Recruitment Solutions for Corporate Design

When I ran an International Brand Design team, I faced 2 key issues which are at the heart of creative recruitment.

First, it was difficult to find quality designers for full-time roles on my team. It takes a special mindset to succeed as an in-house designer. (I've written about that here)

Most candidates I looked at were really looking for the variety and excitement of an agency gig and were just applying for corporate roles to fill a gap. These would be bad hires, quickly tiring of the repetition of corporate brand work, bringing discontentment to the team, and eventually leaving at the first opportunity.

Secondly, there are few career development paths built into the corporate world for designers or creative teams. Most programs are focused on the organization's core business. I had to create custom training programs that would be useful for my team. Quality development opportunities are crucial for in-house designers to avoid stagnation, maintain skills and retain enthusiasm, and for the organization, to retain top talent (see my first point).

According to McKinsey, the top reason for losing employees is lack of career development and advancement. A whopping 41% of employees are leaving due to lack of a clear future. (Source: McKinsey's Great Attrition, Great Attraction 2.0 global survey.)

The message is clear: map out a development strategy for your designers that's focused on increasing their skillsets and performance, and advancing their career.

Since starting my own agency in 2020, I've discovered how much I miss helping design teams to grow. This year I've decided to offer my experience in this as a key focus of my time.

I've just launched the first programs for organizations to integrate my experience into their design teams. Whether through operational or training budgets, these programs are specifically built to develop and grow designers working in a corporate environment.

If this capability was offered to me in my previous role, I would have jumped at the opportunity. The programs are priced to accommodate standard training budgets, designed to improve both the individual designer and their teams, and save a lot of time for the design team leader.

Below is a link to my webpage with information on the programs. If you believe your team would benefit from this relationship, I'd encourage you to get in touch now – these are 1:1 programs, so they are limited in availability.

Here's the page with further information:

https://coaching.statusstrateg...

If you're looking for a quick start to evaluate your creative team, download my free Design Team Scorecard. This Scorecard is one of my primary strategic tools for creative team development.