Page 57 - Adnews Magazine November-December 2021

www.adnews.com.au | November-December2021 57
manager-managed companies. Where you have a split between ownership of control. There's too much focus on the short-term and not enough focus on the long-term.
“We are fortunate that we operate with 50% of our revenues in tech. And therefore we probably naturally operate with more expansive com- panies who, I put it, 'look at the sky rather than look at their boots'.
“Obviously people are reassessing their lives as a result of the pandemic. By the way, I would say CMOs are reassessing their agency relationships. We are seeing a lot of CMOs reassess their agency relations. They're not only reassessing their personal lives, they're reassessing their professional lives.
“The demand for digital talent has been strong and growing and sort
of pushing the price up for many years. This is nothing new. What is new is what we call the levelling up. What we are seeing, and it's good news, is the gender pay gap being reduced. Black, Hispanic, Asian American, we are very strong. We have 40% people of colour across the business, which for a tech company, or a technical services company or technology services company, is unusual.”
Dennis Wong: “The talent squeeze is happening because the industry has for too long relied on imported talent and not grown its own. In short, the elevated demand for work isn’t being fed by a strong enough pipeline of talent.
“It’s also happening because of market disruption — the rise of data and the convergence of differ- ent types of businesses competing for the same talent. For example, a tier-one talent analyst could work in market research, but equally internally for a business such as WooliesX or Sportsbet, or perhaps a hedge fund.
“It’s also happening because marketing isn’t seen to have the lead growth role it once had within most organisations. So agency land isn’t the most aspira- tional place to be, all choices con- sidered for the best talent.”
Carmen Bekker, partner-in- charge, KPMG Customer, Brand & Marketing Advisory: “Everyone wants the best people so we are seeing a competitive market which is driving up the cost of hiring across the marketing sector. I’m grateful we have so many skilled Australians. I encourage everyone to use this time to upskill.
“We are also seeing moves by people to reassess their current roles and consider where they want to go with their careers. We have some fantastic roles open at KPMG in the customer team so if anyone is considering a move into consulting do get in touch with me.
“When the borders open, we should see this situation start to nor- malise. Australia is a very attractive market for top talent, both overseas Australians looking to come home as well as foreign talent looking to come and work here for a few years.”
Above: Michael Stephenson at Nine. Below: Outdoor vaccinations campaigns. oOh!media’s It’s Worth a Shot. JCDecaux national vaccination tally. Far left: Getting outdoors with #VAXTHENATION.