If you’re going to successfully hire a high-performing marketing team, it’s essential to be strategic in your approach. Hiring is time-consuming and can be expensive, so it’s important that you get it right the first time. Here are some areas to consider:

1. Focus on diversity

A successful marketing team is invariably a diverse marketing team. Diversity encourages a mix of different skills, experiences and backgrounds – all of which make it easier to serve your customer base. If you invest in a diverse team, you’ll have a more creative and innovative approach, which translates to better performance. For interviewers, the challenge is not to hire people who resemble them or who remind them of themselves. This is known as the ‘clone’ effect and it’s an issue in organisations that struggle to bring in diverse, creative teams who can get the best from each other. Diversity training can be a worthwhile investment here to better your recruitment outcomes.

2. Remember the importance of cultural fit

The right marketing staff will add to your existing organisational culture and support your core values. Be clear on those values when you publish your job advertisements so the right people will apply. Cultural fit is vital as a poor fit will rock the team and cause management issues. Talk about your company values during the interview to check that each candidate really does uphold them.

3. Focus on attributes over skills

Traditional interviewing has focused on skills, but the reality is that skills can easily be taught – especially to someone with the right attitude, attributes and potential. Your specification should explain what type of person you are looking for in terms of traits, abilities and attributes. For example, in a marketer, you might want someone who is a team player, a naturally creative ideas person and a great communicator. Yes, you will also want certain qualifications to evidence knowledge and certain years of experience and work history to show a base of marketing delivery, but prepare to flex on these ‘symbols’ of knowledge and skills before you bend on attributes.

4. Think about what you really need

Today’s teams are often blended and flexible, so offer as much flexibility as possible to attract different types of candidates who might otherwise not apply for a full-time, office-based role. For example, you might offer a homeworking position or a hybrid-working role, a freelance support position and some full-time or part-time in-house roles supported by agency resources. Be as flexible as you can to access the broadest possible marketing skillset when you need it. This is particularly important with digital marketing, which is constantly evolving, and the best team model might mean buying in cutting-edge specialist skills on a project basis to complement and support your in-house staff.

What areas will you focus on to optimise your marketing recruitment and secure the best possible team for your business?