Miriam van der has an extensive experience in the field of marketing. She currently leads marketing worldwide as the global CMO at Randstad that operates in 39 countries with a revenue of over 25 billion. She has been certified by Growth Tribe for Digital Leadership and by MIT Sloan Executive Education for Digital transformation platform strategies.

In a conversation with the Global Woman Leader Magazine, Miriam talks about the ‘Changing World of Work’, offering expert advice to talent and clients to manoeuvre the evolving remote work landscape. She also sheds light on the HR service providers while emphasizing that new generation has different perspective and needs from marketing. Drawing from her experience, she underscores some forward-thinking marketing strategies as well. 

Given the evolving landscape of remote work and hybrid models, how do you see HR service companies adapting their marketing strategies to meet the changing needs of clients and employees alike?

As a company, we see that the world of work is changing from both client and talent perspectives. People are highly educated, have different work expectations, seek better work-life balance, and expect clients to meet these needs. Clients are also exploring various types of work, including temporary, permanent, freelance, and interim talent. This dynamic environment requires us, as an HR company, to adapt accordingly.

We must offer diverse propositions to both our talent and clients to meet this evolving world of work. Therefore, we are shifting from a traditional approach focused mainly on temporary workers to new territories. This includes targeting professional people, higher-educated individuals, digital skills, and HR solutions. We call this the horizontal stretch, where we expand from our traditional business into new areas, offering new propositions.

With the acceleration of digital transformation, how can HR service providers leverage digital marketing to better engage with diverse talent pools and foster meaningful connections?

Digital transformation allows us to measure everything from end to end, especially from a marketing perspective. We can track the entire journey of talent applying for roles at Randstad and understand client needs through digital data. Our goal is to optimize matchmaking between talent and vacancies. The more data we have, the better we can match talent to client needs, and data-driven insights significantly improve this process.

Considering the multigenerational workforce, what marketing strategies do you find most effective in appealing to the career aspirations and values of younger professionals versus more experienced employees?

We have observed that younger generations have different media behaviors, and from a marketing perspective, we need to adapt to this. Social media is crucial. The impact of traditional television is decreasing, except around sports events like the Olympics and the World Cup, which remain significant for reaching audiences. This is why we sponsored the Olympic Games in Paris, to be where our audience is, requiring a targeted media approach.

Helping people find career paths also depends on the audience. My 16-year-old son, on a long holiday, is looking for a holiday job, a different journey from someone just graduating from university, who might need more help finding their first job. Mid-career individuals might know where they want to go or may seek career counselling. It's about understanding the journeys our different audiences go through and ensuring we support them at those touchpoints.

How do you measure the success of marketing campaigns in the HR services sector, beyond traditional metrics, to gauge their impact on organizational culture and client satisfaction?

With the data, we can measure the return of our ad spends, which I call ROLAS. This allows us to see how much money we invest in different campaigns and channels, such as TV, social media, or job boards. We measure end-to-end investment and revenue return by placements. Return on ad spend is a crucial metric for understanding the performance of our media investments.

For client satisfaction, we measure NPS (Net Promoter Score) to assess client happiness. Regarding organizational culture, our internal Employee Value Proposition (EVP) measures our employees' happiness. We use a system called Pcon to measure satisfaction and engagement quarterly.

In your experience, what strategies have proven effective in fostering collaboration between marketing and other departments like HR, operations, or IT to achieve common organizational goals?

I can give you two or three examples. With sales, it's important to have account-based marketing in place. Without our vacancies, we have nothing to sell. Account-based marketing helps us understand what kind of content drives prospects into leads. In marketing and sales, understanding this is crucial. In IT, it's about building the right marketing technology stack to measure the performance of our marketing efforts end-to-end. Marketing should collaborate with IT. For HR, an example is the employer value proposition (EFEP). Marketing collaborates with HR on internal storytelling and measuring the happiness and engagement of our people.

With increasing scrutiny on corporate ethics, how do you ensure that marketing strategies in HR services maintain transparency and integrity while effectively communicating value propositions?

EDI strategy is an important part of our EVP, employee value proposition. With Randstad, purpose is already embedded in our brands. We help people find meaningful jobs. Employment is a crucial factor, offering more than just financial safety; it's about social identity and belonging. It motivates individuals to wake up and go to work. This purpose is strong in our business. Our CEO, a leading figure in inclusivity, demonstrates that we value every talent and believe everyone should be included in the workforce.

Messages To Readers

Throughout my career, I've sometimes found it challenging to thrive and succeed. I'm a big promoter of more female leadership skills.

Sometimes research shows that developing soft skills is crucial for the future, especially with AI. While AI can execute harder skills better than humans, it lacks soft skills. Soft skills are vital, and women generally excel in them. This strength will set women up for the future, allowing them to leverage their talent in soft skills effectively.