Every marketing department, whether in a large corporation or in a small but bright new company, has its own unique ebbs and flows.
These are the marketing department cycles and patterns you’ll want to be aware of in order to effectively manage and support your marketing department.
Knowing what to expect will help you plan.
And when you plan, you’ll be prepared to better manage your marketing department and ensure that your campaigns run smoothly.
The Cycles and Patterns:
- Employee turnover
- Too much work / unrealistic demands
- Too little work
Employee Turnover – the Outflow
In any industry, you’ll see employees come and go, and in the marketing world, employee turnover is estimated to be anywhere from 20% to 40% – which is pretty high.
How does the draining of talent affect your marketing department?
How can you move with the tide, instead of against it?
Here’s three common reasons that employees leave a company, and how you can help reduce these negative drivers in your department:
1. Poor work-life balance.
2. Unsupportive working environment/culture.
3. Difficult colleagues, managers, supervisors, etc.
I. Beyond the Corporate Ocean: Tide Pools of Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance is huge in today’s society, and the companies that actively take steps to help their employees manage this balance will likely see loyalty and low turnover.
How can you help?
One way is to create an environment that promotes work-life balance by providing flexible working hours or options for remote work.
By allowing your employees to manage their own time, teams are more efficient and productive when they do get together at the office.
Ensuring that there is adequate vacation time and quarterly offsite gatherings will also help boost morale and promote a sense of community.
Additionally, implementing a culture of collaboration instead of competition will help your employees feel appreciated and respected for their individual contributions to the team.
Have team-based awards, not just individual based awards.
And celebrate successes together, as a department.
Finally, having clear expectations and performance metrics can help your employees stay on track and not be overwhelmed by challenging tasks.
Ask your employees what they care about, and work with them to set practical targets to measure against.
Check in with them regularly to see how they are doing and how you can help, when they are struggling with meeting their personal or work goals.
By creating an environment that nurtures work-life balance, you’ll find your own way to foster loyalty and boost employee morale.
II. Within the Ocean: How to make a supportive environment and culture
It’s a no-brainer that creating a supportive environment and company culture for employees is essential for any business.
Why?
Because it helps foster loyalty, promote employee morale, build team spirit and increase productivity – not to mention, decrease employee turnover.
Let’s look at some ways to make this happen.
A great way to start is to have a program in place to ensure that employees are given the recognition they deserve.
This includes both verbal and written recognition, rewards for outstanding individual and team performance, as well as kudos for effort, when a person or team goes the extra mile.
The small act of acknowledging the hard work that each team member puts in to contribute to the company’s success pays great dividends in the morale of your employees.
Another obvious, but nevertheless important factor is making sure there is a sense of community within your team.
You can always take steps to encourage social activities outside of the office, such as team lunches or happy hours.
This will help build relationships and create a sense of belonging in the workplace.
Clear expectations set out for each team member and ensuring that everyone has access to the same resources so that they can do their best work, will go miles.
You’ll be able to measure work and congratulate those achievements, and it will reduce infighting over resources.
Finally, another great department move is to provide ongoing training and development opportunities so that your employees can continue to grow and develop in their roles, and be really happy with their time working in your department.
By implementing all or even a few of the above ideas, you’ll be on the path to ensure that your team feels valued and trusted, which will help reduce turnover in your department.
III. Choppy Waters: When you have difficult colleagues, managers, and supervisors
Whether it’s a difficult colleague, manager or supervisor, it can be hard to deal with these types of individuals.
So, how do you protect your employees from difficult co-workers or superiors?
As the manager of your department, having an open door policy can be an effective way to ensure that your team feels comfortable coming to you with any issues or concerns.
This means letting them know you’ll be available and approachable for them whenever they need help or advice.
You’ll also need to practice actively listening and empathizing with their problems, and take steps to provide them with helpful solutions.
By creating this kind of environment, employees will feel more confident about speaking up about difficult situations with other people at work, without feeling judged or shamed for doing so.
The goal is to create a safe space where your employees are free to openly communicate their thoughts and ideas without fear of repercussions from management.
From there, you can take the steps needed to address inter-departmental conflict, like one-on-one meetings with both parties.
If you find the problems escalating still, then consider involving HR or your senior supervisor.
They may have other strategies for resolving workplace conflict that are more effective than what you can do on your own.
The main point is to create an environment where your team knows they can speak to you or other managers in confidence, and help them create solutions to dealing with difficult colleagues or other superiors.
This environment will help your employees thrive, feel safe, and increase their loyalty to the department.
IV. Cruising Towards Calm Waters: How to stay resilient and motivated through challenging times
No matter how supportive your environment, there will always be challenges that you need to face head-on.
Staying resilient and motivated during difficult times is essential for keeping your team productive and on track.
The first step is to take care of yourself.
This means taking regular breaks, eating healthy meals, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and engaging in activities that bring you joy or help you relax.
It’s also important to stay connected with people who can provide emotional support during difficult times.
Another way to stay resilient is to focus on what you can control and take one small step at a time towards the bigger goal.
This will help you break down tasks into more manageable chunks and feel less overwhelmed by the overall challenge.
Finally, don’t forget to celebrate your successes, no matter how small they may be – this will keep you motivated and remind you that progress is being made.
By following these steps, you’ll be able to stay resilient and productive even during the most challenging of times.
With a supportive team environment in place and the right strategies for dealing with difficult people, your team will be ready to take on any challenge that comes
Too Much Work and Unrealistic Demands – the Tsunami
In this day and age, we want everything done perfectly and we want it done now.
As such, it’s not uncommon for marketing departments to be inundated with a TON of work and unrealistic demands from upper-level management.
To keep your team healthy and safe, it’s important to know how to effectively manage the workload and avoid burnout.
One way is to start by breaking down your projects into smaller, more manageable tasks and then delegate those tasks to members of your team.
Create a clear timeline for each project, setting out realistic goals, so you can track progress and ensure that expectations are met.
Communicate these targets to your team, and have regular check-ins, to make sure they are on track, and to adjust for any issues that may pop up.
Another way is to make sure that you have eyes on all projects, and that you know what workflow your team can handle.
Keeping in touch with the other departments and letting them know that your team, while amazing and excellent, are not robot superheroes, can help with the types and amounts of projects you take on.
Additionally it’s nice to have a creative agency on hand that you can all if you find you suddenly have more work than you can handle.
Many of our clients all us because they just need a little backup in a time when they have a heavy workload.
By managing what you have and knowing what you take on, your department will be as stable as possible regardless of any tsunamis that come, and you’ll be able to weather the storm, coming out on top.
Too Little Work – the Stagnant Waters
As crazy as having too much work can be, one situation you don’t want to find yourself in is where there’s not enough work to go around.
This can be just as or even more frustrating as having too much work.
When this happens – because it will happen – it’s important to create new projects that take advantage of any new opportunities or trends and keep your team from going stagnant in the dry season.
Make internal projects for your team – research the latest trends, have employees break off into small teams and present their findings to the group, let employees make their own projects to do in the slow season – and then execute them.
Your department can still grow and improve, even where there is little to no outside work coming in.
Another great way to use down time is to look for ways to upskill your team with additional training or mentorship opportunities.
Doing this will help keep your team motivated and engaged, while providing them with the necessary skills to tackle new projects down the line.
Ask your team members what they’d like to learn, and use this time to help them get the resources they need to learn the skills they want.
Conclusion
By understanding these cycles and patterns in your marketing department, you can plan ahead to ensure that your team is working efficiently without feeling overwhelmed or under-challenged. This will lead to better company culture and a more productive marketing team. And, you can ensure your team’s success and continue to achieve great results for your business.
Bonus: Identifying the Warning Signs of a Cycle Dip
It’s also important to be aware of any warning signs that can indicate trouble on the horizon, such as low morale, missed deadlines or lack of communication between departments.
If you start to notice these issues popping up, it may be time to assess the workload and make adjustments.
By staying ahead of any potential problems, you can ensure that your marketing efforts continue to be successful.
Good luck!
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