I was recently invited to participate in a marketing roundtable session with some of the Mid-Atlantic’s top marketing leadership, regarding their challenges in recruiting and retaining top marketing talent to the Baltimore region.
As a Branch Manager and Senior Business Development Manager for the Baltimore office at Profiles, I have collected a few topics and corresponding notes/research on our discussion of how to recruit and retain in-demand marketing talent.
1- Make Employment Branding a Strategic Priority
Develop a multi-channel approach to employment branding at the outset of the year and gain buy-in from senior leadership across the organization. Outlets for branding should include: video, social media, search, web, events, and digital media.
Think about your company’s recruitment efforts, especially when considering consumer online, social and search campaigns. The future of recruitment will be nested comfortably in the hands of the web and enhanced technology. Be aware of how you are portraying yourself online: not only to consumers, but potential employees.
2- Learn from Best Practices in Recruitment Branding
Consider alignments of your consumer brand with your recruitment brand, and learn from these winning employment brand efforts:
Remember to sell your company, culture and region. Your organization should also regularly encourage team members to participate as thought leaders and speakers at industry events. This not only leads to a strong recruitment brand recognition and increased geographic reach, but also supports current team retention.
Use social media as a tool to create and cultivate a positive employment community. Here are a few great examples of how Zappos and Sodexo integrated social media into the recruitment process:
3- Sell the Mid-Atlantic and Baltimore Region
Consider targeting the following:
- Schools
- Location: Close proximity to other major cities (Philadelphia, New York, Washington, etc)
- Creative: World-class arts organizations, symphony, and theater
- Sports: Local team pride
- Technology: Many venture capital investments in this area, and a vibrant entrepreneurial community
- Opportunity: Show overall career growth, there are major industries headquartered in the Mid-Atlantic (Health / Hospital / Bio, Hospitality, Government Services, Pharmaceuticals, Banking/Financial Services, Associations / Non-profits, Consumer Product Goods, Education)
- Recession Insulation: Given Federal government buying power
4- Prioritize Hiring
Strategically align the business goals of your organization with your hiring practices, and conduct an employee audit based on business goals and projects. Understand that you may be looking for a team versus an individual to bring your strategies to life.
Recognize that the longevity of talent retention for certain practice areas may be shorter, and more consultant-heavy (such as UX Design, Search, Social, Mobile) rather than other traditional marketing communications disciplines. Please plan accordingly: you may need to adjust your position and type of hire (freelance, contract to hire, or direct hire).
You may also have to look outside of your specific industry for practice leaders in digital and online marketing. Working with a staffing agency can aid you in your search.
5- Recognize the Impact of Meaningful Work on Recruitment and Retention
Malcolm Gladwell (from interview with Charlie Rose)
“Meaningful work is one of the most important things we can impart to children. Meaningful work is work that is autonomous. Work that is complex, that occupies your mind. And work where there is a relationship between effort and reward — for everything you put in, you get something out…
If you are convinced that the work you are doing is meaningful, then curiosity, there’s no cost to it. If you think there’s always got to be a connection between what you put in and what you get out, then of course you’ll run off with a great excitement after an idea that catches your idea.”
Malcolm Gladwell (from book “Outliers”)
“Those three things: autonomy, complexity and a connection between effort and reward are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between 9 and 5. It is whether our work fulfills us. … Work that fulfills those three criteria is meaningful.”
“How Great Companies Think Differently” (by Rosabeth Moss Kanter)
Rosabeth is Chair and Director of the Advanced Leadership Initiative of Harvard University, a collaboration across the professional schools to help successful leaders at the top of their professions apply their skills to addressing challenging national and global problems in their next stages of life.
Read more about “How Great Companies Think Differently” here.
About Profiles:
Profiles is a unique staffing firm specializing in marketing, creative, and interactive jobs. Since 1998, we have served the needs of our Clients and Talent by matching the best candidates with the best companies in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Author Name – Stephanie Ranno
Title – Branch Manager
Location – Baltimore, MD
Twitter – @stephranno
Byline – Stephanie has spent the last 7 years in the creative recruiting and staffing industry, building relationships with amazing talent and innovative corporations. At the core she is a renaissance gal, who thrives with too many things on her plate. Hence: student of emerging media trends, manager of an outstanding recruitment team, local actress on the stages of Baltimore, certified group fitness instructor, and wife and mother (though last, certainly not least in importance)
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