Recruitment .... its a painful process for us all, whether we are a Candidate looking for a suitable position, or an employer seeking a good new employee.In marketing, this becomes rather more difficult. For what I call more 'internal' vacancies, life seems to be a bit easier - to find and employ an office clerk, production line operative, even a Director. But when seeking someone to fit a position in Marketing (or sales for that matter), it becomes an almost impossible task.
Agencies dont offer much help. They dont really know what marketing actually IS and dont really add value. The media used to get to the Marketer is strangely lacking in ways to get to the Marketer - and then it still is a hit or miss affair. I suppose it is an irony that in a profession and environment this purports to be all about customer-centricity, we dont have the right place to get Marketers and Employers together to realise a mutual opportunity!
We have taken a long, hard, look at recruitment in Marketing. It cannot be allowed to reside with generalist agents, and dumbed down to be little more than a cross between a numbers-game and doing what seems to work for other disciplines. These people - professional Marketers - are performing a function that is said (PA Consulting) to be worth at least THREE TIMES MORE VALUE to the business then ANY OTHER.
So, surely we cannot and should not leave this all to chance? I am looking to our own for the answers. Marketers and marketing has the answers. If an Employer is hoping to employ someone with not only the suitable qualifications and experience, but who can actually work within the defined parameters that will make the compny money, then we need to do that. The Candidate expects to find a suitable vacancy that matches not only their experience and short-list or wish-list criteria but one where they would wish to be in for a long time, offering suitable fulfillment.
Is this too much to ask? Well, I for one think that we need to address this. There are well over half a million Marketers in the UK alone, and hugely adrift when it comes to a proper Career structure and where the Employing company really has to rely on hope and chance to find the right person. We are now working within the new MyMarketingLife professional marketing community to deliver that right now - a service for marketers by marketers. We cannot leave this all to chance.
David Hood
Director, Marketing Talent programme.
Posts
