the importance of upskilling and age diversity when hiring digital marketers in a skills short market.

According to The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), unlike many other sectors - which saw digital skills accelerated by the pandemic - the majority of digital marketing skills stagnated or declined during the pandemic. This decline occurred across almost all sectors, and at all job levels, with independently assessed skills in analytics and data falling the most (-6%), followed by content marketing (-4%) and social media (-2%).

With digital skills in high demand and ‘open to work’ status individuals harder to persuade, it’s vital that employers use reliable data and insights to inform their attraction and retention strategies for digital marketers.

Is age really just a number?

For the first time in three years, the research carried out by the CIM on the decline in skills for digital marketers showed a closer alignment between seniority and the level of digital marketing skills.In the majority of cases, the more senior the marketer, the higher their digital marketing skills ranked. 

However, according to CIM’s research, 71% of respondents believed that younger people were ahead of their older peers in terms of digital marketing skills. This is as prevalent today amongst those aged under 30 as it is amongst those over 50.” - CIM: Marketers’ digital skills stagnate and decline during the pandemic. There is evidently a disconnect between perceived skills and years’ experience in the digital marketing talent market.

When looking at the responses to Randstad’s Workmonitor survey split by age on desire for developing technical skills needed for a role, the strongest response came from those aged between 45 and 54, with 46% hoping to upskill,  reinforcing the notion that senior workers are just as keen to stay abreast of digital and technical skills as their younger counterparts.

While diversity of the workforce has many obvious proven benefits, older workers, with the same skill set tend to stay in a job longer than younger colleagues, meaning both reduced turnover and reduced recruitment costs. According to Ageing Better, turnover is 4% lower at companies with a 10% higher share of workers over 50 than average.

Randstad’s own research has identified that workers aged 42 and over are 20% more likely to want to improve their teamwork skills over team leadership, compared to workers under 30. If keen to learn and loyal team players sound good to you, ensure your hiring processes are free from age discrimination. 

• Randstad has access to in depth data and analysis on what is important to different generations at work.  Contact one of our sales and marketing recruitment specialists if you would like additional guidance. 

The upskilling expectations gap - are employers providing enough opportunity for ambitious digital marketers to upskill?

While it is clear marketers have upskilled themselves on the core marketing skills such as brand, strategy and communications, the research carried out by the CIM mentioned above found that many digital marketing skills have stagnated or declined during the pandemic at all levels of seniority. 

However, it appears that employees should not be held wholly responsible for declining digital skills. Randstad’s 2023 Workmonitor report examines the link between employer offerings and employee expectations, reporting on data from a survey of 35,000 workers, in 34 countries, including the UK. 

According to Workmonitor, 43% of individuals in the UK stated they would be interested in improving their technical skills, if their employer’s learning and development team offered it. In addition to this, 36% told us that ‘digital training’ would be a learning and development opportunity they would take their employer up on. Reinforcing the appetite for skill development, a Censuswide survey of over 4,000 of the nation’s workforce indicated that 70% of the nation’s employees want to upskill in 2022.

So what’s the answer to creating a winning partnership between employer and digital marketer? One possibility is taking existing members of the organisation and training them up and offering upskilling opportunities, whether that be technical skills or digital training. This prevents the need to search for specialists, and has the added bonus of providing employees with an incentive to stay for the benefit of their development. 

Flexibility, culture and work-life balance are important considerations for digital marketing job seekers.

Organisations looking to attract skilled digital marketing professionals need to know what talent are looking for from a prospective employer.

The rapidly rising cost of living is having a significant impact on the expectations of the workforce. Many are turning to their employers for financial assistance during a time when inflation is shrinking paychecks faster than salary adjustments can kick in. This has led to demand for bigger raises more often, monthly stipends and even help for paying higher energy bills at home. 

It’s not just financial support that is on the criteria list, flexibility in terms of both location and hours is of high importance too - 26% told us that they quit a job because of the lack of flexibility, and 44% said they wouldn’t even accept a job that didn’t provide flexibility around where they work, or the hours they work. 

For those that are choosing to leave their current employer, the data shows that better working conditions, including leaving a toxic workplace (33%) or lacking development opportunities (27%) continue to be the primary drivers of their decision-making.

Nearly half (46%) said they would resign if their job prevented them from enjoying their life, with over a quarter (27%) having done so because a job didn’t fit in their personal life. 

Employee engagement is also impacted as dissatisfaction with work has led to 31% having “quiet quit,” a recent phenomenon in which workers perform only the bare minimum in their jobs.

Next steps

While it’s important to have specialist expertise within the marketing team, it’s also important to  ensure people are developing skills that will help them progress in their individual careers - more than half of the UK workforce (54%) told us that they are interested in developing in their current role. Keep an open mind when recruiting and consider whether an applicant with the right attitude could be a perfect fit with additional training and support. 

Tapping into an older, more experienced, workforce comes with a number of benefits including; dedicated, reduced turnover, willingness to learn, patience, discipline and increased productivity. The perception that a digital marketing expert with their finger on the pulse of the latest industry changes and technology does not ring true.

Working with a professional HR solutions company can help you speed up the hiring process and attract top digital marketing talent simultaneously. Our specialist marketing recruitment consultants will take the time to understand your department's aims and objectives, ensuring we can place candidates that will be happy and fulfilled in the role. For example, when you work with Randstad, you have immediate access to our massive talent pool of qualified candidates in line with the criteria you provide us. These candidates are pre-screened and fully vetted.

• To find out more about seeking out the nation’s best digital marketers, get in touch with Zuzana on the contact details below or request a call back.