How to get THE BEST out of your Marketing Recruitment Partner - Part 1.

Before we begin… Rest assured that this is not a sales pitch!

Any good recruiter worth their salt should do more than trawl the CV boards looking for an easy CV to ping across to their client. If you’re engaging a recruiter for any role, it’s important to remember that you’re paying for a service.

So, with that being said – and as a Marketing Recruitment Specialist – in this article I’d like to help you to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your Marketing Recruitment Partner and share some of the challenges and insights I’ve observed in local businesses in the current market.

If you’ve ever been involved in marketing recruitment, you may already have noticed that nailing down the right talent for your roles takes a little bit more brainpower than recruiting across most other functions. It can also involve more internal politics and clashes of opinion.

We should bear in mind though, that…

·        Finding the right creative profile for your brand

·        Finding the right competitor insights and industry knowledge

·        And finding the right passion and vision to entrust the safeguarding of your business image

… Requires more than just the right qualifications, tenure and experience on paper.

I would like to walk you through some of the business challenges I’ve been seeing in the market and let you know how you can use recruiters to help!

PROBLEM ONE: UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS NEEDS

Whilst this issue isn’t ‘new’, it has certainly reared an unhealthy head in recent months as businesses struggle to pinpoint and plan for the best route to market in a post Covid world.

Marketing and Creative roles span such a vast and wide plethora of skillsets, with businesses taking more interest than ever in their digital strategies. The need for both niche and generic digital (and marketing) experience is growing, but it’s crucial to understand what skills within this mammoth function are actually required in order to create and push those strategies forwards and to ensure a good return on investment (ROI).

What a lot of people don’t realise is that there are two main umbrellas that most marketing/creative roles fall under:

1.      Execution.

Executers do the ‘hands on’ and ‘creative’ leg work; creating the content, designing the assets and executing the campaigns.

2.      Implementation.

Implementers create the strategy, do the research, analyse the data and manage the processes, reporting findings and developments to leadership.

It is very easy when evaluating your marketing function to rope the above together and HYBRIDISE these two skillsets. Of course, there are many candidates that carry out elements of all of the above, but on the most part experience will fall more heavily under one umbrella than the other.

For example: If you find a candidate that has very strong technical digital skills, they may have a great understanding of PPC and SEO and be able to analyse and report on the relevant data, but they may not create the content or roll out the campaigns directly.

As a result of confusion where the above is concerned, it is quite common for marketing recruitment processes to run multiple times, with an initial batch of candidates interviewed, amendments then made to the role, and a second or even third batch of candidates interviewed until the right skillset has been selected.

It is essential for businesses to find the RIGHT talent for their roles, so the process can be run as many times as necessary, but this lengthy recruitment process can prove time wasting for both the business and the applicants.

More often than not, this results in candidates progressing through final stage interviews, often completing tasks and testing, before being told that their experience and interviews were spot on but that the business has decided (off the back of the interview conversations) to re-position the role and that their application is now no longer relevant and therefore unsuccessful.

For a business to attract the top talent in the market, it is paramount that interview processes, timescales and feedback are useful and enjoyable to the applicants. Situations like the above can be detrimental to your ability to recruit the top talent. 

PROBLEM TWO: UNDERSTANDING THE CURRENT MARKET

The talent market is forever evolving. This is true across all recruitment functions, but it is perhaps even more accurate where marketing roles are concerned.

As the route to market continually evolves and changes, the required skillsets to implement and execute are also subject to change.

For example: Since Covid struck I’ve seen that digital, ecommerce and social strategies have BOOMED, whilst event management and other areas of marketing have become temporarily obsolete. As a result, we have seen a shortage of good digital talent in the market (businesses have been snapping these candidates up!), and an influx of strong events candidates become available.

With this in mind, it’s important to know what is available in the market while recruiting as this may result in the adjustment of expectations. Currently, if you’re looking for an events professional, you may have the luxury of being ‘picky’. You can afford to be more selective about the applicant’s industry background and the types of events they’ve previously managed. If however, you are looking for a digital manager, there may be less top talent available at this time, so you may have to flex a little on some expectations in order to ensure applicants have a strong enough skillset to assist with your business needs.

PROBLEM THREE: UNDERSTANDING THE APPLICANTS

Understanding how to position the role and the package you offer can make a HUGE difference to the type of talent you attract. It’s the age old bug bear of ‘if you want the value, you have to pay for it!’

In marketing recruitment, the lines between ‘Assistants’, ‘Executives’ and ‘Managers’ can be a little blurred, and matching up the right salaries for each can be tricky. If the business doesn’t position this carefully they are likely to completely bypass any relevant applicants.

I mentioned a list at the beginning of this article outlining why finding the right fit for marketing and creative roles is so important to businesses. These hires act as brand custodians for the business and are responsible for positioning the business tone and image to the rest of the world.

They act as ambassadors and fire fighters. They drum up awareness and interest. They fight the competition and keep the business safe, establishing the platforms that allow the business to sell and succeed. It is therefore understandable that businesses are selective in finding the right fit to carry this responsibility, but it is easy for businesses to forget that applicants are just as eager as they are to ‘find the right fit’.

Marketing and Creative applicants are GREAT! They tend to be passionate and creative and driven; all of which contribute to a POSITIVE attitude fit for most businesses. But with these assets comes inevitable draw backs:

Passionate applicants tend to be passionate ‘about certain things’.

Creative applicants tend to thrive in ‘certain creative environments’.

Driven applicants tend to strive for ‘development’, and while most applicants for any roles now look for progression options, marketing and creative applicants are also eager to ‘learn’ and ‘diversify’ their skillset.

In marketing recruitment especially, the fact that the talent is out there and you want them, doesn’t mean they necessarily want to work for you.

For example: If applicants come from a similar industry as your business, you may see this as a bonus, but they may be looking for an industry change to continue to learn and develop in other areas. 

If you position a role at Executive level, but require in-depth strategy creation and implementation, you are likely to receive applications too junior for your requirements.

SO, HOW CAN WE HELP?!

Any successful recruitment partner should follow the rule of the three ‘L’s:

1.      LISTEN: Listen to the business’s needs. What are the most important things the business are looking for?

2.      LEARN: Ask questions about the department and the wider business. What is the current strategy? What skills are currently lacking in this area? What projects are coming up? Where might the business need further assistance in coming months?

3.      LEAD: Recruiters know the market. Recruiters know the talent. And if 1 & 2 are conducted correctly, recruiters should know exactly what skillsets the business requires to carry out their strategies.

Use your Marketing Recruitment Business Partner as exactly that… a BUSINESS PARTNER.

Allow us to LISTEN. Provide us with the information we need to LEARN about your business so that we can LEAD your recruitment process, collaborate with you and give you a proper cross section of what is available in the market.

A personal bonus that this provides for MY recruitment process is that my understanding of the wider business strategy and upcoming projects will also allow me to consider a ‘wild card’ applicant who may have extra skills that I can see the business is likely to need as things progress.

A big part of being a recruiter is helping businesses to understand what they’re getting for their money!

If given the relevant business information to understand the business needs, a Marketing Recruitment Partner should be able to advice on best value for money based on the business requirements.

More often than not, if an applicant is lacking in one or two small areas of the job spec, they are still worth the time to bring up to speed and usually adapt and learn quickly.

If a business does not understand or is not aware of current market conditions for relevant roles it is easy to assume that the talent pool is ‘endless’. This can result in the turning away of top talent in the market, expecting someone to come along that ticks all the boxes, when in fact that someone does not currently exist.

If there is a talent shortage in a relevant skillset, your Recruitment Partner should make you aware and manage your expectations. Why hire an average applicant who can do the basics of everything required but who cannot contribute to growth, when you could hire an exceptional candidate who can add great value in nearly all areas, but who requires a few weeks to get up to speed in one or two?

Your Recruitment Partner should never leave you in the dark.

We can provide a proper cross section of what is available in the market and manage your expectations, so if there is a shortage of a certain skillset, or if certain elements of the role don’t ‘marry up well’, we can help to reposition or substitute areas that would otherwise be likely to make the process unsuccessful.

A Marketing Recruitment Partner will understand how to ‘market’ your role and guide you on the salary expectations of applicants at the level you require.

Ask us our opinion – it could save you a lot of time!

CONCLUSION

Recruitment Consultants work best when ‘consulted’.

Businesses don’t like to spend money on recruitment if they can help it. Even as a Recruitment Specialist… I can’t blame them!

But if you’re going to pay for services, it’s a real shame not to use them.