Phil Cookson, Director of Creative Resource talks to Jenny Plant about UK creative agency recruitment trends on the Agency Account Manager podcast.

1. PODCAST
SOUNDBITES
‘UK Creative Agency Recruitment Trends’
With Phil Cookson, Director, Creative Resource

2. Episode 41:
‘UK Creative Agency Recruitment Trends’
A
Q 1
Why do you think
there is nervousness
within agencies for
recruiting people
without agency
experience?
I think you do find most agencies probably had a
bad experience at some point of somebody who's
come in from an in-house role and not worked
out, or not enjoyed it.
And I think that some, in some cases, that one
bad experience puts them off.
We don't make enough of the fact that,
particularly with account handling, there are other
sectors where there are very strong B2B client
services people that could probably be very well
utilised by an agency.
We don't seem willing to look outside the box at
people who’ve come from a completely different
type of industry but have brilliant account
handling and client services skills.
With Phil Cookson, Director, Creative Resource

3. A
Q 2
How well are
agencies handling the
training of new
recruits?
People who start in agencies at entry level are
almost being left to their own devices, in a way,
because agencies, especially small to medium
sized agencies, and in the North, we've got a lot
of agencies that you would class of that size, not
having a focused talent function.
And your development is almost left down to
whether you get a good line manager or not. And
often those line managers haven't been trained,
perhaps in the right way, or even trained to
manage a more junior member of staff. So you're
almost getting people who don't fully know what
they're doing, managing and training somebody
else.
Episode 41:
‘UK Creative Agency Recruitment Trends’
With Phil Cookson, Director, Creative Resource

4. A
Q 3
What is the demand
currently in the
industry for account
managers?
The demand for account managers is huge at
the moment.
I have not known a demand like this in all the
time I've been recruiting. And I must counter
that with…the supply is dwindling of account
managers.
We're speaking to lots who are basically going
client side or leaving the industry altogether.
We’ve spoken to several who've left the
industry all together to do something
completely different.
With Phil Cookson, Director, Creative Resource
Episode 41:
‘UK Creative Agency Recruitment Trends

5. Listen to the full podcast here:
https://accountmanagementskills.com/podcast/
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Account Management LinkedIn Group:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8632030/
Contact Jenny Plant, Founder, Account Management Skills:
jenny@accountmanagementskills.com