Ad agency focuses on internal recruitment

Back in December at an off-site meeting, leadership from Publicis Media in Toronto discussed the challenges of finding talented employees during a time of “explosive growth.” While recruiters were doing a great job bringing people onboard — averaging about 20 per month — people were also leaving the firm, creating more open roles, says Alastair Taylor, CEO.

“Frankly, we were making gains, but we were losing staff relatively quickly as well… We just weren't getting many people applying internally for different types of roles.”

In the marketing and advertising business, the skillsets required have shifted dramatically in recent years, and the various teams, such as programmatic and analytics, have grown exponentially, he says.

“Those teams were probably as little as 10 people three years ago; they're now 120 of our head count.”

While there are a lot of people in the traditional agency space who may be interested in the other departments, they may have concerns about taking a step back because they have a mortgage to pay or other responsibilities, says Taylor.

So, instead of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, the firm decided to try a new approach, he says.

“I basically stood there and committed to the agency that people wouldn't have to go backwards and that we would retrain people. It was really very well received.”

That meant holding a job fair for both internal and external candidates. “Lion Fair” — named after the advertising firm’s lion’s head logo — to give existing employees “a flavour of possibilities for growth.” For the event, Publicis invited employees and external candidates to learn about existing and new opportunities within the group of companies, with human resources in attendance to support incoming interests for the firm’s departments, companies or positions.

Focusing on retention
It's painful to see great talent leave, so part of the idea behind Lion Fair was letting people know what was available internally, says Taylor.

“[The idea was] you shouldn't be able to leave Publicis Media for a better opportunity because there's opportunity [here], everywhere, at every single level.”

Ideally, employers want to promote from within because those people know your culture, says Sandra Lavoy, regional vice president at Robert Half Canada in Ottawa.

“One of your challenges is, when you hire externally, it doesn't always mean that that hire will stick because of the culture. That is a big issue.”

When an employer does hire externally, it can affect morale, she says.

“[Employees may say] ‘Well, I didn't get the job’ or ‘They don't hire within or promote within, I'm not going to stay.’ And that's a retention issue.”

Part of the challenge is people don’t know exactly what co-workers do in other roles, says Taylor.

“They have a perception of what it's like versus actually knowing the reality.”

Publicis’ retention rate or attrition rate is in line with that of the marketplace, but it’s pretty shocking when compared to any other industry, he says.

“So, that was also part of the goal — to try and slow that down.”

Encouraging results
At the event, leaders from each of the departments were available to speak to interested candidates, and there were about 600 people in attendance. In the end, Publicis got more than 150 unique resumés from external candidates, and it has about 25 candidates going through interviews now, says Taylor.

“Our retention rate is improved post the Lion Fair. It was good because it gave all the staff a reason to re-evaluate as well,” he says. “The best measure for me is that we have over half-a-dozen people who are being retrained as well because the money saved just on those six, seven, eight individuals in recruitment is invaluable.

“That openness and that ability to make the moves happen has been really great for the whole company culture, because people started to realize that ‘All right, OK, so if I am interested [in another role], it is OK to have that conversation.’”

Many leaders don’t know enough about their team members, says Lavoy.

“Does your boss know everything about you and your skillset? Probably not. And, often, managers are too busy to take 10 minutes to have a coffee with an employee and get to know their skillset and what they'd like to do long term.”

But it’s important to set expectations, to build a plan on how an employee is going to reach that next role, she says.

“The number one thing is communication with your manager to your high-performance employee. And then coaching and developing that.”

As for next steps, Taylor says, the firm is focusing on other retention efforts such as improved benefits and recruiting from overseas. But another job fair also sounds promising.

“Honestly, I would find it hard not to do it again. It's been so good for our culture, but also it's been a fantastic marketing tool,” he says.

MANY CANADIANS LOOKING FOR NEW JOBS

28%
Percentage of recruiters who say internal candidates are an important way to fill job vacancies

2 in 5 
Number of workers who have quit a job because of a bad boss

36%  
Number of employees looking for a new job (in 2018)

7 in 10 
Number of ad and marketing managers who say retention is harder now than it was a year ago

Sources: LinkedIn, Robert Half