The Importance of Upskilling Your Marketeers .

​The Importance of Upskilling Your Marketeers

As a marketing recruiter, it’s fair to say that it takes all types – in such a diverse, wide-spanning industry we simply meet individuals from all walks of life. As a largely creative business function, marketeers are often found to be knowledge-hungry, business-minded and adaptable – to their surroundings, resources and audience.

Which is lucky, really, because the scope of the marketing world is up there as one of those most continually evolving, changing and moving as quickly as the times do.

Upskilling: a brief introduction

Upskilling is pretty much what it says on the tin – it’s either adding to or developing new skills amongst your workforce. Whether that’s introducing a new piece of software for them to learn or sending them to school to understand the intricacies of a new technique in XYZ, upskilling can be an incredible way to enhance your business operations – especially when it comes to those who work in marketing.

Marketing: the true meaning of ‘movers and shakers’

You’ve got to hand it to marketeers – they’re hardy people.

Having to keep on top of the constantly shifting and changing environment which they inhabit – from print to online, the advent of ‘click bait’ and many other horrors the internet has coined, SEO optimisation which still has to read well and, of course, toeing the line between politics/humour/satire/emotive marketing, plus the hundreds of other variables they must consider at all times… Need I go on? It wouldn’t be unfair to say that no other job function has had to evolve as quickly when it comes to learning and understanding new technologies – the interplay between the two is unlike many other sectors.

Hiring vs helping

When it comes to your marketing team, upskilling could be absolutely key to the stability of your long term strategy – and your staff are ready to learn. Whether it’s moulding your junior exec into a number-crunching growth guru, or handing your copywriter the keys to all aspects of content, and so on and so forth, giving your employees more responsibility and more opportunity to work their mental muscles can craft you a busy, cohesive and moreover motivated marketing team.

Breakdown: benefits of upskilling include…

Stability and longevity. An employee who sees that you’re investing in them, their skillset and their future is more likely to stick around for the long run. Not only will they be more motivated to do well by you, but the promise of further learning opportunities, especially to a marketeer, is likely to bring their goals and yours well in line.

Loyalty. Fundamentally, as above, someone who feels valued within a team is more likely to work tirelessly in achieving the now-common goal you and they share. There’s also such thing as “putting one’s nose out of joint”; hiring externally for a role which a current team member feels more than capable of doing alongside their own can sometimes garner a touch of resentment – so it pays to think about who might be ready to take on the responsibility, instead.

Purpose. Cultivating purpose amongst a team – the whole team mind you, not just within marketing – is crucial for long-term employee satisfaction and thus business success. Showing the team what they could learn is also showing them where it could lead – their career development is linked directly to the new skills and responsibility they’re being trusted to manage. Purpose equals motivation, and motivation is directly linked to higher success.

Happy customers. Fundamentally, the better at their jobs your employees are, the more vMarketing Article Advice for Employers Personal Developmentalue they’re going to add to the servicing of your clients. Having your marketing team up to date with industry trends, technology and goings-on means they can impart this knowledge to your customers – who will in turn become your best advertising platform. Technology is one thing – word of mouth another (possibly very lucrative) beast altogether.

A strong succession plan. The truth is, hiring at management level can be tricky, particularly if your team is full of ready and raring marketeers who have big dreams (and who wouldn’t want that?). In upskilling your team, you’ll be able to pinpoint who is ready for what development and create an ongoing career development route for individuals across the board – creating a strong, unified marketing team who know your business inside-out, having worked their way up from within.

Who’d have thought – a recruiter encouraging you NOT to hire, and instead seek out the potential for development within your current team.

In all seriousness, we tout ourselves as experts because we do have expertise to share; whether it’s hiring strategy, recruitment budgeting or turnover consultation, we want to help, however we can.

Get in touch with my team today to discuss any and all relating to the wonderful world of marketing recruitment.