Rules Of Recruiting A Rockstar Marketing Executive!

Whenever we hear a brand’s name and generate some positive feelings towards the same brand then somewhere the brand manager is doing his or her job accurately. A brand manager is concerned with creating a long-lasting impression or perception in the customer’s mind. A brand or marketing manager studies and tries to the trends of the market to grasp the needs and requirements of the customers in the correct market scenario and ensures that the right message is sent out about their products and services in the market to the current as well as potential customers.

When we are bringing onboard new hires for the role of a Branding or a Marketing Manager then we need to evaluate the skills of the individual to ensure that the team is at its productive best. Some of these skills will be discussed here, such as-

1. Staying ahead of the pack-   One of the must-haves for a branding or marketing manager is the ability to presume the future market tendencies and a good intuition about the upcoming market trends.
2. Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)-  Technical skills might get you the job, but soft skills such as good communication skills will make you or break you as a manager.
3. Analytical skills- A branding manager needs to make prompt decisions by analyzing the available information by using logical thinking to make the best of a situation at hand.
4. Emotional Intelligence- It is one of the factors which distinguishes between great leaders and the people who have elevated in the organization based on the hierarchy.
5. Social intelligence quotient-  With the rise of digitalisation, the levels of human interaction has come down in great scales. In such a scenario, effective social skills will increase empathy towards the employees, the response time as well as quality among the managers.
6. Story-telling skills-  A marketing manager is the person who works with the imagination and expectations of the existing as well as the potential customers. The individual should be capable of harnessing the fantasy and the vision of the customers.
7. Flexibility- Employees who are flexible in their work timings and also can easily handle multi-tasks given at hand, don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk. That kind of energy is required in a spirited workplace.
8. Positivity-  You don’t need to have a positive attitude to bag the managerial post but you definitely need to have a positive attitude to become a successful leader.

Once you are done assessing and highlighting your needs in a branding/ marketing manager, you can start the recruitment in a more simplified and focused manner. You do not need to go through each and every resumes sent your way, eventually, you can pick up candidates only appropriate for you. Following this, we will discuss the various tips and techniques that can be used for sourcing the perfect candidate for your organization.

• Define the position- A job description will spell out the duties and responsibilities of the job. Once a job description is prepared, it can serve as the groundwork for examining or interviewing candidates, orienting a new employee and finally in the evaluation of job performance. For the applicant, having a clear and crisp job description allows them to understand the responsibilities and duties that are required and expected of them.
• Look for key technical traits-  With the rise of the digital age, the spectre of marketing has changed a lot in various ways. Hence the marketers should be aware that technical abilities are even though not a message however it is a powerful medium to broadcast your message.
• Usage of catchphrases and keywords-  There is a cornucopia of platforms, websites as well as publications which a recruiter can use for the recruitment procedures. However, the way these methods and platforms are used changes the resultant outcome altogether. The field in which you type the job title should always comprise the keywords and catchphrases that candidates will use to search for available jobs.

• Look for Experience- A marketing manager is a person who deals with customers on a first-hand basis and gains more knowledge and experience with each and every customer he handles as all humans vary from each other. An applicant who has previous experience in handling customers need not require the extensive training and instructions as compared to a fresher, which will save the organization’s time and cost.

• Integrate HR Strategies- Experts are predicting that HR technology consolidation and cross-platform expansion will continue this year and also in the years following, but at a slow, incremental pace, as talent acquisition technology shifts into new areas and prospects all the other segments need to be integrated as well to bring out a more substantial growth and productivity level.

Sourcing techniques-

• Job Advertisements- One of the most frequently used recruitment techniques for businesses is job advertisements placed in local and national print as well as online publications. By clearly cataloguing points like the job description and your ideal candidate’s qualifications and experience and requirements you can also stop applicants that are unsuitable from applying. Using keywords and catchphrases in your ad is fundamental for search engine optimization (SEO), and to ensure the highest possible ranking in Google.

• Internship or Apprenticeship-  An intern is like a prospective employee that you can “test drive” within your organization. Interns are good for more than just coffee runs and mundane works. They can offer a fresh new perspective, not to mention an extra pair of hands, on marketing projects that are increasingly catering to a much younger demographic’s talents. At the same time, interns are an inexpensive resource. Their salaries are significantly lower than staff employees, and you aren’t obligated to pay a severance package in situations where you do not hire them on full time.

• Social Media Advertisements- With the accession of the Internet, marketing had reached a global level, it was easier to connect to people across countries and continents without facing any geographical barriers. Then Facebook came into the picture and became the game changer in the usage of internet as a socializing tool. Even though there is a lot of cynicism among various recruiters about Facebook, however, if used correctly then Facebook advertising can be extremely helpful. Some things that you need to keep in mind are-

1. Methods of using Facebook Insight.
2. The correct utilization of the “Power Editor” tool
3. The spunky planning of “Custom Audiences”, etc.

• Online Portals-  With the emergence of the millennia, job applicants as well as, recruiters are more inclined towards the various portals and platforms that are available online to reach out to each other. In this generation, various online portals such as monster.com, indeed India, etc help in skimming out the prospective candidates as per the requirements of the enterprise.

• Talent Rediscovery-  The number of hires is increasing, which means recruiters are going to be receiving more applications for more roles across the board. For high-volume functions, recruiters receive more than 500 applications on an average. Once these applications enter an ATS, however, the majority of them are never looked at again. The ability to quickly, easily and accurately assess and screen the resumes of former applicants for a current opening has long been desired by recruiters.

Assessing the Performance of Marketing Executives-

• Performance Assessment- The candidates can be evaluated in various ways, such as, 360-degree appraisal, ranking methods, checklists, etc. to rate the employee’s performance as per the requirements.

• Compare the expected and accomplished results- Every job designation requires some responsibilities and activities on behalf of the employee. The results that are expected from the employees should be compared with the results that they bring in to evaluate the level of performance of the employee.

• Questionnaires- A customer understands the behaviour of a marketing executive better than the assesses. Hence, the patrons should be encouraged to give their feedback and suggestions, through questionnaires, if any.

• Psychological tests– A selection procedure consisting of various closely supervised personality and psychological tests will help in understanding the personality traits of an applicant. It can be compared with the requirements and wants of the organization as per the future performance of the candidate as well as the kind of behaviour that is expected from the prospective employee within the organization.
• Background Analysis-  When it comes to selecting the best candidates to work for your business, going deeper than just face value should be a routine practice. In the more competitive job market, individuals are more prone to embellish or hide certain aspects of their histories in order to appear more attractive to recruiters.

• Online Assessment Portals-  Various online portals such as, Evalground, Mettl, Testmaster, etc. are there in the market today which will help the recruiter to assess and evaluate the employee. These platforms give instant automated results whenever the tests are undertaken, this will help the recruiters in eliminating the trouble of going through the end number of physical resumes and documents and get the reports in automated ways.

• Performance in Simulated Scenarios- As the customers and clients vary, the business scenarios also keeps varying accordingly. Put the marketing executives in various simulated scenarios, which will show their reaction time and attitude, and it can be judged whether it matches the company expectations and image or not.

• Language Proficiency- The executive should be able to deal with a wide range of clientele that the organization deals with. And he/ she should have the proficiency in different languages which is suitable for the client base.

• Social Media Awareness and Efficiency- The marketing executive should have proficiency in social media to dive into these platforms and use them in the most productive way. Also, their awareness and presence in social media can give a clear picture to the recruiter regarding the individuality of the employee.

• Feedback – The employees should be given feedback from time to time to keep them updated about their performance and the expectations that the enterprise have from them.

• Suggestions- The top management should never mince their advice and should give suggestions to the employees whenever required to improve their performance.

Marketing/ Branding Roles (Retention)

Hiring a great set of employees is just the stepping stone to creating a strong and productive workforce. Employee retention adds to the long-term health and successful turnover of an organization.

Fair and unprejudiced treatment towards employees-  Build and maintain friendly relationships within the workplace. Animosity between co-workers leads to jealousy, cliques, cut-throat attitudes, unnecessary drama, and unwanted problems. The moment you sense negative feelings between people, sort out the matter as soon as possible.

Clear sets of goals and objectives-  The company’s vision, mission, and goals should be clear and crisp to the employees. Any sort of ambiguity regarding these might baffle the employees which might affect their performance, due to confusion regarding the things that are expected of them and their actual performance.

Opportunity to Learn and Grow- The employees will feel that the workplace has become a mundane place for them if there is no chance of learning new things and growing within. Some changes are required to avoid meeting a dead-end.

Acknowledge and reward good performance– Monetary bonuses are always nice, but recognition goes a long way to creating goodwill and loyalty. In order to retain talent, you must make them feel appreciated, respected and worthwhile. Performance appraisal to deserving candidates

Perks and Benefits- Consider offering stock options or other financial awards for employees who meet performance goals and stay for a predetermined time period. Also, provide meaningful annual raises. If you can afford it, give more to your top performers. Providing health insurance, life insurance and a retirement-savings plan is essential in retaining employees.

This content was brought to you by Evalground Online Testing Platform. Evalground is an online assessment and test evaluation system focused on helping Recruiters in initial screening of potential candidates from an ocean of job seekers in an automated way.Evalground supports Online Aptitude Tests, Spoken English Communication Skills Assessments, Coding Contests in JAVA, C, C++, Ruby, Python, JavaScript and PHP.  Evalground also supports Automated asynchronous interviews. Evalground Screening Tests can be used by Recruiters during campus hiring or to screen walkin candidates.

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