Article: INTEGRATING CREATIVE SKILL-SETS

As someone who’s recruited and managed both ‘in-house’ and ‘external’ teams, I find the trend toward businesses bringing strategic and creative services in-house intriguing.

As someone who’s recruited and managed both ‘in-house’ and ‘external’ teams, I find the trend toward businesses bringing strategic and creative services in-house intriguing.

How do organisations unused to creative or tech types, harness and nurture the abilities of these people and unique skill-sets?

Bringing such services in-house is often sparked by shrinking marketing budgets, forcing costs to be cut. Removing an agency margin and employing staffers on smaller retainers, to cover the work, has become a common practice.

In some cases, shifts to more direct marketing (like ‘social’ content) is better suited to in-house teams anyway – their deeper association with the brand and easier access to data can make such in-house teams more effective than their external counterparts. But when there are spikes in work pressure, or specialist skills (and technologies) are needed, external assistance should stay on the radar.

OUR KIWI REALITY

While some New Zealand businesses have the scale to sustain well-balanced, multi-talented teams in-house, there’s a far greater number that don’t. Marketing managers become tasked with hands-on content creation, tag-teamed with in-house designers or techs – all on top of their regular management duties.

Suddenly there are long hours spent trawling through image libraries, writing scripts or creating videos. All in addition to being at management meetings, budgeting, tracking marketing plans and everything else you’d expect a marketing manager to do. This is a formula for staff-churn – rather than cohesive teamwork, creativity or innovation.

While freelancers’ can help fill some of the gaps (and often do), finding competent and reliable ones can be painful. Also, results are often inconsistent with executions lack understanding, so the brand suffers over time.

FINDING THE PERFECT BLEND

With most business managers having little or no experience working in strategic or creative cultures, blending these talents with those of other staffers can be tricky. For example, traditional management is hierarchical and autocratic. Non-creatives are used to following directives from their supervisors or managers. Creatives however, are sustained by being given latitude to explore or suggest alternative approaches. Blending the two cultures, while extracting the best of all skill-sets, is where the managerial rubber hits the road.

While in-house roles offer creatives stability of income and a precise focus for their efforts, which is attractive in an uncertain market – the range of work can be quite limited, stifling their creative abilities and creating disconnection.

So, business managers tackling this problem might consider whether they’re overly controlling… set unrealistically tight deadlines, and whether they reinforce creative values.

On a positive note, managers should get to know staffers as individuals and allow them latitude to work things out on their terms; set them clear priorities, and allowing time for reassessment, refinement or re-invention. Plus continually raising standards (particularly for creatives)… in fact be a champion for creative values, even in the face of objection from the higher-ups; and tutor on how-to ‘sell’ ideas and practice this.

OR, here’s another idea: Consider a more blended approach.

A RICHER BLEND

Carefully consider ‘your’ in-house needs, typically these will prioritise day-in-day-out tasks, and hire accordingly. lf creative and tech types are in that mix, consider the guidelines suggested earlier. But also, think about connecting your internal team with a ‘Skills Network’.

VALUING THE HUMAN DYNAMIC

Ultimately we believe more businesses should allow human dynamics to play a greater role in staff planning. When setting up in-house services, appreciate the challenges that come with hosting a broader range of people-types. Or, reach out to those with specialist skill-sets that naturally manage these dynamics. It can have a profound effect on work efficiencies and on the financial bottom-line.