Reminder: The Talent Gap Still Exists

By Andrew Eitelbach

miriam-doerr/Getty Images

The pandemic has changed everything — except the need to bridge the talent gap.

In sickness and health, in good economies and bad, the need for talent will always be with us. But not all companies have the budget to make major investments in attracting top talent or training the employees they already have. For those companies, addressing that need requires thinking outside the box.

"Smaller nonprofits have to creatively incentivize new talent," Amanda Moore, senior manager of integrated marketing and partnerships at the nonprofit Loggerhead Marinelife Center, tells ANA magazine. For her center, that means relying on online training resources and workshops such as Toastmasters. The center, which helps sick and injured turtles, also allows MarComm professionals the chance to dedicate 20 percent of their time to a project of their choosing that will help the center.

For many organizations looking to nurture and grow the skills of new hires or those early in their careers, it’s as much about training as it is tapping into young employees’ desires to work for mission-minded companies, the story notes.

Read the full article, “The Keys to Attracting Young Marketing Talent” in ANA magazine.

More June content in ANA magazine to help you and your team:

• Organizing for Success. Brands that invest in their people are better positioned to succeed following an economic downtown, a Gartner Research report finds, but just 2 percent of marketing budgets are devoted to training and development. A companion piece to the article noted above, this story looks at how companies like Aetna and IBM use agile marketing and reverse mentoring to structure teams best suited to operate in rapidly changing circumstances. “Evolving a team's capabilities requires leadership and investment,” the story says. “And the more opportunities companies create for people to grow, the better.”
• Brands Are Rallying to Fight the Coronavirus "We hope we will inspire others," Maria Brous, director of communications at Publix, tells ANA magazine when talking about the supermarket chain’s efforts to connect farmers with food banks after seeing news reports about crops going to waste as a result of COVID-19 quarantine measures. The brand is certainly not alone. From Budweiser to Hyundai to Crocs, brands are stepping up to do what they can to support front-line workers and limit the spread of the virus.
• The Trade Show Must Go On. When the coronavirus outbreak first hit, it brought live events to a screeching halt. Many organizers braced for grizzly results as they rushed to convert in-person conferences and trade shows into virtual events. "The idea of traveling and getting into crowded arenas really won't be a possibility for at least the next 12 to 24 months," Gerard Gibbons, president of SMB and U.S. Marketing at UPS, tells ANA magazine. And while pretty much everyone is in the same boat, some are finding the seas to be calmer than expected: The virtual version of one event that typically has 10,000 attendees received 80,000 views, the story notes. Adding a digital component, one source says, can help future-proof your B2B event.
• No More Digital Dilly-Dallying. While live events are going to require digital components for the foreseeable future, the pandemic is forcing business marketers to accelerate their digital transformations. "We immediately had to adapt to a digital-first approach," David Silke, CMO at Mitel, tells ANA magazine. "In cases where physical engagement was required, that possibility was removed, literally, in a matter of weeks." As the pandemic continues to worsen and teams make do working from home, B2B marketers will need to implement digital solutions that keep those teams productive and selling.

Also, be sure to catch up on the latest industry trends contributed by ANA partners in ANA magazine. June’s contributions include:

• Five stages for brands eager to develop stronger, more personalized ads, from Flashtalking
• The changing face of beauty during COVID-19, from CivicScience
• How radio provides consumers with a reassuring presence in challenging times, from the RAB
• Three ways for marketers to extract more value from video content, from Extreme Reach
• Four steps to building an identity-based marketing strategy, from Acxiom and Kinesso
• Why EQ, AI, and creativity are the most crucial factors in the new era of marketing, from Adobe Experience Cloud

See highlights from May or find even more coverage of the industry in ANA magazine.

Let us know your thoughts. Leave comments on articles or write me directly at aeitelbach@ana.net.