Marketing Talent

Talent Crunch Major Issue for Marketers: CMA Study

A new CMA study finds that students considering a career path in marketing are often not learning enough about the field of marketing in school nor at job and career fairs typically organized by educational institutions. This disconnect is a serious concern for Canadian marketers. Moreover, as the marketing function takes on greater credibility and accountability, it is presenting a major challenge to marketers seeking out the calibre of talent they need to be successful.

Richard Boire shares his thoughts about the talent crunch, below.

Having commenced my career at such leading-edge direct marketing organizations as American Express and Reader’s Digest, the discipline of numbers to make marketing decisions was embedded within the corporate cultures of both organizations. In discussions with my fellow MBA business colleagues at that time (mid eighties), I thought that this was the norm but quickly realized that these organizations were the rare exceptions. In those days, technology and its associated costs were very prohibitive and effectively were a barrier to entry in terms of using numbers for more effective decision-making within the area of marketing. The old adage of not being a numbers person still implied that you could have a successful career in marketing.

This is no longer the case as technology is no longer a barrier to entry with marketers now having access to meaningful numbers. The real limitation is the skill-set to understand and interpret numbers in order to make effective marketing decisions. Some success can still be attained without a numbers discipline but it is confined within the creative side of marketing. However, in order to advance to the more senior levels, marketing experience without any numbers discipline will be a roadblock to today’s young marketers wishing to advance their careers.

This ever growing discipline in marketers becoming more numbers-oriented provides a level of objectivity regarding business decisions that has often been the sole domain of finance. As a result, the disciplines of finance and marketing are now converging to some extent in terms of a numbers discipline skill-set. Yet, marketers will still need to have that creative thinking and expertise in order to bring more meaningful insights into the numbers. This is the real competitive advantage of the marketing discipline relative to other business disciplines. It is reflected in the growing salaries of marketers who exhibit these new skills.

However in most academic institutions, this message is not being heard as marketing is still considered a non-numbers type discipline. The message is also muted regarding the tremendous salary growth potential for students who have these skill-sets.

Institutions are beginning to offer some courses in these areas in order to allow students to become more familiar with these skill-sets. Yet, the discipline of numbers is not embraced as a core academic objective for any student graduating with a degree in marketing. In the brave new world of marketing, it is academia that is lagging behind the changing needs and skill-sets of marketers.

As academia closes this gap in providing the right academic infrastructure --and it will, we will then observe an increased demand for college/university graduates into the marketing profession.

Employee Retention: The Leader’s Unique Role

"Chris how do you consistently maintain such high employee retention?" That’s one of the most frequently asked questions I get whenever I chat with leaders – regardless of the size, industry or geographic location of their business.

Now that highly-skilled, highly mobile and highly-sought professionals are a company’s lifeblood, I find that leaders are showing more interest in equipping themselves with the tools and knowledge to keep their most precious assets – i.e. their professionals. This newly found enthusiasm for employee retention is natural given that, according to the CMA’s President & CEO, John Gustavson in June’s 2008 e-Communicator, there is currently a talent crunch.

Below, find some of the key lessons about retaining enthusiastic and engaged employees that I’ve gathered over the years of building a thriving leading-edge company from scratch. One theme is common throughout: the smartest investment a leader can make is in ensuring that their team of employees succeeds. Make this your mantra and your employee retention will always be something of which you can be proud.

Lesson 1: Take a hands-on approach to employee orientation

Sustaining a corporate culture that encourages on-going innovation is the best path to achieve business goals. Leaders can play a critical role in shaping their culture during orientation – recognized as one of the most important times for setting a strong foundation with new employees. For example, leaders can:

Establish a bond with new employees. Within the first 10 days of new employee joining your company, spend time with them to understand their background, skills and future career aspirations.

Share the company’s vision. Within the first 20 days of a new employee joining your company, repeatedly expose them to the vision – and make sure they understand how their work contributes to achieving that vision. This can involve a one-on-one discussion, team discussion or company-wide presentation.

Acknowledge unique contributions. Beyond having the ability to function on a day-to-day basis, an employee only becomes truly oriented to a company when they feel as if their unique contribution is acknowledged. Within the first 30 days of a new employee joining your firm, recognize their contribution. This also becomes far more meaningful when done in a team or company-wide setting.

Lesson 2: Apply marketing skills to employee retention

Successful leaders know how to engage important audiences. And your team of employees is your business’ most critical audience. Bring your skills as a marketer to actively engage employees:

Anticipate future needs. Pro-actively develop plans that capture the imagination of what is important to your employees. This could involve modifying benefits plans, updating training programs or bringing other perks that align with your employees’ desires to grow personally and professionally.

Maintain an on-going dialogue. Since every successful dialogue begins with listening, establish a schedule of social and business events throughout the year where you can engage with your team of employees. These are terrific opportunities to learn about what projects and processes are exciting and/or frustrating your team. A natural extension to this on-going dialogue is establishing training and/or mentoring programs – identified as a possible retention method in the CMA’s recent study, Cultivating Market Talent: Overcoming the Obstacles.

Watch for reduced involvement. Just as you monitor clients for signs of disengagement, watch for employee behaviours that suggest that they are losing interest in their projects or their teams. Often, employees are looking for new challenges and opportunities to innovate within your company. Make sure your company can truly harness that energy and enthusiasm.

Lesson 3: Quantify employee retention in terms of contributions

All too often the rationale for tackling employee retention is framed in terms of cost-reductions. With that focus it is easy to overlook the unique contributions to your company’s effectiveness and productivity that result from retaining committed and engaged employees. Some of these measurable benefits include:

• New opportunities for business associated with developing new products/services
• The ability to take on additional work because of a “strong bench” of professionals
• Client retention and loyalty
• Time and cost-savings when existing employees train new employees

By quantifying and tracking these retention benefits, leaders are in a much better position to prioritize the resources required to retain employees.

Finally, by integrating all of these lessons into your regular schedule, you can have a positive and dramatic impact on your employee retention while building the foundation for future leaders. That, in turn, will provide you with an increased ability to meet the challenges that face your company now and in the future.

I welcome hearing any suggestions that you have for ways to help leaders retain employees - share here on the CMA Blog, or feel free to contact me directly at president@thindata.com