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%)