How Does Your
Creative Talent
Grow?
Tips for Cultivating
Career Paths and
Nurturing In-House
Design Teams
Looking Ahead
Encouraging Growth
Training on a
Shoestring
Mentoring Strategies
Nurturing Talent
Planting Seeds
u
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
Introduction
Want stellar work from your creative team? Show them the future, and
invest in their skills. In our fourth annual survey of in-house design award
winners,* six in 10 respondents said they would find better opportunities
for professional growth outside their current companies. While this
doesn’t mean employees will start jumping ship, it’s something managers
should keep in mind as the economy improves and job-hopping becomes
more prevalent.
The good news is you don’t need a big budget to earn the long-term
support of your team. Our survey results show designers are increasingly
concerned about staying challenged and engaged on the job, and having
the support of their managers to fulfill their career goals. In fact, many
of the in-house designers who responded to our survey, conducted in
partnership with Graphic Design USA, expressed a strong desire for
training, mentoring and some frank talk about how they might reach the
next rung on the corporate ladder.
These investments in your team’s long-term career growth may not
require much capital, but they do demand your time and attention, which
can easily be consumed by other activities, particularly when workloads
rise. This guide provides some strategies for bringing to the forefront the
important task of growing your creative talent and making the practice
part of your regular work routine.
*The American Inhouse Design Awards is the original and premier showcase for outstanding work
by in-house designers. It is a unique opportunity for in-house design, marketing and communications
departments to be recognized for their talent, the special challenges they face, and their contributions
to their businesses and institutions. The survey was sent to the 2009 and 2010 American Inhouse Design
Awards winners.
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“I hire people when I know there’s a professional
path in place, meaning I can help develop a
plan for professional advancement. People get
bored. It’s human nature.”
– Joe Benarroch, vice president, Global Corporate Affairs, Mediabrands
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
Planting Seeds:
Defining and Supporting
Career Paths
In this year’s survey, many in-house designers expressed frustration
about a perceived lack of career opportunities. But whose responsibility
is it to define their path? “It’s really about having employees take
ownership for their own individual development,” says Christine
Mau, brand design director at Kimberly-Clark. “We can outline what
they need to get there and open those doors, but it’s always up to the
employees to step through them.”
To facilitate this process, Mau sits down with each of her team
members individually and asks where they want their careers to go,
instead of assuming she knows the answer. Then, she outlines the
skill sets and leadership qualities they need in order to reach those
goals – whether it’s to be a manager or a director. To keep this process
on track, Mau schedules quarterly meetings to discuss progress with
each of her employees.
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“Do you know what your next career step
will be within your organization?”
No 72%
Yes 28%
Source: Survey of 190 Graphic Design USA American Inhouse Design
Awards winners
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Help Me Help You
Following are some simple things you can do to help your employees realize their
career goals:
• Initiate the conversation. Show your staff you’re invested in their futures
by asking about each person’s long-term goals during your next one-on-one
meeting. Explain what you’re willing to do to help them get there and what
you expect from them. Be honest about where you see them going, set
measurable goals and create a written plan.
• Provide regular feedback. Nearly half (45 percent) of in-house designers
surveyed said the only time they discuss their career path with their managers
is during an annual review. Scheduling quarterly check-ins will make it easier
to track progress and help employees stay motivated to take the next step or
adjust their direction as necessary.
• Dig into details. Give employees several specific things they can do to
get closer to a career goal. “I think telling somebody they need an attitude
adjustment is good, but how?” says Joe Benarroch, vice president of Global
Corporate Affairs at Mediabrands. “What does that mean? I need you to
start communicating with your team on a more frequent basis. I need to start
seeing e-mails celebrating people’s successes.”
• Set deadlines and time frames. If a team member wants to move
from senior designer to art director, give a realistic time frame for when that
promotion might happen. Six months? Two years? Set interim deadlines for
each action item you need the person to accomplish before moving up.
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
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71: Percentage of in-house designers
who said their company does not offer
professional growth opportunities that
don’t involve managing people.
Source: Survey of 190 Graphic Design USA American Inhouse Design
Awards winners
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
The Guru Path
Not every designer wants to be a manager or has the chops to succeed as a team
leader. So, how do you give these individuals opportunities to advance? Work
with human resources to create “The Guru Path,” suggests Andy Epstein, creative
director at Designer Greetings, head of AIGA In-house Design and author of
The Corporate Creative. If a talented packaging designer can’t advance without
becoming a manager, try creating a senior packaging designer position. This
new role might include mentoring fellow designers but not formal management
duties such as conducting performance reviews. “Some creatives just aren’t cut
out for the management path, yet they should be advanced because of what they
contribute to the group creatively,” Epstein says.
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
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Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
Nurturing Talent:
The Importance of Mentors
Consulting with mentors, formally or informally, is a critical part of
nearly every professional’s development. Think back to the early days
of your own career. Who helped you figure out how to navigate office
politics, or provided ideas for raising your visibility around the office in
a professional way? How did they do it? Even now, you probably have a
handful of trusted people you turn to for advice.
Your employees need these same opportunities to reach their potential.
Without them, junior designers struggle to become senior designers and
the best and brightest might not make the leap into management.
What’s the key to successful mentoring? “It’s all about partnerships
and relationships,” says Mediabrands’ Benarroch. “Relationships need
to be nurtured. They need to be understood. They need to be handled
delicately in some aspects. There’s no one-size-fits-all conversation.”
In other words, give as much effort toward developing relationships with
your direct reports as you do with your boss. Eventually, this investment
will pay off, as your team becomes more talented – and, likely, more loyal
to you and the company.
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5 Smart Mentoring Strategies
Many companies offer formal mentoring programs, but if your newest hire on the design
team is matched up with someone from accounting, it might not be the most productive
arrangement for either professional. Try these alternatives:
Introduction
Planting Seeds
1. Actively coach employees during the daily grind. “Bend down,
look at what’s on the monitor, and comment on a design issue that person
is working on,” suggests creative director Andy Epstein. Another idea: If you
notice a team member isn’t communicating effectively via e-mail, reply to him
or her privately with a few quick tips for improvement.
2.Identify growth opportunities. Look for ways to stretch each team
member’s skill set. Kimberly-Clark’s Mau regularly lets her designers take the
lead presenting at internal meetings, with the reassurance that she’s available
as backup. Then, they’ll chat postgame about what went well and how to
improve next time.
3.Mentor at the right moment. If you’re having an employee participate in
or present at an important meeting, be sure to schedule a “meeting before the
meeting” so you can provide tips that will help the individual shine.
4.Encourage peer-to-peer mentoring. Invite senior team members to
mentor younger peers – and watch them learn from each other. Jeff Brouwer,
marketing creative manager at Valeant Pharmaceuticals, encouraged art
directors at his last job to review younger designers’ work, and then sit down
and work through any problems together. “Whether it’s problem-solving in
design or on one of the programs, you can’t teach that,” he says. “You kind of
have to see how other people do it.”
5.Invest in external relationships. The more your designers know about
the industry, the more value they will bring to your team. Consider purchasing
memberships in relevant organizations – like AIGA, Color Marketing Group, the
American Advertising Federation and the American Marketing Association – to
encourage outside relationships and broaden your team’s perspective.
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
Watch and Learn
Mentoring can be as simple as pointing out people in the company who’ve mastered
a skill one of your team members needs or wants to develop. “We give them people
to watch,” says Mau. “We’ll say, ‘You know that person you work with in marketing?
He’s at the same level as you. When he comes into a meeting, this is the behavior
I see from him.’” Explain exactly what the successful person does right and how it
advances his or her career.
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“How concerned are you about keeping your skills
marketable/up-to-date as you advance in your career?”
52%
Somewhat concerned 35%
Not very concerned 13%
Very concerned
Source: Survey of 190 Graphic Design USA American Inhouse Design Awards winners
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging
Growth
Encouraging Growth:
How to Support Meaningful
Training
In a competitive job market, designers – both those currently employed
and those seeking work – see training as a way to keep themselves
marketable and move ahead in their careers. But carefully chosen training
adds to managers’ score sheets, too. Improved skills make your team
more efficient and effective and can even boost morale and loyalty.
Making the Budget Case
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
Although designers are clearly hungry for training, a number of in-house
designers said their companies provide little or no support for ongoing
training. Budget and time constraints are likely the limiting factors, so it’s
important to make a strong case regarding your team’s training needs.
Specifically, you’ll need to outline the bottom-line benefits training will
bring back to the company.
Here’s a good example: Creative director Andy Epstein worked on a team
that had to manage and design projects, despite a lack of any formal
project management training. He documented how long it took the team
to complete projects due to this skill gap, and then pointed out how
training could increase efficiency, enable the department to take on more
projects and, ultimately, save the company money.
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“In what ways does your company encourage staff to
participate in training/professional development?”
Top responses included:
74%
65%
55%
36%
Allows employees to attend training during business hours
Provides design magazines, books and other publications
Subsidizes external training
Offers free in-house training
Source: Survey of 190 Graphic Design USA American Inhouse Design Awards winners.
Multiple responses permitted.
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Choosing the Right Training
There’s no shortage of training opportunities for designers, but figuring
out where to invest your resources can be challenging. One way to solve
the problem, according to Epstein, is to conduct an audit of your team
and look for skills gaps on a group and individual level. He recommends
asking yourself the following questions:
• Are there skills most of your team struggles with, like presenting?
Encouraging
Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
• Do you see things that are slowing your team down? For instance,
perhaps your current approval process is too time-consuming.
• Are there skills certain members of your team would like or need to
develop in order to work more productively or deliver better results?
One of your junior designers, for example, could be interested in
learning more about branding or need to brush up on her
concepting skills.
If you’re still unsure about which areas some team members need to
develop, you might consider a technique called 360-degree feedback.
At Kimberly-Clark, Mau undertakes this process each year. Employees
anonymously submit the names of six people they’d like feedback from –
ranging from clients to peers – and those individuals write out answers
to a set of questions about that person’s job performance. “When
you collect this information, you can quickly see what areas certain
employees need to develop that you might not be aware of,” she says.
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Introduction
Planting Seeds
Top 5 Training Needs
In-house designers were asked which one area they would most like their firm to
help them develop. Their top responses:
Nurturing Talent
1.Management/leadership
2.Creativity/innovation
3.Technical/software
Encouraging
Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
4. Business skills
5. Social media
Source: Survey of 190 Graphic Design USA American Inhouse Design Awards winners
Training on a Shoestring
Following are some low- or no-cost ways to help satisfy your team’s thirst for knowledge:
• Take your team on a tour of a local printing facility, paper mill or art exhibit one
morning or afternoon.
• Gather the group to listen to a webinar on a hot topic or specific software; you can
even poll the group to see which topics interest them most. Check out online training
vendors, such as lynda.com, for additional ideas.
• Organize monthly meetings or brown bag “lunch and learn” sessions, where team
members can take turns presenting on a strong suit, such as Photoshop tricks or green
design trends.
• Host a show-and-tell. Kimberly-Clark’s Mau once asked team members to bring to
a staff meeting something that excited them – a pattern or interesting package, for
example – and talk about why they chose it. “They really, really appreciated seeing
what everybody brought forward. It was like a mini inspiration day,” she says.
• Build on successes for valuable on-the-job training. If a designer proves his value
assisting with photo shoots, give him the opportunity to take the lead by art directing
the next one.
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“People are less concerned about their salary and more
concerned about whether they are making a contribution
to the company. So, it’s important to acknowledge that,
especially with someone who you feel is going to be able
to take on a leadership role.”
− Andy Epstein, creative director, Designer Greetings, and author of The Corporate Creative
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
Looking Ahead:
Developing the Next Generation
of Creative Leaders
Ultimately, investing in your team’s professional development means
you’re helping to create your company’s next generation of leaders.
But how proactive should you be about talking with your most
promising employees?
Mediabrands’ Benarroch sets high expectations from the get-go, telling
all new hires what he sees in them. “You’ve joined my team because I
think that you’re a pretty amazing star and I’m going to keep you there,”
he says. “So, don’t let it flicker, keep it going.” Taking this approach lets
employees know you recognize their talents from the start.
But equally important is sharing with your most promising talent how
you envision their careers with the company. By explaining how you see
them climbing the ranks in the coming years, whether to a management
position or more senior role, you give them incentive to stay at the
company. The conversation also allows you to discuss business and
individual priorities, as well as steps you can take to reach an outcome
that satisfies all parties.
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Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of
in-house designers aspire to management
roles within or outside their company.
Source: Survey of 190 Graphic Design USA American Inhouse Design
Awards winners
Advocating for Your Team
Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
It’s one thing to support the professional development of individual
members of your team. But it’s another to actually help set them on the
fast track to success. The fact is you’ll have a tough time getting anyone
promoted unless you’re effectively working the right channels within
your company. Here are a few action steps you can take to help turn the
spotlight on top players:
• Expose designers to upper management. When executives can
place a face with a name, they may be more willing – and even
excited – to sign off on a promotion. One way to help make this
connection is to invite key team members to present at company
meetings and invite designers to attend other activities where the
higher-ups will be.
• Sing your team’s praises. Send out e-mails celebrating your
department’s successes and the challenges they’ve overcome,
copying your boss and the person above him or her. Do this more
often than not, recommends Kimberly-Clark’s Mau, “So at the end of
the year when I’m thinking to myself that Julie should be promoted,
I have set the stage to get support for advancement if management
already knows who she is and what she’s done.”
• Pave the way. Kevin Diegel, packaging graphics art director
for Costco Wholesale Corporation, recently worked with the
company’s vice presidents of marketing to develop two new
senior designer positions, and ultimately, a hierarchy and bridge
to management. They made the case by explaining how this
arrangement would allow for Diegel to have a backup in place
to keep projects moving in her absence, thereby helping the
organization maintain productivity.
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Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About The
Creative Group
Conclusion
While there is plenty of room for improvement in creating clearer and
more varied career paths for in-house designers, there are some things
to celebrate, too. The survey results suggest today’s in-house designers
are generally happy with their careers and devoted to working in
the creative industry: Nearly eight in 10 respondents are very or
somewhat satisfied with their current work situations. Further, nine in
10 described their careers as very or somewhat promising. And more
than eight in 10 respondents said they expect to stay in the design
profession until they retire.
Whether they choose to continue their careers at your company or
somewhere else is a more complicated question, however: More than
half (54 percent) of in-house designers said they are likely to change
employers once the economy rebounds. To help prevent a creative “brain
drain,” talk about the opportunities available to your employees and
show a genuine interest in their career goals. Following through on your
promises and providing the necessary tools and resources they need to
realize their dreams is what will win their long-term commitment. So, go
ahead. Plant a few seeds and watch your creative talent grow.
Thanks to the Experts
The Creative Group wishes to thank the following people who
contributed to How Does Your Creative Talent Grow?:
• Joe Benarroch, Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, Mediabrands
• Jeff Brouwer, Marketing Creative Manager, Valeant Pharmaceuticals
• Kevin Diegel, Packaging Graphics Art Director, Costco Wholesale
Corporation
• Andy Epstein, Creative Director, Designer Greetings, and author of
The Corporate Creative
• Gordon Kaye, Publisher, Graphic Design USA
• Christine Mau, Brand Design Director, Kimberly-Clark
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Introduction
Planting Seeds
Nurturing Talent
Encouraging Growth
Looking Ahead
Conclusion
About
The Creative Group
The Creative Group specializes in placing highly skilled interactive,
design and marketing professionals. We represent a wide range of social
media and interactive strategists, Flash and InDesign experts, brand
managers, multimedia specialists, communications professionals, and
more. The professionals we place are evaluated using TalentMatch®,
our proprietary evaluation process that includes a personal interview
and skills testing. Firms appreciate that our staffing managers typically
have prior experience working within the creative industry, which
helps them better understand their clients’ needs and their freelancers’
unique talents. For more information, please call 1.888.846.1668 or visit
creativegroup.com.
About The
Creative Group
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© 2011 The Creative Group. A Robert Half Company. An Equal Opportunity Employer.
All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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