Advancing talent at your agency is a vital piece to helping professionals grow.
Without a core professional development plan in place, it may be difficult for individuals to expand their wings and fly. By providing them with the right resources and opportunities to grow, you can help them become strong, hardworking and even more talented individuals.
Whether they are just starting out or been in the game for ten plus years, there is always room to learn and educate themselves on ever-evolving trends.
So how can you help advance your agency professionals and set them up for success? Let’s find out!
1. Help Them Create a Structured Career Path.
Provide your employees with some guidance as to what types of professional development paths they can take.
For example, at PR 20/20 we have a professional development portal that includes a set of standards each professional should accomplish at every level (associate consultant, consultant and senior consultant). Once standardized expectations are met, our professionals have the ability to create their own path (e.g. analytics, writing, SEO).
Although we have the option to branch out and choose particular areas of interest, there are still suggested (and mandatory) resources that can help gain knowledge in each of these tracks.
2. Offer Certifications and Training.
Certifications are a great way to help your agency professionals learn about different trends, technologies, tools, strategies and more. By digging into the nitty-gritty details through classes and training, they can become experts in various subjects.
Some training courses your agency can offer to your employees, include:
Not only will this help your professionals gain more knowledge, but also give them more credibility with clients.
3. Send Professionals to Conferences.
Who doesn’t love an opportunity to network?
Conferences allow professionals to connect with like-minded individuals from across the country and sometimes even the globe. Examples of conferences we send our agency professionals to, include:
- Content Marketing World
- INBOUND
- MarketingProfs B2B Forum
- South by Southwest (SXSW)
- Ohio Inbound Marketing Day
- PRSA Central Ohio Events
Attending conferences can be both a great learning experience and networking opportunity for your team.
4. Promote the Use of New Technology.
Technology is always evolving, which means it’s impossible for your agency to stay on top of every single trend. Or is it?
Push your employees to branch out and explore new technology. Be open-minded if they bring an innovative solution to the table and allow them to explore a technology’s capabilities.
Additionally, encourage employees to write a review on the technology they are testing. Consider hosting these reviews/feedback in a centralized place for future reference.
5. Encourage Knowledge-Share.
Sharing is caring, especially when it comes to advancing talent at your agency.
If your team members do something cool or learn something new, encourage them to share it with others.
For example, our agency shares cool talent tricks, info, notes, etc. via our internal network (Yammer) and during monthly talent meetings. This helps get creative juices flowing and allows others to learn new information in an efficient and effective way.
6. Listen to Your Employees.
All in all the key to advancing your agency professionals is to listen to what they are trying to tell you. Look to your team as a resource as to how they want to grow and learn, and take action to make it happen.
Not everyone has the same learning preferences, so look for ways to consistently adapt to their individual needs.
How do you train and advance your agency professionals? We want to know! Share with us in the comments section below.
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