Flexible Workforce Strategies to Improve Your Marketing Team’s Effectiveness

In this webcast presented by Eric Waldinger, SVP, Group Managing Director of Aquent, we share findings from a new survey of global marketing teams and their use of freelance

talent and ad agencies. Some of the key points are...

> How and why marketing teams split their resources among independent contractors, ad agencies, and staffing firms> What impact flexible talent has on retaining top permanent staff> Where and why marketing teams most often use flexible talent> What the most common mistakes marketers make when using flexible talent and how your firm can avoid them

This material is confidential, and should not be shared with anyone other than the intended.

Flexible Workforce Strategies to Improve Your Marketing Team’s Effectiveness

Presented by:

Eric Waldinger, SVP, Group

Managing Director, Aquent

This material is confidential, and should not be shared with anyone other than the intended.

The Most Boring (and Perhaps Important) Slide You’ll See All DayCompany Conducts Business, Has Marketing/Creative Team

With a pure probability sample of 523, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 4.2 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

Job Role

Individual Contributo

r

10%

VP/Director 32%

Manager43%

Survey Respondent

The average survey respondent spent just over 13 minutes answering questions about how marketing teams get work done.

The survey included a wide variety of questions, including the types of projects they typically outsource, their satisfaction with outsourcing, how they leverage both in-house and external talent, and how their organization views special marketing projects from a strategic standpoint.

Your Marketing Team is Pulling Hard…Can They Hold?

PullTrying

Teamwork!

How Far is Too Far?

Your Internal team might be pulling too hard:

Hours Worked Per Week

My Work Life is Extremely Stressful

1st Sign: They’re Stressed

How Far is Too Far?

Your internal team might be pulling too hard:

2nd Sign: They can’t meettheir objectives.

Hours Worked Per Week

Our marketing team has the resources necessary to meet our organization’s objectives.

How Do We Cure the Overload on Our Marketing Teams?

Know where you’re going.

Realize you can’t do everything.

Identify high priorities for yourin-house team.

Analyze your current team’s capabilities.

Develop a flexible talent pool.

Know Where You’re Going

Finished and starting to implement

Not finished, but in the midst of planning

Starting soon, I swear

Plan? What plan?

How Far Along Are You with Your 2012 Marketing Plan?

Realize You Can’t Do Everything

Job satisfaction is more closely correlated with believing organizational objectives are attainable.

Fact:

Start With The Easiest Things to Outsource

Situations Where Marketing Teams Leverage Flexible Talent

Opportunity?

Develop Flexible Talent Pool

Less than a week

Between 1 week and 1 month

1 to 2 months

3 to 4 months

Almost a year

How long does the average flexible workforce assignment last?

The Average Assignment Lasts More than 15 Weeks.

Identify High Priorities For Your In-House Team

Social media

Market research

SEO (search engine optimization)

Writing/editing

Creative direction and design

What type of project is the most commonly outsourced by marketing teams?

Identify High Priorities for Your In-House Team

Analyze Your Current Team’s Capabilities

What is your team’s core

competency?

Primary Reason for Bringing Contingent Workers On-Site

Flexible Talent: Used Often and Increasing

Nearly two-thirds of marketing/creative teams outsource at least some of their work to flexible labor pools.

Fact:

Average Organizational Allocation of Marketing/Creative Work

Internal Headcount Growth? A Tale of Perspective

Marketing team members were nearly twice as likely as C-level respondents to expect their marketing team to grow headcount in the next 12 months.

Fact:

Percent Expecting Marketing Team Internal Headcount to Grow

Flexible Talent: Expected to Increase

Although use of all types of flexible workforce resources are expected to grow in the next year, use of independent contractors is projected to grow the most.

Fact:

Develop Flexible Talent Pool – 3 Myths Busted

Flexible talent are best used for low skillset marketing tasks.

Flexible talent turnover is too high. You have to constantly train new people.

If you don’t plan ahead, you shouldn’t bother.

Low skillset High turnover

Thought we had needs covered

1

2

3

Myths

MYTH 1: Flexible Talent are Best Used for Low Skillset Marketing Tasks.

MYTH 2: Flexible Talent Turnover is Too High, You Have to Constantly Train New People.

What you can do to build a reliable and capable pool of freelance talent…

MYTH 3: If You Don’t Plan Ahead You Shouldn’t Bother.

Recap

1. Know where you are going.

2. Realize you can’t do everything.

3. Identify high priorities for in-house team.

4. Analyze your current team’s capabilities.

5. Develop a flexible talent pool.

CONCLUSION

QUESTIONS

inavero is a global leader in client and job seeker satisfaction surveys.

The firm analyzes surveys from more than 500,000 job seekers and professionals annually.