Agencies

Agencies are struggling in the talent department

Keeping (and luring) employees hasn’t been easy as of late.
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Parks and Recreation/NBC via Giphy

· less than 3 min read

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The so-called talent wars have reared their ugly heads again at agencies.

None other than the Financial Times covered the issue earlier this month, noting that recruiters have said that agencies “lack the creative talent they need to brainstorm and execute ideas, the account managers to keep clients happy and the tech workers to track results and run digital campaigns.”

  • Last month, Digiday reported that there are “whispers of up to between 30 and 40 percent churn in personnel” at agencies.
  • It pointed to a number of reasons why, including agency staffers’ leaving for tech companies.

Moving on: Some workers could be choosing to leave agencies in search of better hours and pay, as perks can only go so far. According to Adweek, an unnamed agency that focuses on Gen Z offers things like GrubHub gift cards to its employees “to justify $40,000 salaries, excessively long workdays, and weekend tasks.”

Bad news made worse: The Financial Times said that while the “worst of the staffing shortages have eased in several markets in recent weeks,” some agencies are now grappling with economic concerns that have resulted in layoffs.

  • And when it comes to layoffs, the industry is…not great. JobSage, an employer review site, recently interviewed 1,000 Americans across different sectors who’ve been laid off. The “advertising and media” sector ranked the worst, with 83% of respondents saying that “their employer could have done a better job handling layoffs.”

+1: Last month, employment in advertising and related services slightly declined compared to the month prior, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures that were not seasonally adjusted.—MS

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