“It’s A Seller’s Market”

As we write this month’s e-zine the April jobs report was just released showing 263,000+ new jobs added in April and unemployment falling to 3.6%. In our domain and specialization building global marketing and marketing services organizations, we are seeing in 2019 the emergence of a strong “seller’s market” in terms of the demand, movement, and cost of executive-level marketing talent.

Especially in “hot” areas including Analytics, Customer Experience (CX), and MarTech (Marketing Technology), current demand is far exceeding supply of qualified talent and this has led to top-tier talent being snapped up quickly at ever higher compensation levels. In 3 of our recent search assignments, qualified candidates we identified accepted new job offers (at significant compensation increases) even before we were able to schedule initial interviews with our clients. Now may be the time to review your hiring procedures to see if you can streamline your hiring process to reduce the cycle time from interview to offer. 

In this “hot” talent market, companies are well advised to place an increased emphasis on retaining their best talent while re-evaluating and adjusting target compensation levels for various “high demand” roles (Analytics, CX, MarTech) where market pricing has increased dramatically based upon market demand. It’s also important to invest in your company reputation to attract the best talent. Look at your Glassdoor reviews and your online social media to be sure the company is positioned as a great place to work. 

At EC, we advise our clients to emphasize selling the attractiveness of the company’s vision and culture, long-term career path opportunities, and the long-term financial rewards (i.e., stock grants, profit sharing) associated with joining their organizations with the expectation of a long, satisfying career run leading to mutual financial prosperity.

Executive Connections has recently completed analytics, branding, CX, digital, marketing, MarTech, and mktg. operations searches for clients including Accenture Interactive, Avenues – World School, Deloitte Digital, OneTouchPoint, Prudential, RRD, and Staples. We would love to assist you in upcoming talent acquisition needs, so pls. schedule a conference call with our team to catch up.

Best, 

Jeff Gundersen, CEO

Abby Spatz Joins Avenues as VP, Global Marketing 

EC is pleased to announce Abby Spatz has joined our client, Avenues – The World School, in the newly created role of Vice President, Global Marketing. In this role, Abby will be responsible for establishing and executing Avenues’ marketing strategy around the world to build their global brand, attract and engage all audiences and achieve key organizational goals, including full enrollment, in each country and market where Avenues operates. Abby’s career includes more than 20 years of integrated marketing expertise with global consumer lifestyle brands, including NYC Tourism, Hilton, American Express, Chanel, Coca-Cola and eBay. With experience on both the brand and agency side, Abby has developed a proven track record of success working across a broad range of disciplines including brand strategy, advertising, media, PR, experiential, engagement and partnerships, and has extensive experience with traditional and digital media, content and activation. Named one of Brandweek’s “Next Generation Marketers” for her work leading global marketing and advertising at Hilton Hotels, Abby has focused on brand strategy and strategic platforms and program development for domestic and international brand development and activation. Most recently, Abby worked with a number of smaller, high-growth companies to launch and build their brands, drive revenue growth and increase customer engagement. Abby holds an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, as well as a BA in English and Sociology, also from Emory University.  Abby will report to Peter Vaughn, Chief Experience Officer, a long-time EC client and friend from American Express prior to Avenues.

Executive Connections handled this exclusive, retained search assignment for Avenues. As part of Abby’s transition into this new global marketing leadership role, EC will be providing our unique, proprietary “Blended Solutions” offering including 6+ months of one-on-one confidential consulting/coaching to assist Abby in her successful transition into Avenues. We wish Abby continued success in this new career opportunity!

The Challenge of Hiring Experienced Talent in the Age of Full Employment

We are in a war for experienced talent. In our firm we see very high demand for people with Customer Experience, Analytics /Data Science and Marketing Technology skills.

Gone are the days of creating an online ad and expecting you will find hidden gems. Instead you need to change the way you address hiring in order to attract the high-quality talent you need. Today , people aren’t your most important asset , they are your only asset.

Step 1: Forget your current job descriptions. You need to rethink what is required versus what is nice to have. How many years of experience is enough? Does an MBA actually  matter? Do they need experience with  your particular platform or is knowledge of a similar product sufficient? Interview the staff to find out what is really important, gain consensus on the key mission of the job, and update the job description accordingly. You should be looking for people with experience and a continuous learning mindset who can learn the “new” thing in your environment because you are constantly evolving and you want a person who will grow with you. 

Step 2: Sell the job and the company.  A job description needs to sell the company and the position so put your best foot forward. Selling the company means thinking about how you are going to empower the potential employee. Are you giving them responsibility and authority to take on the task at hand? Do you have sufficient resources (money and people) to help the candidate succeed and thrive in this role? Will you provide an executive coach to help them make the transition and integrate quickly into your culture? Will you assign a mentor? Can they work remotely? Why is your company a great place to work?

Step 3: Update your salary ranges. You need to update your salary ranges to reflect market reality in your geographic area. Skilled resources are in demand and can work anywhere. Your first choice should be a local resource, not someone you have to relocate from another market and hope they will succeed. When you re-examine the compensation for everyone in the department you may find you are under-paying and are vulnerable to getting poached. Even if it seems expensive reconsider how you will get the team to parity with the marketplace. New Federal law prohibits discriminating (i.e., against women and other diversity candidates) by asking for a person’s current compensation, so be careful and state what the job pays. Don’t be afraid to pay someone a big increase if you feel they are qualified.

Step 4: Build your organization’s brand reputation. You should be building your organization’s brand reputation every day using online and offline methods. Today’s employees are interested in understanding your brand promise and your mission. State them clearly and then reinforce them. Prospective employees need to be convinced that you are a great place to work. You should be monitoring Glassdoor, Facebook, LinkedIn, other social media sites, and news to understand your organization’s reputation. Assign someone in HR to monitor and report on your organization’s brand reputation.

You should be surveying your employees and collecting their feedback on a regular basis. This will help you understand what issues need to be addressed. If you need help your marketing team and customer experience teams should be able to provide some guidance.

Step 5: Streamline your Interviewing and hiring process. In order to attract the best talent, you will need to create a seamless process that provides timely candidate feedback and  makes hiring decisions quickly. It is not unusual for Executive Recruiters like us to recommend a candidate only to have them take another offer within 2 weeks. If you are looking for great talent-so are your competitors. You need to:

1. Set up a formal screening process that is responsive to candidate flow so you can screen people in a few days.
2. Establish your internal criteria for how you will evaluate candidates and get all the interviewers on board. Require interviewers to provide feedback in 24 hours.
3. Bring people in for a day and get as many people as you need to interview them. If someone can’t be available on site, provide for Skype or Zoom or some other tool to make it possible to have a “face to face” meeting.
4. Work with the HR team so you can make an immediate offer without going through a lot of internal approvals that may slow down the process.

If you need help finding and hiring senior marketing talent, reach out to Executive Connections LLC. We are experienced marketing practitioners who are focused on executive recruiting. We are happy to help with improving the employee experience and helping you hire the talent you need.

Darcy Bevelacqua, Managing Director – Analytics/CX/MarTech – Executive Connections LLC DBevelacqua@executiveconnectionsllc.com