Tips to Compete with Digital Behemoths in Recruiting Top Talent 3.17.08
Great Talent Is Everyone's Game to Win
Google, Yahoo and Other Digital Behemoths Can Suck Star Hires Right Out From Under You -- Unless You Fight Back. Here's How
By Dale Buss
Published: March 17, 2008
Google is a black hole to talent, a Silicon Valley singularity that seems to eventually draw every mote of digital-marketing ability and aptitude into its voracious maw. Microsoft and a few other digital behemoths do the same thing. "They're 800-pound gorillas that can outspend you and out-recruit you and be all over the place, whereas you only have a finite amount of resources," says Aaron Batte, partner in Faction Media, a Denver-based digital agency.
But whether you're client or agency, big or small, there are actually ways you can compete with these giant suction machines and keep your digitally deft candidates and employees from being pulled away.
1. TELL YOUR OWN STORY. Many small digital-marketing firms are growing faster than the industry giants -- and have a bigger upside. "It will be a lot easier for us to double than for Google or Yahoo," says Patrick McKenna, CEO of DMi Partners, an interactive shop in Philadelphia. That usually spells opportunity for staffers at outfits such as ePrize, an advergaming agency in Pleasant Ridge, Mich. that grew 40% last year. "It's difficult to have an impact at Microsoft as employee No. 111,000," says CEO Josh Linkner. "We're the category killer in the industry, but we're small enough for people to feel they can make a difference."
Perceiving such opportunities can be the crucial employer determinant for many digitally capable young marketers.
2. EMPHASIZE YOUR STREGNTHS. For agencies, that may mean touting the broad exposure to clients and applications that digital mavens can enjoy. "I'm basically doing banner ads for four of the biggest music companies in the country," says Laura O'Connell, a 24-year-old business analyst for Gupta Media, a tiny outfit in Cambridge, Mass. "Every day there's a new project coming up."
Mike Devereux, executive director-digital marketing for General Motors, promotes "the attractiveness of being a digital marketer" at a large brand. "It's very different than being a subject-matter expert in search. What we're selling is sexy, because you literally get to change the way marketing works."
3. EXPLORE THE MARGINS. Excuse yourself from the talent wars and duck into less-crowded conduits. "Instead of just trying to steal from other agencies, we go to universities a lot and look for data and analytics experts, especially professors and people getting Ph.D.s," says Mark Miller, president of RMG Connect, an online-customer-acquisition outfit headquartered in New York with about 300 employees scattered across the United States and even more overseas.
And nothing intrigues talented and capable people, digital or otherwise, like the recommendation of a friend or peer. For example, Cambridge, Mass.-based Sapient relies on employee referrals for 39% of its hires.
4. STOKE THE HOME FIRES. America's silicon enclaves aren't the only places digital talent resides. Resource Interactive, a 250-person agency in Columbus, Ohio, skims graduates from Ohio State University and other major schools nearby, and now is taking advantage of a slowing economy. "A company like ours that's in a growth mode is a shining star in a less-growing area," says CEO Nancy Kramer.
Many digital talents simply love home cooking. "My family is here, and my husband has a great career in Michigan, too," says Susan Walton, the 43-year-old digital manager of GM's Saturn brand. "The fact that my kids are in a city with their grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins is really important to me."
5. DON’T BECOME THE GREATER FOOL. Avoid the temptation of settling for the first person who knows what "SEO" stands for. For such reasons, many in the digital job market already have inflated salaries and titles. "There just aren't a lot of senior-level talents who can actually drive client relationships and projects," says Amanda Schonfeld, recruiting manager for Sapient.
Spark Communications performs vigorous vetting to make sure it's getting people who are entrepreneurial as well as digitally capable. They must demonstrate a "cross-functional understanding" and the ability to be "comfortable in an adaptive environment," says Ken Zasky, president of the Chicago-based unit of Starcom MediaVest Group.
6. TEACH THEM YOURSELF. DMi Partners, for instance, searches for employees who have the propensity to learn and then runs them through a proprietary skill-development curriculum. "That way, you're building their knowledge base in a way that's aligned with your company vs. assimilating their existing knowledge base," Mr. McKenna says. "It's expensive and time-consuming, but it's more lucrative in the long run."
Prasida Newman spurred Avenue A/Razorfish to make a two-year commitment to a leadership-development program at LinkShare. She rotates every six months or so through a new department of the New York-based affiliate-marketing firm. "They're investing in me," says the 30-year-old Ms. Newman says, "so I'm investing in them."
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