Situation
Digital and Communication Strategists have a broad, unique skillset that is difficult to develop and even harder to find. I was a leader at a company that relied on strategists, but had no systematic way to recruit and hire top strategy talent.
Key Challenges:
- Accessing candidates accurately to ensure the most appropriate fit. Often, successful strategists have wildly diverse backgrounds. Since a specific background is not an independent predictor of success, the skills match process was challenging.
- Developing and growing strategists in-house. Strategists learn on-the-job through trial and error and there was no formal training in place to do this.
- Keeping strategists engaged, motivated, and highly satisfied with their jobs. Strategists were sometime given projects that did not challenge them and were not able to fully apply their creative and critical thinking abilities.
- Providing clear roles and responsibilities for Strategists and others. Role ambiguity created several challenges:
- Strategists didn’t know what was expected of them.
- Others within the organization had varied expectations for what Strategists were responsible for.
Actions
- Designed and deployed an organizational development system that established clear talent management practices for the Strategy team.
- Reimagined department structure, adding new roles and clearly defining responsibilities.
Results
- Streamlined recruiting and hiring process (Strategy team increased by 266% within 3 years)
- Increased consistency in hiring practices
- Increased employee engagement; visible growth in employees. They have:
- Taken leadership in areas they are passionate about
- Built confidence and competence in development areas