Why HR’s future looks like marketing’s past

Think back to the shifting tech landscape of 2015. “Uptown Funk” was blaring on digital music outlets, Snapchat filters were laid over every selfie, and hoverboards were all the rage. At the same time, marketing teams were facing an uphill battle to prove ROI as new digital marketing opportunities, like the rise of video content marketing and the shift towards mobile, led to changing tactics, and budgets came under more scrutiny.

Now, a decade later, human resources teams are facing similar circumstances. Just like marketing leaders had to establish their digital campaigns’ values, HR pros now need to demonstrate how their tech-forward people programs drive business results. The good news? Marketing teams have already nailed this shift and their journey can offer a blueprint for HR leaders facing the same pressures.

The rise to power

Going back to 2010, digital marketing was the latest innovation and became the fastest path to rapid growth for companies. Later, the advent of new marketing tactics and an increased focus on social channels thrust marketers into the spotlight in a way they hadn’t been before. These new channels gave marketers new access to real-time data, requiring more resources to be successful and leading to increased scrutiny of how they were using those resources. And the results mattered more than ever.

Along with the pressure, that limelight also brought opportunity. In 2009, when I worked at Gap’s newly formed digital division, the finance team set benchmarks for success in e-commerce. There were a lot of conversations around the right metrics to track, which gave us a say in how to measure our results. This was crucial at the time. Asking marketing about metrics versus handing down an answer that didn’t match expected outcomes meant we could better align our goals with actual business priorities. In recent years, HR has faced a similar opportunity.

In 2020, when COVID hit, people became the scarcest resource for many companies, and HR became the most powerful function overnight. For the first time, HR had a real seat at the table. All of a sudden, employee safety, well-being, and retention at all costs were part of HR’s already heavy workload.

Now, in 2025, the impact of AI’s rapid advancement and employee skills gaps due to demographic shifts have put HR leaders front and center once again to drive workforce transformation for their businesses. As with the rise of marketing a decade earlier, leaders should be asking how they can most effectively track success.

The measurement reckoning

2015 marked the year of ROI as a key determining factor of success for marketing leaders. This was when delivering on goals no longer felt like a “nice to have,” but a career make-or-break.

Marketing overhauled how the organization viewed them. With increasing numbers of data and channels, there were limitless ways to target customers, and lots of wrong answers. The C-suite started expecting quantitative results from campaigns that they couldn’t do before.

Today, HR teams are taking on more: driving workforce transformation, keeping pace with AI, employee wellness, and a general imperative to do more with less. Similar to its marketing predecessor, HR now needs to report results tied to business objectives in concrete ways that were previously unquantifiable. Increased scrutiny over cost efficiency is putting HR pros under the microscope, and results are no longer only about a “vibe check” and building company culture.

When HR leaders think about the outcomes they’re driving for the business, they should think of stakeholders as paying customers that matter to their organization’s bottom line. Employees are as important as customers in this regard, and need the KPI treatment in today’s era. In 2025, the employers who align their people investments with business objectives are the ones who will stay competitive and build future-proof talent pipelines needed to evolve and advance their organization.

The rebalancing

Today, successful marketing programs require a blend of coordinated strategies for maximum impact. Brand building efforts, technology solutions—including AI—and targeted campaigns must work in tandem to influence growth. Tomorrow, HR leaders will need to employ a similar symphony of tools, measurements, and experiences to create the cocktail of appropriate conditions for their people to thrive and maximize their potential.    

Just as marketing evolved from simple advertising to a sophisticated, data-driven industry, HR is transforming from personnel management to truly owning its C-suite seat. The future demands an integrated approach where technology augments teams capabilities, where analytics inform but don’t make decisions, and where employee experience is crafted with the same intention as customer experience.

Luckily, smart business leaders now realize that it takes a mix of art and science to get it right. Striking the perfect balance will generate strong business results, and be the element that separates thriving companies from surviving companies.

Throughout my career, I’ve learned that growing a business isn’t about one magic solution—it’s about mixing different marketing approaches that work together, a true portfolio approach. By learning from marketing’s journey and combining data-driven insights with human-centered approaches, HR leaders can build the foundation for organizations to thrive.

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