TKR Group reached out to the top healthcare agencies here in Sydney to address the talent shortage, the need for pharma marketers and the growing demand from their clients to build bigger teams to keep up with the volume of work across the industry.
Read the full article here; Adnews
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TKR Group have been working with some of the nation’s most loved experiential agencies, where they have been pushing the boundaries when it comes to the customer experience.
We have seen a huge shift over the past 6 months where experiential agencies are demanding top talent as their clients are pushing for their budgets to be utilised more with experiential marketing.
We have reached out to a few of the agency leaders to hear more about what they are seeing when it comes to experiential marketing and the need to find top talent;
Vinny Panchal, Group Managing Director at Jack Morton and Weber Shandwick says;
We are witnessing a significant shift in brand owners’ expectations, driven by the increasing investment in creating exceptional experiences that are more than just one moment in time. It’s more than a specific channel. We all (clients, agencies, talent) want our ideas to work harder, be more integrated, capture more attention, and make a more meaningful connection.
At Jack Morton, our teams counsel clients across brand strategy and storytelling, experiences, content creation, tech usage and innovation, stagecraft, data analytics, demand gen, logistics and supply chain. They also advise in specialist practice areas like Sponsorship, Healthcare and Diversity-Marketing. It’s a lot, right? What we do is not easy. It’s hugely complex, but when done right, it delivers extraordinary.
Having the best talent remains crucial to helping us meet the demands of this hugely progressive category. Clients like Amazon, Canva and Google seek to craft consistent and holistic experiences where people can move seamlessly between real-world and digital channels, between local and global. And brands like adidas are looking to us to find new canvases for creativity to shine. They can’t all compete in media to be heard. They want ideas that generate earned opportunities, create conversation, and market themselves.
That’s why Jack Morton will always be on a journey to design a better workplace to attract talent that can deliver on this ambition. You can’t stop. Today we are rewriting our creative briefs to drive diversity, asking applicants what adjustments they need to excel in the workplace. Still, our biggest focus is helping our clients reach for zero with completely sustainable experiences. These things take patience, passion, and people like you, the reader. Let’s foster a culture of belonging, which we know will translate into more meaningful experiences for our clients, our teams and our communities.
Karina Munoz, Head of Clients at Amplify says;
Australia is home to some of the most important cultural moments in the world right now. In 2023 alone we’ve seen Sydney WorldPride, FIFA Women’s World Cup and later in the year, we will play host to the inaugural year of SXSW Sydney, so it makes sense that brands are increasingly investing their marketing budgets towards brand experience. Experiential marketing gives brands the opportunity to connect with their audience like no other discipline, as we are reaching people who are already invested in a shared interest or passion.
At Amplify, we’re lucky enough to partner with some of the most innovative brands in the world to bring these tentpole moments to life, and so having the right talent in the building is a constant priority. Our agile approach as a global agency means our creative ideas, craft and talent are not siloed by set geographies.
Amplify’s social mission is to ‘connect with, enable and champion young creative talent, from all walks of life’. To achieve overall change in our agency and the industry, we must prioritise looking beyond the traditional talent pipeline. Having a range of talent enables us to approach challenges from different perspectives. In order to support a more diverse workforce, we’ve worked to ensure our business is set-up to support people in different situations, with a variety of perspectives considered. We believe we have a collective responsibility to ‘pass the baton’, and we try to lead by example.
Gus Guthrie, Founder, Momentum WW Says;
In some ways, COVID was the best brief Momentum ever received, allowing us to develop new capabilities and strategies that we have carried forward to this day. But it wasn’t fun.
Until 2020, “Experiential” was largely synonymous with “Live”. The pandemic forced us to redefine the idea of experiential, both for ourselves and our clients and embrace virtual and hybrid events.
It also enabled us to eliminate borders and offices in North America. We built a single creative offering where the right talent could flow to the right project. Creatives from New York began working on Chicago projects, Atlanta creatives began working with creatives from Toronto – and the results were better than our hopes – and this is being expanded across the globe.
By removing silos, we discovered capabilities we did not know we had, ideas we did not know we could think of, new skillsets for our creative talent to develop, new outlets for their abilities, new creative structures for our accounts, and new pathways to leadership for our high performers.
In this way our team can see their ideas come to life overseas and learn new skills from other Momentum offices eg: working with the team behind the AI- powered Coke Studio experience at music festivals that turns fans into rock stars with their own unique band name, first single, album art and music video.
With every step we are becoming stronger as an agency, our ideas have become better, our employees are more fulfilled, our clients happier and we grow as a company with global opportunities proving a magnet for top experiential talent.
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Creating a standout CV involves presenting your skills, experiences, and achievements in a clear and compelling way. Here are some tips to help you craft an impressive CV:
- Format and Structure:
- Keep it concise
- Use a clean and professional font that prints well.
- Organize your information with clear headings and bullet points for easy readability.
- Contact Information:
- Include your full name, professional email address, and phone number.
- You don’t need to include personal details like your date of birth or home address.
- Professional Summary/Objective:
- Write a brief, targeted summary that highlights your key skills and career goals. Add tone of voice, nice to read something that injects a bit of your personality.
- Tailor this section for each application, aligning it with the specific job you’re applying for.
- Work Experience:
- List your work experience in reverse chronological order (most recent first).
- For each position, include your job title, company name, location, and employment dates.
- Announce your appointment and what you were employed to do, who you reported to (title) and if you had any direct reports.
- Use action verbs to describe your achievements and responsibilities.
- Focus on quantifiable results and accomplishments rather than just listing duties.
- Education:
- Include your educational background, starting with the most recent qualification.
- Mention the institution’s name, degree earned, and any honors or relevant coursework.
- Skills:
- Create a dedicated section for your key skills.
- Include both hard skills (e.g., programming languages, software proficiency) and soft skills (e.g., communication, leadership).
- Achievements and Accomplishments:
- Highlight any awards, certifications, or significant accomplishments relevant to the job you’re seeking.
- Showcase how you contributed to the success of projects or teams.
- Keywords:
- Incorporate industry-specific keywords from the job description to make your CV more ATS-friendly (Applicant Tracking System).
- Proofread:
- Double-check for grammar and spelling errors. Typos can leave a negative impression.
- References:
- It’s not necessary to include references on your CV. You can provide them separately if requested.
Remember that a standout CV is one that effectively communicates your skills, experiences, and potential value to potential employers.
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Skill has overturned education when checking off the checklist for a new hire.
Read the full article here: https://www.adnews.com.au/news/jobs-intelligence-a-shift-in-what-recruiters-are-looking-for
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Since coming back to the office in January, it’s been different.
It seems the days where we were having two really quick interviews in a week to ensure that the offer was out on a Friday and a contract drawn the next working day are gone.
It’s a lot slower, the pace is not as frantic, its calculated and the interview step for a face to face is back – which is great!
Teams interviews are a great way to initially connect, but let’s face it, it’s so important to head into your future place of work and actually meet the people that you will be spending most of your time with.
After lockdown, we had this new way of interacting with people, then the candidate drought happened and as we are now coming out the other side to the old new, its refreshing to see candidates excited about heading into the agency to meet their new boss or going across town to meet their new client.
Lara Hewitt, R/GA Talent Director says;
“I think most of us have now officially mastered the zoom interview. But that initial awkwardness as you confirm you can both hear each other, the anxiousness you glean off a candidate as they go to share screen and the throwback to lockdown it summons in some people, means that we are welcoming face to face with open arms.
Saying that, I think it’s always important to remember the ‘why’ of face-to-face – it’s not the right fit for every scenario. At R/GA we fully encourage flexibility – in person is not mandated. From a talent point of view, we of course always want to meet and get to know our potential candidates and in person is undoubtedly the strongest way to connect and engage.”
Ella Ward, Head of DDB Experience at DDB says
“When it comes to a new role, the in-office experience is quickly returning to become one of the most important focuses of candidates’ questioning. It’s less “How often can I WFH?”, and more “What is your agency culture like?”.So yes, Teams calls are great for the first fact-finding chat, but all good candidates (and good agencies) are moving to face to face interviews after that. It’s the best way to get to know each other
Emelie Lundberg, Head of Social and The Works says;
“I recently saw this social post that said, ‘who you choose to work with is one of the most important decisions you’ll make based on the amount of time you’ll spend together’.
We have a hybrid working model at The Works as we believe this helps foster connection and collaboration for our agency. This extends to the interview process where initial rounds often are conducted virtually, but we do feel it’s essential to meet the candidate in person for the final stage.
This gives us an opportunity to get to know candidates on a more personal level, engage in purposeful small talk and see how they interact with others. For them, it’s a chance to get a taste of the workplace culture and meet their potential colleagues – both important factors when considering a new position.”
Katie Raleigh, Managing Partner and Head of Studio at Poem says
“Our agency fosters and prioritises culture and this is no different with the recruitment process. Our philosophy to recruitment is similar to working-from-home and in-the-office model, we’re flexible. In saying that, it’s more important than ever to bring back face-to-face interviews for both parties involved… The video interview opened up our world up by letting us see we don’t always have to meet in person at each stage of the process and something we still do in the early stages to this date.
Taking the time to carry out a face-to-face meeting allows us to cover ground you might not have on a video call and often topics outside of the heavily focused work questions pop up and can help lead to more inspiring and interesting conversations from both ends. It’s not rocket science, it’s simply being more human by both counterparts taking the time to meet and unless there is a good reason such as being interstate or unattainable, we will always choose face-to-face at that final stage.”
I do believe that flexible working is here to stay, but human interaction is a necessity in our industry. It promotes creativity, production, ideation + banter in the kitchen which is always good for the soul and your mental health.
It’s exciting to see the way recruitment has been shaped now after lockdown and the big change to flexible working in most agency structures.
TKR Group are a specialist Recruitment Agency based in Sydney, run by Director Kirsty Tavae.
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Three in four headhunting conversations have ended up talking about poor mental health. The upcoming industry Mentally Healthy survey results show high levels of depression and anxiety, Co-Chair Andy Wright says. And for the first time in Australia’s history, there are more jobs than there are unemployed people in the wider economy.
Read the full article here from Mi3
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Agencies are paying more for talent, and a current price list for roles from executive recruiters TKR Group demonstrates it. “Wokeism” has taken over “massively” in the workplace and TKR’s Kirsty Tavae says mentors are an invisible influence in most market movements – 60 per cent of her calls are related to people whose mentor has left. Although salaries are surging, most still argue keeping people is about more than money. Hello Social’s Yay Xavian says social currency – ie cred among friends and peers and key cultural calendar events to rally troops around are vital components. WhiteGrey’s CEO, Lee Simpson, says after trying to lure people with office perks, the agency has landed on better balancing remote and home work and culture.
Read the full article here
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Kirsty Tavae, managing director and co-founder of TKR Group, a recruitment agency specialising in placing talent in the advertising industry.
For those that are unaware, we are in one of the biggest candidate short markets we have experienced as recruiters and talent acquisitions in many, many, many years.
Just to provide some context: in 2019, you were able to post a role for an account manager or senior account manager and not have time to filter through the countless applications that came through and be responding at night with getting interviews locked in or sending rejection emails.
Fast forward to today, post lockdown & redundancies, and the flexible work-life culture agencies have adapted to. We are now in one of the hardest sourcing markets in Adland securing top talent for open vacancies because everyone has gotten comfortable even if they are unhappy or unfulfilled in their current role.
Salaries have inflated hugely to secure talent or even to retain talent during counter. It has placed the talent drought on a new level of desperately trying to ensure that the head count needed to maintain the new workplace and clients coming back to market, very, very hard.
Stuart Black, Group CEO of Ward6 and McCann Health says, “It has never been harder to source talent, particularly in account service. And that extends from the most junior to the most senior roles. If, as an agency, you are lucky enough to win new business, that can present a serious resourcing challenge. We are offering more flexibility, more training, and greater benefits than ever before to candidates, so, if you’re not happy with your current employer, now might be the time to have a chat.”
Grace Dong, Talent Acquisitions at DDB says, “It’s one thing to take on a job for the title or salary, another entirely to make the best career choice. At DDB Group, we’re grappling with the market’s competitiveness by focusing on how we make our agency the best and most supportive. We want to attract the right people and keep them here.
Our hiring benchmark – ‘talented and nice’ – really resonates, and our people, leaders, and clients are some of the best in the industry, not just locally but worldwide. We constantly review our policies, we’ve recently changed our core hours to 10am-3pm, and we know that flexibility is at the top of people’s priorities list.
We also want to be challenged – we’re a creative business, so solving problems creatively is more important than meeting every single criteria in a job ad. We’re hiring now and always on the look-out, so get in touch.”
Brenden Fing, Talent Acquisitions from M&C has said, “Because of what the world has experienced in the past two years, agency life has changed forever.
We’ve seen a flourishing recruitment market become a battle ground due to the vast amount of choice on offer, particularly in account service. For us, at M&C Saatchi, we’ve recognised that to cut through the noise, you need to look internally and consider how you can not only provide great career opportunities, but enrich the lives of your current and potential employees. We’re malleable in our approach to employee experience, policies and training opportunities.
Importantly, it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Whilst as a business we roll as one – flexibility and creativity are key when it comes to engaging top talent.”
Sharon Adams, Director of Digital Operations at CHEP says, “The last few years have clearly forced us all to reconsider what’s important, and that’s coming through in what we’re seeing in the talent market. Importantly, it’s forced agencies to re-align to meet those new expectations. At CHEP, we took a lot of time to understand what our people were looking for in the workplace, and are continually striving to better our business to ensure our people have everything they need to grow.
“We do that by focusing on creating an environment that has flexibility at its core, where our people can learn faster, create meaningful work that drives results and by truly understanding the new economy and the role that creativity has to play in it. If you’re looking for an environment where you can bring your whole self to work, learn more than ever before and create brilliant work, drop us a line.”
Yay Xavian, Head of People and Culture at Hello Social says, “Agencies have felt the shift from interviewing to being interviewed, and we are all in the same race for great talent. The industry has had to pivot to compete with not only other agencies, but we are seeing more candidates taking the opportunity to change the direction of their career entirely.
In order to prevent the burnout of our teams, ensure new people are on boarded well, and sufficiently service clients, it is vital for agencies to be well resourced.
P&C functions have had to really lean into their EVP’s at this time, speaking to their teams and filling in the gaps to ensure we are putting our best offers on the table to attract the right talent.”
So, the good news. Now is the time to be in market. Even passively. Have a look at the agencies that have inspired you over the years and see if they are looking for a person that has your skillset.
Are you thinking about your next career move? Now is the time to refresh your CV, update your LinkedIn and see who is doing what now.
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AdNews talks to Kirsty Tavae, the director/co-founder of TKR Group
Is there a talent shortage?
Without a doubt. It’s a candidate market right now with so many agencies in marketing / AdLand looking to secure talent.
What’s causing this?
I believe that due to COVID and the mass of redundancies that occurred last year in AdLand people have been placed end of last year and are only in there first year with the agency/company. The market has turned into a head-hunt only market now and job boards are not delivering on talent like they were this time last year when we were spending days responding to the mass of redundant candidates that were flowing through.
Read the full article here: https://www.adnews.com.au/news/jobs-intelligence-a-candidate-s-market
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I am the Director / Co-Founder of TKR Group which has been operating since 2012 with my husband as the other co-founder / partner.
I come from a recruitment background having worked in Office Support, Media, Publishing and then in Advertising / Entertainment working with global and local advertising agencies as their head-hunter/recruiter across; account services, production, creative, social/content, office support and digital
Read the full article here: https://www.balancethegrind.com.au/interviews/kirsty-tavae-co-founder-director-of-tkr-group/
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