Career-wise, 2020 is shaping up to be a great year for creatives. A new report from The Creative Group found that 67% of companies are planning to expand their creative departments by adding new full-time positions.
The increasing importance of customer experience is highlighted in the top areas that companies are hiring in:
- Web and mobile development
- User experience
- User interface and interaction design
- Creative development
- Web production
- Visual design
- User research
- Digital marketing
- Marketing strategy
- Information architecture; marketing technology; social media
However, companies are having a hard time filling all these open roles. 86% reported that it is challenging to find skilled creative talent. Some of the top technical skills they are looking for are:
- Digital strategy
- Content creation and content marketing; social media management
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Data science, data analysis, and A/B testing
- User interface design
Because of the need for more creative employees and the difficulty in hiring them, retention is a top concern for companies. 55% say they experience the most turnover among midlevel employees. In order to retain creative and marketing employees, companies have implemented the following strategies:
- Offered better benefits (48%)
- Improved professional training and development (44%)
- Increased bonuses; offered more flexible scheduling options (43%)
- Became more open to remote work and employee relocation opportunities (40%)
- Raised salaries – more than we traditionally would (39%)

Elise Hauser is a product and content marketer with a passion for telling brand stories. She has produced inMotionNow’s annual In-House Creative Management Report for 3 years, webinars, content sessions for major industry events reaching audiences of 1,000+, and of course, countless blog posts. When Elise isn’t writing about the marketing and creative industry at inMotionNow she is teaching economics and hanging out with her cat, Tucker, at her home in Raleigh, NC.