Marketing companies and advertising agencies are really struggling to recruit and more importantly retain staff. So with such a common and consistent problem, you would think that they are working hard to look at longer term strategies around better staff retention, wouldn't you. WRONG! Recent research carried out by the global media recruiters Aquent found that the solution that companies in this sector like to do, is to simply throw money at staff to get them to stay with them!!
Is there then any wonder why there is always continual change within the world of marketing and advertising? Surely this must effect client retention as well?
Anyone who has had to interact with advertising agencies and marketing companies, will know how often their account managers change, and it is very frustrating indeed. But why are they so short sighted and blinkered when it comes to such key resource, when it is their staff that ARE their business? They are the ones who build the client relationships, win the accounts and provide large revenue streams for these companies. Yet, marketing and advertising companies seem to be very accepting of the fact that staff continually move around the industry, and adopt the same approach as everybody else - just replace the leavers with staff hired from competitors. If they can't find the permanent resource, then they simply go to contractors or freelancers (according to Aquent, this usage was up by 69%!) to solve their problem.
Surely there will come a time when these sectors will just implode through lack of talent? More importantly, does anyone in this industry actually care anyway?
Why don't these companies start to look for ways to retain this valuable resource, and help encourage their staff to start saying, "no thanks I am happy where I am" to all the recruiter calls they get. To do this they need to actually investing in some serious thinking time - something they are great at doing with their clients but not when it comes to their own staff. Why don't they think about training or flexible working hours or even career development? Just increasing salaries will not solve the staffing crisis coming at these companies very soon, they need to put internal creative thinking on their boardroom table now. If not the bottom line profit of marketing companies and advertising agencies will soon start to decrease dramatically, as their supply of available talent slowly diminishes.
Recent Comments