Lessons for a squeezed industry

Lessons for a squeezed industry

Never a day goes by when I am not aware of the unique perspective that we recruiters have about the digital and design industry. We sit tightly sandwiched between the agencies and the candidates. The nature of our personal relationships often changes, as our clients become job seekers, and then clients again.

The insight gleaned from a recruiter’s role was the seed of inspiration for the Design Industry Voices survey, now in its third year. I wanted to understand whether what I was hearing, seeing and feeling was more than just my personal experience and intuition. Every year I learn a little more about the experiences of the people with whom I work from the survey. This helps me do my job a little better. Here are the lessons I’ve drawn this year.

Staff engagement is at an all-time low, with more than 58% of respondents intending to change job in the next twelve months. This will hit agencies’ bottom lines hard. Hiring new people costs agencies in terms of money and time, whether it’s in the form of recruiter fees, incentive payments to staff that introduce new hires, or simply the cost in billable time of induction. All this, while being squeezed by clients who are expecting more work in pitches for free (71%) and, once you’ve won the account, more work for less money (85%). What is an agency leader to do?

Employees are asking their senior team to demonstrate strong leadership. “They care most about their ideas and opinions being valued, being part of a team, doing stimulating work, and being rewarded for going the extra mile,” explained Design Industry Voices report author Rachel Fairley. It’s worth noting that ‘having good pay and benefits package’ was the 12th most important attribute out of 15 attributes; this is not about money, employees understand these are tough times.

There are inexpensive ways to improve an agency’s perceived performance in these areas.

How about ‘lunch and learns’ with pizza each month to show off the great work being done and the people doing it? Or sending people home early to say thank you after long days’ getting a project finished? “Harnessing the wealth of inspiration from your employees may be as simple as making time to listen and help them understand how they can go about implementing their ideas. And not forgetting to say “thank you”, privately and publically.” suggests Stef Brown, MD of On Pointe Marketing.

It’s also important that employees realise that their experiences are part of an industry-wide challenge. The grass is not necessarily greener. Leadership can come from any role at any level. Why not help your leaders understand what a difference your idea could make to clients, to yourself and to the bottom line? And then offer to help get it implemented. Employees can help create the culture they want from within.

For those on my side of the table, the anecdotal evidence from the survey of the huge number of candidates, the paucity of roles, and the issues with communication are familiar. We must continue to do all we can to support clients and candidates with the utmost professionalism. Our business is one of chemistry, of matchmaking the right candidate with the right agency to create something new.

If we all play our part we can help stop the exodus of talent and focus on growth.