Marketing employers: Train and retain

Marketing 17-Nov-04

Employees would prefer to remain at one company to develop, than make a move to progress. The top employers invest in staff skills. When it comes to staff retention, it makes sense, even from a purely monetary perspective, to invest in their career development. 'It costs me £3000 to £5000 to recruit someone, so why not spend some or all of that on keeping your staff happy?' asks Henry Dixon, managing director of specialist B2B marketing communications agency Barrett Dixon Bell.

Employees are motivated and happy at companies that make the effort to develop them both professionally and personally. One of the most unexpected statistics to come out of this year's Marketing Employer of the Year survey is that 82% of respondents would rather stay at one company to develop their careers than have a series of marketing roles at different firms.

This finding contradicts the oft-quoted opinion that marketers tend to move jobs every 18 months, and certainly doesn't fit with the generally held belief that marketers need to move companies to further their careers.

Claire Owen, managing director of Stopgap, is far from surprised by the survey results. 'Who says it's better to move?' she asks. 'It is a rare animal that enjoys the recruitment process.'

Smaller companies, and in particular agencies, are often assumed to have the upper hand when it comes to keeping staff happy, because agencies are still managed by their owners. As they have set up the company, they have a passion for what it does that permeates the firm and its employees.

Big companies can keep staff happy too. The classic example is Procter & Gamble, with its enviable reputation for staff retention and policy of promoting only from within.

Rapid growth

Home Service, which provides repair and insurance services on behalf of utility companies, has grown rapidly in the past 10 years, and marketing director James Cashmore believes this has ensured the company remains focused on its staff.

'We need our people to perform and grow, because we are growing by more than 20% a year,' he says. 'We have a good record of retaining marketers because we combine the entrepreneurial spirit of a new company with the budgets and resources of a big business.'

A key contributor to professional development is training, and the survey revealed that 65% of respondents prefer external qualification training to internal courses led by senior managers. Stopgap's Owen believes one of the key reasons for this is that such activity suggests the staff are really valued, and external trainers offer credibility, experience and variety.

Most companies that feature highly in the professional development table help their employees gain qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and study leave and financial support are common. But the variety and depth of other training can vary.

Tiered approach

At media agency Carat, the focus for graduate recruits is on internal training, as they move about the business to learn how it functions. As they become more senior, the emphasis turns toward external training, especially for building motivational, leadership and inter-personal skills and presentation training.

Carat has also helped staff keen to gain MBAs and diplomas, both financially and with study time. Although the agency does not tie staff in after studying, marketing director Jenny Biggam believes that the company benefits as well as the individual. 'People come back and input in different ways,' she says. 'Many then move around within the company and change department or teams. Often their dissertations are in areas important to our business.'

Biggam believes it is highly important for agencies to retain staff, since clients become used to dealing with certain personnel.

Diplomas and MBAs provide obvious professional development, but Carat's training can be more lateral. 'We have sent people on wine-tasting and cookery courses - anything to build creative thinking,'

adds Biggam. 'They have to experience things through living them. The business objective is breaking the routine and thinking differently.'

Barrett Dixon Bell also adopts a mix of internal and external training.

More of its work is based overseas than in the UK, and its employees are all language graduates who can speak at least three languages. So as well as allowing staff to study for a CIM diploma or certificate, it provides training for its employees to brush up on their languages.

One development issue for agencies and clients is the need for feedback and regular, structured appraisals. With those systems in place, training can be tailored to the individual and closely monitored, resulting in fulfilled employees and healthy staff retention.

TOP 10 CLIENTS FOR TRAINING

Company Score

(%)

1 NatWest Primeline 97.0

2 Action for Blind People 95.9

3 Home Service 94.6

4 Nationwide 93.5

5 Emap Active 92.0

6 Interflora 91.4

7 Whitbread 90.5

8 Volvo Car UK 89.3

9 Reed Business Info 89.2