This is the third article in a 5-part series highlighting Vantage’s 2015 hiring trends and 2016 predictions. Over the next few weeks, more articles will be posted. Sign up for our newsletter to receive new article alerts, on the right.
Marketing and HR Executive Hires Focus on Recruitment and Retention
2014 was a banner year for hiring executives in product, engineering, marketing, and sales. Consequently, in 2015 we saw a focus on retaining the sophomore executives that leaders worked so hard to recruit, while bolstering the quality of the workplace and brand. Additionally, companies who were recruiting Marketing & HR executives considered the candidates ability to recruit an important quality.
A New Class of Marketing Executives
Marketing executive placements—up 20% over 2014—experienced a shift in demand for a more diverse approach to hiring talent. Senior level marketing roles (CMP/SVP) were popular in 2015 and required leaders experienced in both business operation and marketing skills.
Marketing executives hired in 2015 had a more nuanced and modern approach to marketing, where their focus on brand, customer acquisition, content and demand generation have all been more closely integrated with sales and revenue generation. In fast-growth companies like Hired and Expect Labs (now MindMeld), the new class of marketing leaders were expected to deliver on a variety of omni-channel customer engagement, growth and revenue-related metrics.
This approach to marketing leadership requires executives to run their team like a business unit—managing profits and losses and the ROI on integrated campaigns. According to Hubbell, many CMOs have senior executives who are acutely focused on the ‘demand center’—managing campaigns, platforms and the lead experience through pre-qualification. Other marketing leadership need the operational and financial chops to ensure business decisions are substantiated. As a result, the ‘upgraded’ marketing executive will now be evaluated on their business approach as well as their creativity.
HR Executive Talent Market Highly Competitive
While Vantage’s human resource executive recruitment placements kept a steady pace with 2014, we saw several changes in the market that will impact the long-term design of companies, starting in 2016. Managing Director Audrey Shuster explains how hiring companies are evaluating candidates primarily on their quality and experience, requiring a very strong culture fit over domain expertise. This change has created an ever competitive recruiting environment rivaled only by what the tech industry saw in 1999.
HR executives are chartered to deliver employee success, which includes owning talent acquisition, retention and contributions. But, nowadays, the top-tier candidates are getting multiple job offers because true experienced executives who have proven themselves in all three areas are difficult to find within any industry.
Vantage Human Resource executives at the VP level in 2015. Many of Vantage’s clients evaluated the candidates ability to recruit new talent, retain existing employees, and incorporate the culture into the company brand, building appeal.