Communications Council survey reveals 80% of agencies unable to find suitably experienced staff
According to survey results published by The Communications Council today, 80% of agencies are unable to find suitably experienced staff.
The shortage is most prevalent in junior (1-4 years) and mid level (4-7 years) positions with the most acute shortages occurring in account management, followed by creative and digital.
52% of agencies that responded have 5-10% of positions left vacant at any one time due to the difficulty in finding suitably experienced replacement staff.
Agencies cited three main reasons for the shortage; a lack of candidates, followed by a lack of competencies or skills in prospective candidates, followed by a lack of experience in new recruits.
In the majority of cases agencies are responding by appointing people with less than ideal experience that have the potential to grow while 41% of agencies are also filling their skill gaps through hiring talent from abroad.
Says Daniel Leesong, CEO of The Communications Council: “These findings highlight the real challenge our industry faces with recruiting and retaining staff. We’re seeing a large drop off between entry level and mid level suggesting challenges for agencies to retain staff long term.
More research needs to be done to fully understand the underlying reasons for the mid level staff shortages but our research shows there are three main factors; intra-agency and client moves, a desire for a change in overall career or a career break (overseas, or otherwise).”
It is, however, encouraging to see that agencies are largely satisfied with entry level candidates and we are pleased programs like the Graduate Trainee Program, AWARD School and Adschool are a major contributor to providing the new crop of talent each year.”
The Communications Council will be sharing results with participating agencies.
13 Comments
Note to Agency HR Deparments…
$35k is not a competitive entry-level salary compared to other industries…
If you don’t get entry-level staff… you don’t get juniors with 1-4 years experience.
If you don’t ger junior staff with 1-4 years experience, you don’t get mid-level staff with 4-7 years experience.
As a Director of an agency for over 15 years I have experienced the peaks and troughs in finding the right talent and I think as agencies we need to be more flexible and creative in how we attract, train, engage, remunerate and reward our staff. And this differs across generations, gender and according to their life stages.
My passion for this led me to also launch an industry niche job board designed to attract talent and promote jobs within our industry. Whilst the take up to niche jobs boards in Australia has been slower than overseas it’s also been a case of talent relying heavily on recruiters or headhunters to find them the jobs or personal recommendations versus both parties actively seeking themselves in the market.
Grant’s comments are in fact a reality. Agency side pay is much less attractive to the younger entry level talent versus joining client side or other industries and whilst it isn’t nor should it be just about the money, it certainly is a big factor in getting those juniors in the door to begin with.
I welcome more insights and research but at the same time I would like to see more agencies working on the ‘talent shortage’ brief and driving solutions to suit this era we find ourselves in.
Why would you enter an industry like advertising, spend ten years learning your craft and expertise, only to be overruled and undervalued by a ‘lower-level’ client?
The main factor here is respect. And that takes the form of fair remuneration, as well as listening to and accepting recommendations the client is supposedly paying for.
One of the unfortunate facts is that less and less people are being attracted to the industry. Why would they want to join an industry where they are badly paid whilst working a huge number of hours and where there is clearly no career path.
There is a lack of mentoring within agencies where layers of experienced people have been removed so there are few senior people to guide and grow their knowledge.
It unfortunately has bred a generation of ‘cannon fodder’ within agencies who turn over very quickly as they have little support and their career paths are very short term. The number of people over 30 who feel extremely nervous about their longer term career prospects is astounding.
The Communications Council continues to bang a drum about trainee programs, Award and Ad School as if these solve a serious industry issue. It fails to talk about the large elephant in the room which is that there are far better options outside the industry with solid career paths, support and mentoring where they can look forward to a career of longer than that which they will have within an agency.
The industry also fails to recognise the need to have a broad range of age groups within agencies that are as diverse as the age ranges of consumers.
Graduates, Early Career Hopefuls, Just Hitting their Straps Managers, Solid Managers with Experience and Senior Managers Who have Encountered Every Issue.
This in turn attracts and retains staff and grows a solid future for the industry.
It also offers true depth to clients where an agency can honestly state that it has a depth of knowledge and experience in communicating to all consumers.
Okay then, Melbourne.
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The real business world is reassessing their use of advertising agencies because you are increasingly full of nothing. Ideas can be had from small creative shops that have experience. Execution can be had almost anywhere thanks to the digital revolution. What, exactly, does an agency do for their client these days? Experts in the field are generally walked out once they hit 35 or 40 as they become too expensive to retain. Yet us, the clients, WANT experience and knowledge and insight on our business. Ad agencies continue to hide behind a veneer of ‘youthful creativity’ in their pitch process, yet we all know it’s a race to the bottom on pricing. The A/B demographic, with a female skew, has all the buying power in Australia. Literally all of it. They are the shoppers and the spenders, and the key influencers if someone else shops. Yet your pitch ideas are built by a group of 25 year old males, many of whom dont have to pay rent/mortgage or even buy FMCG at the supermarket. Agencies unable to find staff? Piffle. Agencies unable to be a viable business into the future? Quite likely.
I think that each of the comments above raise some really good points. It really boils down to a failure to offer fair and attractive remuneration, a lack of career direction and security and the general lack of respect afforded to the agency opinion and expertise by modern day marketers.
As someone over 30, I would suggest that it is very likely that most see the light on lifestyle and dollars around this age and head elsewhere. And don’t even get me started on women over 30 in this game…
Absolutely unsurprising.
The so-called ‘creative’ industry is where I’ve encountered the most risk-averse, conservative hiring and recruitment outsourcing of any industry.
Not to mention the most grotesque application of stereotypes about age, gender etc. Then again, I suppose that’s the stock in trade.
Absolutely agree with The Real World above; if an agency ever hired someone with actual life experience, they wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway.
Book writers often don’t hit their peak until their 60s. Picasso was still painting masterpieces in his 70s. Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t finish his most famous building, The Guggenheim, until he was 91! Yet advertising types are tipped out as soon as the grey sets in. I’m 55, and after 32 years in the game, still doing fresh and effective advertising. Not that I’ll ever get a job in a ‘hot’ agency ever again. That’d be just unthinkable. There’s a word for the prevailing attitude in the business: ageism.
When I started I had a hunger and a desire for the industry. I worked hard, I worked late and after a 18 months interning in London I got a job. I still work hard, I still have a hunger. I’d like to see more of it in those starting out. This industry is a privilege to work in; you might get shit pay to start with, but if you’re determined and if you believe in the power of ideas, you’ll end up being paid your worth.
I’ve worked almost 20 years in advertising, I have 3 degrees and because of my age and gender I’m close to unemployable in advertising. I know the writing is on the wall and I’m looking elsewhere. In “the old days” advertising was a dream job, sure you worked very hard but the salary and satisfaction made it worthwhile. Now you just work extremely hard and on the whole get treated poorly – often illegally. I have friends – (some our clients) who don’t work the hours we do, have employers who provide career paths and mentoring and don’t kick you out the door when you turn 40. Perhaps young people are more savvy and don’t want to make the mistakes that we have made. I certainly would not encourage any young woman to get into advertising – take your marketing/media degree and apply it somewhere you will be valued, somewhere that you will prosper. It’s 2011 we just should not have to be battling the gender/age battles. I admire that the communications council has done the research but I fear they blame the “suitable staff” rather than look at internal barriers. it’s strange for a business that has no assets but it’s people the resources allocated on people management are overall very low.
Look in the back of adnews or any industry job listing page and they always want 1 year minimum experience. Cant these agencies just talk with somneone see they’re passionate and train them the way they like to work? I think the fact companies wont hire someone without experience shows that they actually dont have an eye for talent.
People that do hire inexperienced people with potential such as Droga are the smart guys, they never have a shortage of talent because they can spot it and give people a fair go.
Ok then guys, I’m young and without a job. I’ve done very well at AWARD and at university. I was looking at getting into an agency, but what do you guys recommend instead?
I don’t want to end up all old and bitter and twisted about my career choices. So if you guys really had good advice then I’m all ears!