Marketing Mechanics - As seen in The Drum (3.7.09)
You gotta hold on to what we’ve gotDo you remember life before the recession? Back when people believed it entirely feasible to have the best of everything in life. Fast car? Tick. Detached house in the suburbs? Tick. Dining out in the most fashionable restaurants and working it off again in the best gyms? Tick, tick. Some say that the credit crunch has now finally taught us to be happier with the simpler things in life and to be grateful for what we’ve already got but will we remember this when we come out the other side? And importantly, will those employed in our agencies remember it?
Aside from the lack of roles out there, recruitment has suffered in one other vital area recently. Although the numbers of people seeking employment in our agencies has increased significantly, the quality of those looking has most definitely not witnessed the same uplift. So, either the majority of the truly talented out there are staying put and making happy with their lot or the agency world has been hit particularly hard by swine flu...I’m going to assume it’s the former. Does this mean a higher degree of staff loyalty is being witnessed or do these individuals fear that if they move now, they may not find anything else? Whatever the current reasons, sooner or later this dark cloud of recession will lift and confidence will begin to eek its way back into our client’s budgets. Hallelujah! But remember that same confidence will also be creeping back into your employees and before you know it, some of them will be starting to consider if they can have it all again...someplace else.
Admittedly, once client budgets start looking rosier again it’ll also become easier for you to ‘reward’ those (if you so choose) who have struggled alongside you in choppy seas but money is not the only thing that motivates. Consider what you can be doing now, with or without the pound notes and you’re much more likely to further delay their thoughts of jumping ship. Many agencies have had to make pay freezes and pay cuts as well as reducing the size of their teams recently and as a result many employees are working longer hours than ever and possibly feeling less appreciated than ever too. A well timed early finish on a Friday afternoon can win mucho brownie points as can adding an extra day’s holiday to someone’s contract and they’re both things that don’t have to cost you the earth. Having some of your senior team act as mentors and develop in-house training for individual junior members helps demonstrate how committed you are to their future development as does encouraging creative staff to enter their own work in for awards, or getting them to input on a project or client that wouldn’t usually come their way. If a full on agency night out will break the bank then a few quid stashed behind the bar on Friday lunch can just as easily serve to remind people why working at your agency is just so damn great and never underestimate the power that ‘partners’ have. Raffling off the odd dinner for two can certainly help ensure someone else is singing your praises and less likely to complain when the obligatory late night pitch comes along.
I don’t pretend that you’re going to convince everyone to stay where they are, or that everyone out there is so fickle as to move on the minute those green shoots of recovery appear. Indeed, some people will forget the support you showed them and still think a change is as good as a rest. But the more ways you can find to turn those frowns upside down now, the easier your future staff retention will be. After all, once healthier profits return, much rather you spend it on you and your agency than giving it to a nasty old recruiter like me eh.
Karen Staniland-Platt
Director
Marketing Scout
Posted 22 July 2009
