Suffering from a talent crisis? Get off your backside and grow your own
The industry constantly bemoans a lack of skilled new employees. In this opinion piece David Ponce de Leon argues they need to do more to help nurture the talent.
The skills shortage issue continues to be a challenge for different sectors of the communications industry and at the dawn of a new year the topic seems to be heating up again.
Everybody is talking about how hard is to find the right talent or the right skills for their own particular business needs. It’s almost as if a good old whine about the skills shortage ‘crisis’ has become the norm.
Media, creative, digital, content, design, PR, data analytics. You name it.
We’ve heard many agency principals expressing their frustration about this issue yet still doing nothing substantial about it. Starting with their own businesses.
Sangster
ADMA CEO Jodie Sangster recently offered a solution by suggesting: “More companies could invest in training individuals within the business to have those skills or encourage those from other career backgrounds to be up-skilled in the discipline.”
Sounds easy, ah? But why aren’t more companies doing just that?
Is it a bottom-line issue? Is it because training your own staff requires a certain investment of time and resources that companies are reluctant to undertake in the current economic climate? Is it because people in training or up-skilling are harder to charge for? All of the above?
Whatever the reason, I cannot help but feel that somehow as an industry we are responsible for our own skills shortage.
We’ve all heard that old chestnut of the talented graduate who desperately wants an entry level role but no one will give it to him/her as the role requires “at least two years” experience. How can this graduate gain any experience if nobody will give him/her a chance on the first place?
Being involved with training and education for the best part of the past 10 years, I’m used to hear the same old arguments over and over again. “Your courses don’t prepare people for agency life.” “We need them to hit the ground running.” “I don’t have the time to babysit anyone.” Etcetera.
The truth is, no school can teach those skills. Only the workplace can prepare people for the workplace. Undoubtedly, tertiary and industry education play a big role in the formation of communication professionals, but it is only at work that we get the skills we need, not by learning about it.
Shortage skills in our industry are not solved with more academic courses, either. But they could be solved by workplaces growing their own talent.
It’s not simple. It requires dedication, patience, and the scarcest of resources available nowadays: time.
So this year, please, make it the year that you grow your own. If you’re not getting what you want or need from the pool of talent available, then please, start doing it yourself.
But don’t just sit there.
Put your hand up to be a tutor for one of our many industry courses. Volunteer to give a lecture on a subject close to your heart and expertise. Attend that graduation night. Get involved.
But most importantly, open the doors of your agency to young (or older) people looking for a break and teach them, nurture them, support them, give of yourself to them.
It’s not easy. It requires people skills, a passion for education and a desire of giving selflessly.
This year, give it a try. You might be surprised. The person you need could be knocking at your door at this very moment. It might be one of those students you tutored. It can be one of those interns sitting across from you. It can be one of the young hopefuls you met at that graduation night. They are all around us. We just need to give them a chance and help them grow.
Let’s make 2015 the year we grow our own.
David Ponce de Leon is Creative Director at McCann Melbourne and was head of AWARD School Melbourne from 2010-2015 and is the current head of ADMA Creative School Melbourne.
I am the product of an agency internship.At that time it was called the Despatch Dept.
Whilst working across all departments I benefitted from a formalised weekly company run education programme and after which a company financed TAFE course.
I had a long career in the Advertising industry.
This style of education was common in many advertising agencies at the time and.
many Despatch Dept interns went on to become highly successful industry leaders. The system created a local talent pool of qualified experienced professionals.
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Last year an agency let me work there full time for about two & a half months, just after i sent a email searching for experience. It was fantastic, i learned a lot and left with a few pieces for the folio. I’m back to square one now – looking for that entry level position. It’s frustrating, but i want it and i’ll get it. I’m Ready when you are CDs.
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Yes indeed.
Of course, you’ll have to pay them enough so they stick around to be trained.
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You talk about agencies but it’s the same in media. If I hear one more Gen Y journalist say they can’t / won’t / don’t want to write about certain topics I will scream. There is no talent crisis. It’s a crisis of laziness. Newsflash kids: if you can’t/ aren’t willing to do it, or at least give it a go, someone else will & then you won’t have a job.
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Here’s a thought. End the plethora of useless tertiary marcoms courses and give agencies/media companies etc some financial encouragement to bring back the trainee programs that actually worked by weeding out the wannabes from the committed talent.Those trainees had zero expectations other than the opportunity to get experience in every facet of the business and were happy to start at the bottom. It saved a lot of stuffing around and produced some of the best advertising talent this country has ever had.
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“give agencies/media companies etc some financial encouragement to bring back the trainee programs” – this mentality is the problem and misses the point of the article.
Employees are not a cost, they are an investment. Agencies should invest to train up their staff, to deliver better work that commands more money.That a business would need extra incentive to improve its revenue stream is dumb.
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Here’s another though: is it not rather uneducated to suggest the talent crisis is a result of over education?
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Here’s a thought. There is no skills shortage. There are loads of good people available, they are just over-looked. They are usually considered too old, too experienced and often therefore too expensive. This industry thrives on hiring the “sweet spot” young – with a little experience, and lets not forget, CHEAP. So the skill shortage is really about finding people that can help agencies manage their cost pressures and help them repatriate a bigger profit.
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Dare I suggest that the industry look at some kind of cadetship/apprenticeship scheme. Been saying it for years. Why do a degree when you can learn on the job.
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@enddegrees 4:41
We’re happy to invest in young people – we’ve demonstrated that better than most. My point is simply that 99% of what they learn in marcoms courses over 3 years could be learnt in 6 – 12 months working in an agency. Fed Govt can save $quillions by ceasing funding of 99% of marcoms degrees and making a percentage of first/second year trainee’s salary tax deductible with an accredited agency/media company. They can receive extra tuition through industry funded courses such as those conducted by Gawen Rudder etc. Its not hard.
Who would you rather employ? A marcoms graduate or someone who’s spent 3 years as a trainee at Clems/Host/M&C etc etc.?
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Dear Groucho
No-one’s opposed to education. My argument is that most tertiary marcoms courses fail to educate students beyond anything they could learn in 6-12 months in an agency.
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The industry is simply reaping what it has sown.
There is no mentoring in agencies now.
They are running far too lean, and often with relatively junior people in senior positions.
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Depends what skills you need (and think agencies will need in the future)
I’ve never been taught statistical analysis, sales forecast modelling or data management processes as an agency. Evidently these skills are in short supply in agencies so I’m glad I spent 4 years at Uni.
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Thanks for the article David. It certainly got its share of attention. With you all the way.
I know how dedicated you are to what you’ve said here. It kind of relates back to what Adam Ferrier said before year end about the industry and collaboration. It’s about giving a shit. It’s about coaching, about helping out like I know you do. Some have criticised the Uni courses. Why the fuck do we insist on blaming one side or the other? All the bona fide uni courses I know have Industry experts contribute and strive for a course outline that’s as close to the real world as possible.Having been that side I know how I relied on people like yourself to come and tell it like it is and make the course relevant and interesting. It’s also the same one or two industry regulars at graduation nights. As creative directors, its our duty to be coaches, not cunts. As managers we should pencil in a lunch or two every month to share experiences and insights with staff. We should praise good competitive work and take time to discuss it. Instead there’s to much selfishness, maliciousness and small mindedness. I don’t reckon there is ever a talent crisis at a genuinely good agency, because they know that to produce good work they have to produce great talent. Good people care and it shows in the work they are consistently able to get out. Thanks again.
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There will come a time where industry recognised courses will become mandatory. The knowledge and experience gap across roles and companies is astounding these days.
Agree whole heartedly with ‘giving a shit’ and also the generation expectations of Y & Millenials. There is no cure or alternative for laziness.
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The talent already is there but the advertising and marketing industry don’t want to employ people over the age of 40-45. I agree with Mark Ritson on the whole social media myth. I believe many people in the advertising and marketing industry have been caught up to believe it is the answer to everything when it isn’t, like any other form of communication, it has a role (sometimes).
In the world of communication to sell anything you can’t beat a well executed concise message using whatever communication channel it takes to deliver it to the right people to extract money from their pocket.
I’ve worked with clients, teams of creative and production people, media peoplem PR people and you are right Derek – you have to all “give a shit” to make a difference.
I don’t care if you are working in a coffee shop or a major business, if you don’t give a shit about the product you are selling, you will not be successful.
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Joe Talcott and the AANA were talking about this as a “crisis” for the future of advertising two years ago. What’s been done? Sweet F.A. There are loads of experienced industry people ready to deliver training and workplace-ready skills and expertise, like David. When will agency directors pull their heads out of the sand, and from their cash registers, and commit to training.
The Communications Council can start by revoking agencies their so-called accreditation compliance as professional agencies by making training employees and internships mandatory. If not, expose them as non-contributors to the future of advertising, and the futures of good, young, innovative advertising and marketing operatives.
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What smart junior would choose to work in advertising these days? This is no longer the industry of choice that it once was.
The massive marketing departments of our clients have sucked the life out of the business, and the global holding companies have taken all the money.
Why on earth would you choose to start in advertising now?
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