Nearly Two-Thirds Of Marketing, Digital And Creative Teams Leverage External Flexible Workforces To Meet Marketing Objectives

BOSTON, Oct. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Aquent and its new division, Vitamin T, the leading global staffing organization dedicated to marketing, creative, and digital professionals, today announced the results of its flexible workforce study, "Manage Proactively," which showed that nearly two-thirds of marketing, digital, and creative teams leverage some form of an external workforce to help meet marketing objectives. As a result, there is a growing need for management to take a proactive approach to its hiring strategy for contractors in Fortune 1000 organizations. To help managers in these departments, Aquent provides some advice in the study's whitepaper about how to assist them in shifting towards a proactive approach to meeting their organizations' workforce requirements.

The flexible workforce study was conducted via an online survey that included 580 responses from marketing, creative, and digital professionals in a variety of industries across the U.S. From the results, Aquent found that as marketing channels continue to proliferate, organizations are relying more on flexible workforce strategies to close the gap between their teams' capacity and the need to cover the growing requirements of marketing channels. Also, that finding a way to harness a flexible workforce in order to meet the demands of navigating traditional and emerging channels, is critical for hiring managers in today's economy.

The survey results showed that:

• Nearly 6 out of 10 managers are reactive in their approach to staffing needs
• Nearly two-thirds of marketing, digital and creative teams leverage some form of an external workforce to help meet marketing objectives
• More than 70% of hiring managers look to external resources when addressing challenges with staff capacity or specific technical skills

The study found that one of the more technical jobs hiring managers are now in need of is mobile app development, as 40% of those surveyed indicated this position is in extremely high demand. The research also highlighted that being proactive is beneficial to hiring managers, considering that nearly half (47%) of those who were proactive in addressing their staffing needs said their last hire was an excellent skills match.

To help more hiring managers facilitate change in their approach to staffing and recruiting, Aquent recommends the following steps for becoming more proactive, which include:

• Anticipate how your annual plan can (and will) change
• Continually evaluate your current team's performance and skills
• Always recruit, even if you don't have an open position

"Our research shows that hiring managers need to strategically determine how best to proactively balance workloads and bring technical expertise to their teams," said Ann Webster, president of Aquent. "To accomplish those goals, the flexible workforce is being looked to more and more as a vital external resource. At Aquent, we continue to connect our clients with the in-demand talent they need to help move their teams forward to remain competitive."

The study results will be discussed in detail during an AMA Webcast on October 18, 2012 at 1 PM ET. 

To learn more about the study results, please download the whitepaper: http://aquent.com/lp/proactive-hiring-marketing-digital-and-creative-contractors

About Aquent

Aquent is the only global staffing company dedicated to creative, marketing, and digital roles exclusively for Fortune 1000 companies. The world's most renowned global brands come to Aquent for high-caliber freelance talent. Its new division, Vitamin T, provides small, mid-sized and ad agency clients with faster, easier access to in-demand interactive talent. Aquent and Vitamin T have built an impressive global network of marketing and creative services professionals, including print and interactive designers, UX designers and developers, copywriters, brand managers, market researchers, and more.

Contact Information:
Kelly Kane
SHIFT Communications
[email protected]  
(617) 779-1866

SOURCE Aquent