Marketers encouraged to improve skillsets to secure senior company roles

News Article - 16 August 2011
Category: Business

Marketers across the UK are being encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and improve their skillsets in order to secure more senior future roles within their company.

By embracing all areas of the organisation in which they work, marketers will appear a more natural fit to play a leading senior role in future years.

Just by taking an interest in how the rest of the business works employees can prepare for senior leadership and management roles more effectively.

Richard Doe, chief executive of ING Direct, said: "You have to encompass everything beyond your specific role.

"As a marketing director if you only focus purely on marketing and don't engage or get under the skin of the rest of the business, particularly in how it makes money, then that's going to be a barrier."

In fact specialising too heavily in one area is viewed as a pitfall for many employees to avoid as this can make it difficult for marketers to move upwards or laterally into a new department.

Ian Filby, CEO of furniture retailer DFS, said: "The danger can be that you get pigeonholed as being really good at X and people convince themselves that your talent wouldn't translate into more lateral roles. My advice is to get out of the comfort zone."

Whilst the onus is on employees to show willingness to improve their skillsets, HR departments should also be encouraged to monitor employees' learning and development.

In order to foster the development of employees and prepare them for more senior roles within the company HR software enables HR departments to manage training requirements, maximising the knowledge of employees' needs and abilities.

Today's HR managers are critically important cogs in any organisation, with the need to advertise, select and nurture employees managers therefore need to equip themselves with the tools to support every aspect of the employee life cycle.

Article keywords: Marketing, recruitment, human resources software, employee learning and development, ING Direct, DFS

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