Six steps to recruitment in a digital marketing agency

We harp on about it an awful lot, but we’re proudly team first. As a result (and we’re probably not the only digital marketing agency with this issue) finding the right team members is often one of the biggest headaches we face. Recruitment in a digital agency can be tough, but we want to share our tips.

Finding team members that fit your workplace culture and meet the demands of the job can be difficult. It’s often a balancing act. One that we’ve thankfully gotten right so far, and hopefully not entirely down to luck…

For a Manchester digital marketing agency like ours, our work includes everything from development through to content marketing, business development and account management. As a result, finding that perfect culture fit, as well as meeting internal and client-side expectations, can be a massive challenge.

Very early on in the agency’s life, we spent time developing our own recruitment methods based around our company values. For me, it was important to have a defined process to help us with both team acquisition and retention. Nothing overly restrictive, just a framework that can work as a bit of a reference. Not just for me, but for the team as well.

So, with a bit of help, we created a way of identifying a good culture fit that involves the wider team in the recruitment process too. Given that the team will be working with the person on a daily basis, I don’t think recruitment should be entirely my decision. 

Why core values matter to our digital marketing agency

We have four core values at Six & Flow – Growth, Holistic Thinking, Accountability and Playfulness. They represent us as individuals and they sit as aspirational company goals. What do we want to be known for? How do we want to work? Who do we want to work with?

We have a target of where we want to be as a digital marketing agency by 2021, both financially and in terms of head count. The core values give us actual direction and accountability. Or a “True North” in wanky management speak.

On top of that, we’ve started to look for something else in potential team members… helpfulness. I was listening to a podcast recently – for the life of me I now can’t find it or tell you who it was… - but they were talking about the one thing (other than gross misconduct) that someone will get fired for, is not being “helpful”. Team members should be helpful to each other, to clients and to suppliers.

So why does that matter? All our new team members will step into an environment where they work closely with our current team and our clients. They’ll be representing us and helping us grow. If someone doesn’t share our core values, then there’s a real danger we’ll grow in a way that doesn’t suit us, or them. I don’t want to police how my team work; I want to let them get on with it.

So, how do we actually recruit…

1. No recruiters (so far)

Firstly, we try not to work with recruitment agencies. I think with certain positions and up to a certain size, it’s an avoidable cost. I also think it’s a difficult ask to get someone to externally vet people based on your internal values.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where there can be value in using a recruiter. As we grow, seniority, time and resources may dictate that we change this standpoint. (Please don’t take that as an opportunity to “get on my radar” though, we already have plenty of recruitment agency connections).

In fact, we've even spent some time thinking about how inbound marketing could work for recruitment - look!

2. Honesty is the best policy

Secondly and possibly most importantly, we’re very forthright in sharing our ethos and what it’s like to work for Six & Flow. This is open to both clients and prospective employees.

Our social media is full of “our personality”. You can see how we work, what we work on and how the team works and plays together. You may have noticed, we all like to eat unhealthy food on a Friday and we celebrate client wins with a round of whisky. It’s not important for people to see where or what we like to eat and drink, but it is good for them to know that we value having fun while still delivering on client work.

3. Using tactics we rely on in our work

The tools available to recruiters are pretty much available to you and me. There’s plenty of options out there, but in all honesty, we’ve never found them overly fruitful.

As a digital marketing agency however, the one tactic we use, day in, day out, is inbound. We approach recruitment in the same we approach a digital marketing campaign – what’s the persona, what appeals to them, what channels are they using? In short, what will naturally attract the ideal lead to engage with us?

We use content, we use social and with a little effort, prospective new team members do come in. Inbound isn’t quick. You need lead in time. It’s great for forecasted recruitment, but can take a little while.

LinkedIn is honestly the best recruitment tool available. You know your industry, you [probably] know  what it is you’re looking for. So do some searching. Send some messages and direct candidates to your job specs and inbound web of magical-ness.

We also use a lot of industry job boards. Again, it’s part of our persona and part of our own inbound process. We’ve used Prolific North and Manchester Digital fairly heavily when dealing with new roles, and both have yielded results.

4. We’re not “benefits led”

We have a lot of benefits, both financial and otherwise. They range from small to big, but we don’t really use them as a recruitment tool. For us, benefits like unlimited holiday allowances, paid gym memberships, quarterly bonuses and weekly lunches are all about retention, not acquisition. They’re there so the team knows that they’re valued, and that we want to invest in them. It’s not meant as a honey pot to bring in new employs.

5. We have multiple interviews with multiple people

I’m not a great interviewer. I like talking to people, but I am very easily distracted. I think I can also be guilty of building my own internal narratives as to why someone might be a good fit. I sometimes forget to ask important questions. Often, I’ll get side tracked into a mutual interest.

Coupled with my own failings as an interviewer, I think it’s important that the team have input and in effect, the final say over who joins us. Every new team member is interviewed by the current team members, in quick-fire one-on-one mini-interviews. It gets everybody onside with a newbie joining the team, and gives the team some ownership over a decision which directly affects them. It also gives the candidate a personal introduction to our digital marketing agency, and a chance to ask questions they probably wouldn’t ask me.

6. We’re playful with the process

One of our core values is playfulness. That’s borne out of wanting to work somewhere fun and believing that by being playful in our approach, we produce better work.

Our recruitment process is playful too. You have to do the boring bits like speak to me on the phone, send us your CV and sit through an initial interview but… there’s a couple of differences.

In all of our job specs, we tell candidates they can send us bribes of cakes or some such goodness when they email in their CV. For the more astute among you, you’ll realise that you can’t email a cake. It’s just a flippant remark, but the candidates who do pick up on it are the kind of people that we want to speak to.

We’ve had countless creative (another core value) responses, from “I can’t figure out how to email a cake, but here’s a picture of an adorable cat,” to “I can’t bake but I know a guy whose dad works for Pret and he always has cakes, I’ll bring them!” Every one of those people have always had an interview. Some have actually brought cake to the interview – so win/win all round.

Our speed-dating style team interview is playful – the current team find it fun, and while often nerve-wracked at the beginning, all the candidates have said they’ve enjoyed it too.

Finally, and I can’t go into too much detail because it will ruin it, but we ask candidates a question. To answer they have to create something. It is playful, it’s unexpected and it gives us a glimpse into how they think and how they respond.

So, that’s it. There’s lots of moving parts to how we bring new people into our digital marketing agency. If I had to pick out one thing that’s the most important though, it’s knowing what your values are and hanging them on your sleeve for everyone to see.