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Top Marketing Recruitment Trends for 2020

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Top Marketing Recruitment Trends for 2020

Top Marketing Recruitment Trends for 2020

Well, what a year it has been!

VMA GROUP’s marketing recruitment team have looked back at 2019 and here’s what we think will be the top trends in marketing recruitment for 2020:

Video interviewing is on the rise

Video interviewing is becoming widespread in marketing recruitment. It has its advantages; it’s time and cost saving and grants the ability to screen a multitude of candidates at once. On the flip side, it can be a very challenging experience for the candidate and has the effect of making you feel like a number.  You will be shown a question, have thirty seconds to think of an answer and then have two minutes to record your answer, normally only get one chance to do so. If you fumble in your two-minute slot, the interview could all be over. It’s pretty unforgiving and depersonalises the interview process, giving no real insight into a person’s career story, aims and personality, but its effectiveness in accessing a larger talent pool may mean that we’ll see more of it in the coming year.

This technique is already widespread across graduate level roles, where applications for graduate schemes come into the thousands. The interview process can already feel nerve-wracking to some and having to answer a question within a limited time frame only adds to the pressure. It’s also difficult to see how effective video interviewing is within marketing recruitment; here at VMA GROUP, we prefer meeting candidates face to face for interviews to understand them as people, not just as a CV. Ultimately, that is what our clients want from us, to be able to tell our candidates journeys and why we feel they are the right person for their organisation and role.  

Content keeps its crown

Forget ‘Cash is King’ - in marketing recruitment and in many roles across marketing and communications - Content is King. With organisations competing for short-spanned consumer attention, the creation of content proves vital in grabbing those valuable seconds with potential customers. The marketing recruitment team at VMA GROUP has already seen a shift towards more content and social media roles being created and we only expect to see a rise in these types of roles in 2020. Organisations understand the power that online content can produce and we have seen a growth in more strategic level roles being created, such as Head of Content. We’ve also seen a greater emphasis on more back-end focused content roles, where digital marketers are needed to make sure the content is being optimised and that ROI is seen. With this, there’s no doubt we’ll see more content focused roles being created going into 2020.

Artificial Intelligence vs the Human Touch

Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more prevalent in our everyday lives, with the Economist stating that 47% of all jobs will be automated by 2034. The nature of recruitment, particularly communications and marketing recruitment is fundamentally human, so we don’t think AI will replace human recruiters, but we do think it could become a key component in an organisation’s recruitment process. Using automated processes can help organise CVs, eliminate unconscious human biases and can even be used to sort candidates into clear cut categories, such as part time or remote workers. As a result, we expect to see organisations use such technology to aid them in their recruitment processes in order to cut costs. However, much like video interviewing, the use of AI can create a barrier between the candidate and the organisation they’re applying for. There is only so much AI can tell us about a candidate and limiting human contact in the recruitment process in this way could actually lead to bad organisational fit; just because a candidate’s credentials match perfectly to the job description doesn’t mean they are the best person for the job as there are so many other factors. We find that in marketing recruitment, personality and culture fit are vital for marketers; after all, how can a marketer represent a brand if they don’t align with an organisation’s culture or values!

IR35 won’t deter marketing contractors 

If you’re a marketing contractor, IR35 most likely feels like a swear word by now! With the legislation coming into play within the private sector in April 2020, the countdown is on for organisations to decide how they want contractors to operate. According to a survey by Brookson Legal, more than half of UK firms are considering a blanket approach to IR35, with organisations such as Lloyds Bank, Barclays and GSK already making the decision to not hire limited company contractors and instead to have interim staff on their PAYE.  In our interim Bridging the Gap survey, we found that 76% of respondents disagreed with the government proposal to roll out IR35 to the private sector. However, despite the uncertainty our interim marketing recruitment team are confident that marketing interim roles will still exist and there will be marketing contractors to fill those roles; something we found in our Bridging the Gap survey, where 56% of respondents said they would carry on contracting.

Influencer marketing: where marketing and PR meet

Influencer marketing has risen through the ranks in the last few years, with Google searches for “influencer marketing” increasing by over 1500% over the past 3 years. With 45 million social media users in the UK (that’s 67% of the population), brands are increasingly aware of the power that influencers hold over consumers. People become invested in social media influencers’ lives, from where influencers buy clothes down to what they eat.  96% of these 45 million users have actively used social media in the past month, with the average user spending 1 hour and 50 minutes on social media a day. Our marketing recruitment team expect that we’ll see more influencer marketing roles being created to gain access to this market, where marketers will need to have good knowledge of influencers in their industry with great network links. This type of marketing is seen amongst B2C organisations, with brand partnerships and affiliate links being a key driver. These types of roles will need marketers to be hyper-aware of social media trends and have their finger on the pulse of who the up and coming influencers are to partner and cultivate great relationships with before competitors come in and gain access to a potential following. 

Specialist vs generalist: the desire for a broader skillset

VMA GROUP’s marketing recruitment team has seen a shift in the type of roles being created and required by our clients. Senior marketers that we’ve spoken to this year require much more from their candidates, and our marketing recruitment team have seen it reflected in the roles that they’ve been working on too. Organisations are after much broader skilled marketers and are wanting to invest in highly skilled marketers who have graphic design, copywriting, email marketing, SEO skills and more, as opposed to creating large in-house marketing teams filled with individually skilled experts.

There is no doubt that we’ll see some unexpected marketing recruitment trends come into play in 2020, especially with Brexit and IR35 to come! If you’re looking to expand your team in 2020, or you are looking for your next marketing role, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Contact  lcairncross@vmagroup.com

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VMA GROUP is a leading international interim and permanent communications, digital and marketing recruitment, and executive search specialist. Specialist practices cover internal and change communications, external communications, public affairs, marketing, digital, and agency services.

We have a reputation for providing leading consultancy services and advice supported by in-depth knowledge of the professions we recruit for. Our thought leadership and benchmarking studies have become go-to resources for the communications and marketing industry supporting planning and decision-making.

VMA GROUP has offices in London, Manchester, Amsterdam, and Brussels, but we work with organisations and individuals on a global basis.

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