Talent War - Inside OMG's program to lure career changers from other industries

Ashley Regan
By Ashley Regan | 19 September 2022
 
Credit: Trophy Technology via Unsplash

Advertising is now looking to other industries to lure talent to fill gaps in media agency ranks.

Omnicom Media Group (OMG) has invested $3 million in a program called Kickstart@OMG designed to attract career changers.

Kickstart@OMG will provide successful applicants with all the training required to change occupations and start a career in media. 

Only one week after announcing the program OMG received more than 70 registrations, many recommended by current industry people.

OMG has encouraged existing employees to recommend friends and family who may be interested.

The $3 million is just the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of what OMG is willing to spend on recruitment initiatives, Peter Horgan, CEO at Omnicom Media Group Australia and New Zealand, told AdNews.

“A component of that number is the training cost, but the vast majority is the cost of the humans with 30 people on the first tranche.

“Then if we like it we'll rinse, repeat and scale the program pretty quickly.

“We are keen to run multiple programs in parallel, I think the max we could cope with is one intake per quarter, but we’ll see how we go.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

“We've been targeting grads for an eternity, and we still have a talent crisis, so that behoves us to think more laterally. 

“So looking at people from adjacent industries where skills may be parallel, and also where they may bring different perspectives, diversity of capability and just a new angle felt like a good idea. 

“It's a different approach to try and resolve the pain that some of our people are feeling by having empty desks sitting next to them and the work still piling up.”

What if the 30 recruits take promotions from existing employees?

Horgan isn't concerned: “I think the reality is that management is promoting people in this current environment as fast as they dare.

“The big pain point for our existing staff is not how fast am I getting promoted? It's the workload and needing help covering the gaps.

“As the new people come in, they'll very much be seen as the cavalry coming to the rescue rather than a resented cohort.

“Internally the program has been received really well, our people are excited to see something significant being done for them, and provides a new channel for the entire industry to genuinely solve these [talent] pressures.”

Kickstart@OMG is headed by OMG program director Alanna Bowman, also a former senior investment manager at PHD Sydney.

Bowman told AdNews: “Because our industry is not really well known to the general public, we think getting industry people to refer their friends is actually going to be where a lot of applications come from."

In practice, the program will combine theoretical learnings presented by OMG specialists as well as practical training on dedicated client teams such as Telstra, Suncorp, Coles, Vic Gov, Unilever, VW, Asahi and ANZ Bank.

Participants will have the opportunity to specialise in one of many areas such as programmatic, media investment or media planning.

Bowman said: “I think what's unique about this program is that for two months candidates will do 100% training and won't be on a client team yet. Instead they'll learn all the foundations and get the background on media life. 

“After, they'll spend one to two days in training and three to four days on a client team.

“The idea here is that the training which would normally come from their team is done externally. For example, if a team really needed a TV buyer, the recruit can learn to buy TV in the one to two days of their kickstart training.

"Therefore, the program takes pressure off the client team to be doing 100% of the training themselves, and instead the recruit will be able to do training in a bigger group. 

“It actually gives time back to the client team.

“Especially at that account executive and account manager role is what we're really looking for.

“I think especially the account executive role can be quite difficult to find because if someone's been in the agency for a couple of years, they're unlikely to move to a different agency at that same level, they're more likely to go for a manager level. 

“So it can be really hard to find people who have that account exec level, who have experience.

“So people who come in at the kickstart level, after a year, they'll be promoted to an account executive.”

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