A note from our CEO, Aysha Abdullatif:
Coming from a creative staffing background, I've seen almost everything when it comes to connecting the right talent to the right companies. And we all know when the product is people, how vast the margin of error can be.
Aside from being a business lead in creative staffing, I've also worked within a full cycle marketing agency over the years and most recently, established Ayeworld Agency, so I can understand the benefits and drawbacks to both sides of this shiny coin: hiring a marketing agency vs hiring a full-time employee.
Hiring an agency
- Collaboration of multiple subject matter experts: design, strategy, analytics, content, social, and so on depending on the type of agency hired
- Expert understanding for how to approach your business needs and objectives
- Overall management and responsibility of specific deliverables
Hiring an employee
- Training and onboarding to company standards; cost of onboarding a new employee averages around $4k (based on Glassdoor cost calculator)
- Ability to fully monitor employee bandwidth
- Hiring specific subject matter expert to oversee deliverables
Many Fortune500 companies I've partnered with over the years go through what I call "re-organizational waves." Whereas one year the initiative is to scale back, have a lean workforce, and filter out to specific agencies additional work, other years the company initiatives may include building up an internal marketing team.
What's right for your business? Hiring a marketing agency doesn't have to be costly. With less risk associated with hiring an agency, combined with a much broader skill set and expertise to tap into, it's a straightforward pathway to results. Many of the pros associated with hiring an employee can be applied to hiring an agency, with a faster ramp-up to deliverables.
Adding headcount to your existing team means additional liability to your workforce, the risk of a “bad hire,” the learning curve to get results—these additional components fall on the leadership team. In addition, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics as of January 2019, the number of job openings and labor turnover market has been challenging for new employee acquisition. Hiring a marketing agency, whether short-term or long-term, can produce the most effective results and best outcome.
I don’t say this lightly, I say this after witnessing firsthand the pros and cons of both options, working both avenues for the sake of my clients’ best interests, and seeing time and again, which gives higher satisfaction and less stress. Go with an agency— it will benefit your company, brand, and team the most to create this partnership and sub team. Let me know if you want to talk further on this or other business needs, send me a note at aysha@ayeworld.com.