When All Else Fails, Train
I read an article in today's Wall Street Journal that had me wondering why training is often treated as a last resort when companies find themselves in need of people with specialized skills.I'm sure that in many cases the explanation is reluctance to invest in people who may walk out the door once their training is done (a reluctance accompanied by lack of initiative in adopting retention measures that encourage valuable employees to stay). But in other cases, shortsightedness seems to be the problem.
The WSJ article reports on the difficulty ad agencies are having staffing creative and sales positions in the online segment of their business. The staff shortages are so severe that they are constraining client spending on online advertising. Salaries are being bid up to levels that are out of range for many smaller agencies, especially outside of New York City.
What to do? If you read to the last paragraph of the article, the concept of training finally rears its head. Apparently, it is beginning to dawn on ad agency managers that their best bet over the long haul is to expand the talent pool for producing and selling digital marketing services. I am now on the lookout for reports of how these nascent training efforts pan out.
Labels: Employee development, Hiring and getting hired
posted by Karen Nelson @ 10:14 PM
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