃣ Engagement = Middle of Funnel

The goal: Deepen relationships and trust. Make HR approachable, credible and involved.

3️⃣ Action = Bottom of Funnel

The goal: Drive adoption and usage of HR products and initiatives.

4️⃣ Advocacy = Beyond the Funnel

The goal: Stakeholders not only believe in HR — they champion it.

What it looks like in practice:

Build your brand and communication one step at a time

If you're thinking, “There’s so much to do!”— breathe. You don’t need to do it all at once😅.

Start here:
1️⃣ Run a quick audit of your HR comms funnel: what’s working, what’s missing, where the gaps are.
2️⃣ Pick one underused channel that could make a big impact on how your HR brand shows up.
3️⃣ Make one small fix, like adding a weekly update or repackaging a message in a new format, and build from there.

Then? Rinse and repeat.

Strategic HR isn’t about one big move. It’s about consistent signals, visibility and earned trust over time.

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

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