WLP368 How Do You Build a Community of Talent?
Pilar is joined by Doug Haines, the founder of Kalium and Marketing Pros. Doug's entrepreneurial journey began with Kalium, where he successfully recruited talent from South Africa. This positive experience inspired him to launch Marketing Pros, an agency connecting South African marketing professionals with global opportunities. In this episode, Doug discusses the development of both ventures and his strategies for maintaining a robust talent pool.
The idea for Marketing Pros emerged organically from Doug Haynes’ experience running his SEO agency, Kalium. While looking for employees for Kalium, one of his client’s introduced him to his sister, who was based in South Africa. Doug found South Africa to be a great source of talented marketing professionals. However, as a small agency, Kalium couldn’t hire all of the talented individuals they came across!
“We sort of found that there was just a lot of supply of people in the region. But as one small agency that did a very niche thing, we couldn’t employ the vast majority of these people”.
People began approaching Kalium to ask for help in finding South African talent and, from placing a few individuals here and there, Marketing Pros grew into a thriving business connecting international companies with marketing talent in South Africa.
Doug Haines and Sammy.
Finding Talent in South Africa
Doug has had a lot of success finding marketing talent in South Africa for his own company. He believes the quality of talent is very high, and notes that while it is less expensive to hire talent from South Africa than it would be to hire in the UK, it is not “ridiculously cheap”. He attributes the availability of this talent pool to several factors:
The local job market in South Africa is not strong. The South African economy is struggling, and this has made it difficult for well-educated South Africans to find good jobs.
Many well-educated South Africans have historically traveled internationally to find work. They move to places like the UK, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. However, many people would prefer to stay in South Africa.
South Africa offers a good value for the price in terms of quality of marketing professionals. Doug Haynes, who runs a company that places marketing professionals from South Africa with international clients, believes that South Africa is the best region in the world for this, as the quality of talent is equivalent or better than what he sees in the UK.
South Africans have strong communication skills and are good at relationship building. These traits are important for marketing roles.
There is strong cultural alignment between South Africa and western countries like the US and the UK. This alignment makes it easier for South African marketing professionals to work with clients from these countries.
The Advantages of Sourcing Talent First at a Talent Agency
When Marketing Pros was starting out they initially tried to find clients and then find the talent to meet those client’s needs. However, they soon discovered that it worked better to find great talent first and then match that talent with their clients. Doug explains that this approach works well because “ultimately people want great people” and once his company has identified a talented individual they can then focus on finding the right client to place them with.
Marketing Pros selects and recruits marketing talent in South Africa through a series of stages and activities:
Leveraging existing networks. Marketing Pros uses a variety of methods to find talent. They are part of many groups and use those connections to find individuals looking for marketing work. They use social media, including Facebook and WhatsApp groups, to connect with talent. They also have relationships with universities, which they use to connect with potential candidates. Additionally, the company receives referrals, which have helped them build their talent pool.
Hosting a training program. To identify and vet talent, Marketing Pros runs a 12-week training program for early-career marketing professionals. The program, run in partnership with an SEO training fir, is currently offered on a full-time, hybrid basis, with two days per week in the Marketing Pros Cape Town office and three days per week working from home. The training program provides participants with technical skills, but also allows the Marketing Pros team to assess their capabilities over an extended period. After graduating from the 12-week program, Marketing Pros helps participants find placements with client companies.
Building community and providing support. Marketing Pros works to cultivate a strong sense of community among their talent. The company offers a physical office space in Cape Town where talent can work, connect with one another, and participate in events and activities.
The Importance of Community
For Doug, it’s important to build a sense of community for his talent. In addition to offering a physical office space in Cape Town, his company uses Slack to foster connections between their talent and also organizes in-person social events. He’s proud of the value of the peer support that emerges from this community, and the talent they work with can use it to help each other solve work problems and offer advice.
Beyond fostering a sense of community, for Doug it’s important that his company’s provides support to their people. Marketing Pros is an “intermediary” between their talent and the client companies. This involves providing mentoring and coaching, helping talent navigate challenging situations with their clients, and providing general support and advice.
The Employment Relationship
Unlike many other firms that connect international clients with remote freelance talent, Marketing Pros hires their talent as full-time employees. Because they act as the employer of record, Marketing Pros handles payroll, benefits, taxes, and other legal compliance issues, relieving their talent and clients of these burdens. The client companies, in turn, have service-level agreements with Marketing Pros’ UK holding company. This model is particularly attractive to high-quality talent who are looking for stability and career progression.
The company works to build strong, long-term relationships with their clients by trying to understand their business and what success looks like for them. Because Doug and other members of his team who work with clients have backgrounds in marketing, they can relate to the challenges their clients are facing and can offer informed advice about how to approach resourcing.
Find out more about Doug Haines and his companies:
Marketing Pros: https://www.marketingpros.co
Kalium: https://www.kalium.co.uk/
If you’re looking to expand your team and want to talk to Doug about your best options, find him on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/doughaines/
or email him as per the end of the interview.
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