Are businesses missing out on top candidates to advertising agencies because HR departments are too slow?

Our latest report highlights that the slower pace at which online businesses recruit is a major barrier to attracting and retaining top digital marketing professionals.

Online businesses are booming - and for many, recruiting the right mix of people to their in-house digital marketing team can make all the difference to their bottom line.

As the opportunities for different online revenue streams develop through mobile, search and social media, businesses looking to make significant sales need an increasing combination of different skills from web development and PPC to SEO and social media. Yet, the more methodical, yet slower approach taken by in-house recruitment teams can see these companies missing out on candidates because agile digital agencies tend to move first to appoint candidates.

The speed of the recruitment process was highlighted by many as a barrier to finding the right candidates, with the majority (65%) of employers feeling that their HR departments are too slow to react when roles become available. The perception is that this leads organisations to miss out on the top talent to smaller, more agile, digital marketing agencies.

All of those surveyed felt that specialist in-house digital roles are missing out on the best candidates. While most of those surveyed used a recruitment agency, only a very small minority used specialist digital marketing recruiters to fill these specialist roles.

Read the full report here to find out some of the reasons why staff turnover is so high, and what steps we recommend online businesses could take to help them get to grips with this issue.