What GDPR means to us at ADLIB
As we’ve said before, GDPR is a good news story to us.
As most SMEs we turned and listened to experts, gathered facts about what GDPR really means for us, our clients and in general. It gave us the perfect reason to look at all our processes, to assess and check where we are at, how data flows through our business, the What, Why and Where for all information we hold on to.
For us, there wasn’t actually that much “new” – GDPR is based on the principles that we always saw at the base of how we treat information – with respect – with transparency – fairly and lawfully goes without saying.
However, GDPR brings with it the need for more documentation. We took this as an opportunity to rewrite our Privacy and Cookies Policy, to make sure that how we treat and have always treated candidate and client information is shared in a clear and simple way – no jargon.
Please let us know of course should you have any questions but here it is for your reference:
ADLIB’s Privacy & Cookies Policy
Client Side Marketing in the South West – Our Take
Shapes In House Marketing roles could take
A “Client Side” marketing role is essentially any marketing position whereby the candidate is employed directly by the business owner of the product or service being promoted.
There are many businesses located within the South West that have a marketing function, from start ups to large corporates. The main geographical hubs are: Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Gloucester. In terms of types of businesses that have a strong presence within the South West (especially Bristol and Bath) the main sectors are: financial services, legal / professional services, retail / FMCG, technology, start ups (mainly tech) and employers within creative industries.
Start ups to SMEs would ordinarily have a standalone marketing function present or alternatively will employ a small marketing department of between 2-3 people whilst big corporates could have large marketing departments of up to c/ 50 employees. Working for a small company means that the employee will tend to work in a broader role, crossing a number of functions, whereas in larger organisations you tend to find more specialist and clearly defined roles.
Job titles typically seen in SMEs (depending on the level) tend to range from Marketing Assistant, Marketing Executive / Coordinator, Digital Marketing Executive, Marketing Manager or Digital Marketing Manager (a nature of the business will determine whether the job title and responsibilities will be biased towards digital or traditional marketing). Additional functions seen within larger businesses typically are: PR / Communications Manager, Events Manager, Brand Manager, Product Manager + digital specialist functions.
Some sector trends
The biggest shift in Client Side Marketing teams is the continued move towards having a stronger digital presence, and as such a digital first approach. There will always be a requirement for traditional/offline marketing, but more and more Client Side businesses are bringing their digital skills in house.
Gone are the days where digital was a luxury, or a specialist skill set, some specific skills such as PPC and SEO remain specialist, but more and more the generalist marketer is expected to have a good, well rounded understanding and experience of broad digital channels. Content is becoming increasingly important thanks to Google, and there is a necessity to have strong copywriters within the teams.
Having good data, customer insight and analytics to drive commercial decisions and optimise campaigns is becoming far more commonplace, and GDPR looks set to revolutionise the way businesses communicate with their customers. Being commercial and highly analytical is just as valuable as being creative within a marketing team these days.
Businesses continue having to keep up with the latest technological advances, now implementing automation, voice tech, chatbots, AI, programmatic and many other features. Whether they use specialist agencies to support with this, or have the skills in house depends on the business, but the landscape continues to change and Client Side marketing teams have to keep up with all of the latest trends and developments.
To find out more about Marketing Employment here in the South West, here our Guide including Skills it takes, Key factors in retaining top talent, Salaries and Day Rates.
Ask The Expert: Developing True Employee Engagement
As part of our involvement in the Bristol Media People Forum Event Series, we got the chance to catch up with Peter Wakefield, founder of Loving Monday to chat with him about the topic he spoke about at the most recent People Forum event “Developing Employee Engagement – without throwing money at it”.
Peter has over twenty years’ expertise in the measurement, education and linkage between employee engagement and business performance and the leadership and management behaviour that drives it. He’s managed award-winning employee engagement programmes across Europe and now runs employee engagement consultancy Loving Monday.
We asked him to gather and share some of his expertise and wisdom with you: What five pieces of Wisdom could you share that could help businesses on their journey to develop true Employee Engagement?
Peter Wakefield:
- In the 20 or so years I’ve been working in this field, the single biggest thing I’ve learnt is that employee engagement has absolutely nothing to do with ‘employees’ and everything to do with ‘people’. If all you’re doing is trying to ‘engage your employees’, then you’re missing the point. You’re missing the one thing that it takes to engage them and that’s to understand them, everything about them, not just the bit of them that spends time doing stuff they get paid to do, rather understand who they are and what’s important to them.
- We have a lot of conversations with new clients who are looking to develop engagement, some of whom have been trying for years, not making the progress they feel they should’ve seen. The problem is that many people are focused on the wrong things, getting too caught up in doing or buying ‘stuff’ and measuring things rather than the empathy, behaviour and good old social skills that create trust and build relationships. So, we’d always advise, if in doubt, make it simple and talk to people before you do anything.
- Don’t just focus on the numbers. Surveys and data are fine and still have a place in helping to prioritise things, but simply having actual conversations and asking employees ‘what can we do better?’ is much more valuable. If employees don’t feel they can sit down with their boss and have a conversation, it doesn’t matter how many surveys you run, you have a problem.
- Research tells us that up to 80% of an individual’s engagement comes from their immediate line manager so if you’re a manager or leader I think you have a duty and an accountability to challenge yourself. For example, a useful test for any manager is to ask yourself, ‘how much do I know about the people I work with?’ Not just how long have they been here, what they last did last week, or how they like their coffee, but who are they? What are their lives about? What’s important to them? If you don’t know the answers, you haven’t built up a relationship or level of trust with them, and you probably won’t know when things are wrong.
- The final thing I’d say to develop engagement is ironically, don’t overly worry about employee engagement. Instead, treat people well, listen to them, and give them room to grow. Don’t do that just to squeeze more productivity out of them, they’ll see that coming, but because it’s the right thing to do. And if your heart is in the right place, they’ll see that too.
Thank You Peter for sharing!
At the next Bristol Media People Forum Event, Thu 24 May 2018 at 6pm,
Mike Corker FCIPD will be speaking about Personal Effectiveness & Emotional Intelligence as a Critical Success Factor.
More info and tickets via Eventbrite here.
Employee advocacy and LinkedIn – Get them working in tandem
Agency Contractor Guide (SW)
Ask The Expert – Attribution Modelling
“What do you like most about being part of Team ADLIB?”
