CSR and internal comms roles on the rise
There has been a marked increase in the number of companies looking to hire marketers with CSR and internal communications experience as brands look to improve the reputation of their organisations both outside and within, according to a report.
Recruiter Badenoch & Clark’s June 2013 “Professional Talent Spotlight” monitor – which scrapes the estimated 40,000 marketing job advertisements across the web – found vacancies for internal communications management roles have increased by 50.5 per cent month on month and 27 per cent year on year.
Matt Gascoigne, Badenoch & Clark’s executive director of marketing and communications, suggests this is because businesses are trying to encourage more collaborative working, particularly by developing online internal communities. This has become especially prevalent now digital is a “prerequisite” among marketing candidates, he adds.
Badenoch & Clark’s qualitative research among its own clients also found there has been a rise in demand for marketers with a strong CSR focus.
The focus on CSR at a time when a number of large businesses have taken a reputation hit in the past two years – particularly within the financial services industry – indicates a cost effective way to boost customer perception, the report claims.
Thomas Brown, associate director of research and insights at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, says the strong focus on “CSR” is a “little misleading”, however.
He adds: “Organisations are increasingly recognising a shift in consumer expectations and demands around responsible, ethical and transparent behaviour – and this won’t be solved with a bolt-on CSR policy that only lives in paper. Hiring marketers who understand this new customer demand is a natural response, but the changes have to be more than skin-deep: these new hires will have to drive fundamental changes to their organisation’s policies and practices, not just implement a greenwash communications campaign.”
Separate research from the World Federation of Advertisers released earlier this year found the majority of the top global marketers believe having a social purpose is increasingly important to a brand’s commercial success.
