As companies embrace innovation and digital disruption, demand for digital marketing talent continues to rise. In our job market research and through direct reports from the day-to-day front lines of recruiting, hiring managers have told us that they are most challenged to attract, hire, and retain the best digital marketing candidates. It may be time for companies to rethink the way they recruit digital marketers during these days of historic low unemployment.
Embrace Freelance
While searching for the digital needle in the talent haystack, companies have successfully kept digital initiatives moving forward by increasing their reliance on freelancers. As a talent management partner, 24 Seven encourages our clients to adopt this hybrid approach to fill the talent gap, taking the attitude that the most important thing is to find the best hire for the role – regardless whether the person they are meeting is interested in freelance or full-time employment. Today’s competitive hiring climate requires a flexible outlook with the goal being to secure the most talented or skilled individual to fuel innovation and progress goals.
Sweeten the Deal
Digital marketers are calling the shots during the recruiting process. They are considering multiple offers at one time. They can demand more salary, more perks, better benefits – and get it. Companies must take a hard look at their employment proposition. This requires regularly benchmarking compensation and expanding hiring budgets. Critically evaluate the benefits package – is it modern? Is it personalized? Is it life-balance friendly? Are there remote work options? Flexible schedule options? These are all the things that digital talent seeks. Is the company missing out on the best hires because the offer doesn’t pass the ideal job litmus test?
Expand Your Horizons
During the Great Recession, companies could be very picky about from where a candidate hailed. There were strict rules about industry and geographic location requirements. Today demands employers to widen the scope of their search. Companies who are successfully filing digital openings are poaching talent from different business sectors and adjacent industries – moving talent across the country or the ocean. Successful hirers understand they have to expend both the time and money to locate and relocate the players they need to win the game.
Upskill & Pro-train
Companies are encouraged to look inward and identify high potential employees who can be reskilled, upskilled, and pro-trained (proactively prepared for the skills that will be required in the near and far term future). This is a powerful talent management strategy because it positions the employer as a learning organization (a highly sought employment brand feature among job seekers) and it also improves retention of current, top performing employees. Year over year in our studies of talent attitudes and behavior, employees tell us that professional development, career pathing, and training are among the factors that increase their loyalty, engagement, and on the job happiness.
In this talent-favoring job marketing, the “But we’ve always done it this way” closed mindset when it comes to recruiting digital talent is a defeatist mindset. Companies who want to win the talent war need to shake it up to staff it up. For more insights, check out a recent interview with one of our top recruiters on how he navigates the Digital Marketing talent arena.