With the unemployment rate well up in NZ it seems odd that it’s been so hard to find good people, but it is; particularly in the technology / media space. We’ve just tweeted an article via VentureBeat in the states that talks about the scarcity of technical talent around silicon valley and other new media hotspots in the US. At the risk of being a little off topic from our usual fare of advertising whimsey I thought I’d relate our recent experiences in the recruitment market. We’ve just hired four young-guns into the business and the entire process from woe to go has taken around 6-months. We don’t have a single regret with the hires we made, but man it’s been tough finding the right fits.
I’d like to say we did it all off our own backs and that we didn’t poach from other players in the market and largely that’s the case with the exception of one hire (thanks JobMedia) and another (sorry Carat). In the scheme of things did we do well? F@!^n A! considering what often happens within agencies and media owners, but it took a lot of time and effort. So is “job sharing” between media companies legitimate due to the lack of talent, or do we as an industry need to work a little harder to develop new talent? The prevalent model seems to be either: A. hire good planner / seller from company x at a higher salary / promise of a better work environment or some other dubious bribe or B. hire a grad, pay em peanuts and see if they last long enough for a pay-rise.
I think some businesses in the digital space are certainly better at developing new talent than others – The Internet Bureau in its heyday hired accountants, chefs and non-media sales people and did a damn fine job training them (most if not all are still in digital media today) and I know John’s taking that philosophy into Catch Media and I’m sure there are other great examples out there. At the IAB we spent a lot of time and energy creating courses for newbies into digital media to get them up to speed faster, but what of the rest of the industry – how do you think we stack up?
