How to Advise Your Hiring Team on MOPs Recruitment

TLDR: Demand for skilled MOPs people far outstrips the supply. To attract and retain the best talent, your recruitment process should focus on the candidate experience, and the employee experience.

Demand for skilled professionals in Marketing Operations has long outpaced the supply, and the current job market is especially driven by talent. Top MOPs candidates have the bargaining power to take or stay in roles with the most attractive company cultures and compensation packages, and for as long as that’s the case, companies that hire without regard for the candidate experience will struggle to attract and retain the best talent.

Long-winded interview processes, a lack of long-term thinking for each hire; if this accurately characterizes your organization’s approach to recruitment, it’s time for a Tough Talk. We’ll help you discuss what effective MOPs recruitment looks like with your CMO and Hiring Manager, so your team can get great candidates onside and nurture them for long-term success.

THE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

Far too often, companies in the MOPs space operate with the assumption that the logistics of recruitment should work in their favor. Really, the process is a two-way street. In each interaction, candidates are scoping out whether your organization is the right place for them to work, and considering the scarcity of MOPs skills, the people with real potential to excel in your roles hold all of the cards.

With that in mind, encourage your leadership and hiring teams to view their recruitment practices through the candidate’s eyes. Does a job description that asks for the world position your company as a rewarding workplace? Is a string of multiple interviews with disparate stakeholders (e.g. Sales, Marketing, IT, Leadership) the most considerate use of a candidate’s time? Is it respectful to require candidates to perform free labor or attend a full-day interview, while working a full-time job?

The candidate experience is not just about extending decency. Practices like these fail at selling your company as an inviting and stimulating place to be, which has real business consequences. If you can’t attract talent, your company faces spending serious dollars on a recruitment agency—and even then, you run the risk of hiring subpar candidates.

At that point, things can deteriorate quickly. So leadership understands: the lost productivity and cost involved in fixing the mistakes of an ill-fitting hire will completely dwarf the size of investments your company should have made; into well-researched role requirements, into building a culture that your talent people advocate for, into a recruitment process that puts the candidate’s needs first, into an attractive compensation package.

TO KEEP PEOPLE, HIRE WITH A PURPOSE

MOPs roles are often multidisciplinary by design, but the worst of the industry’s job descriptions read like laundry lists of competencies both scattershot and highly advanced. Much like the right tools for your business are the ones that effectively support your goals, leadership needs to plan and design new hires around the specific needs of the MOPs team.

Before your hiring team sits down to write any section of a job description, tell them all about the skill gaps and upcoming projects in the MOPs team. This is the basis of an intentional hire, and by listening, your hiring team can identify the experience that’s truly important for candidates to bring vs. skills that transfer or can be taught.

As an example: many roles seek experience with a particular marketing automation platform, but experience using one platform is highly transferable to another. Unless particular expertise is crucial to the position, keeping the role platform agnostic will attract a broader range of competent candidates who can learn new skills in the role.

This is essential for employee retention. Rather than looking for a candidate who fits your requirements 100%, prioritize candidates who’re 80% there. Your hiring team should think of it this way: a 100% fit candidate has already been there and done that. Are they going to be satisfied in a job that doesn’t represent meaningful progression? You might offer them a higher salary than their current position, but there’s no telling if that’ll incentivize them to stay long-term.

Your 80% fit, however, can truly gain something from taking the job. That makes them a better investment; if a candidate can say that your company gave them a chance to take a step forward and develop their skills, that’s real motivation to make their best effort, stay on the team, and advocate for your brand to their network. For your hiring team: the perfect fit has room to grow.

YOUR RECRUITMENT BRAND

Desirable places to work all have this in common: they create environments where people want to stay. To attract the best MOPs talent and keep them around, leadership should focus the recruitment process on two things: the candidate experience, then the employee experience. Treating your candidates and employees with empathy—practices based on candidate needs, a rewarding culture and compensation, hiring to invest in people—is the way you create a workplace that people advocate for.

For any guidance you need with building a MOPs team, Revenue Pulse is here to help.