Empowering your workforce to be creative

Without a happy and thriving workforce, your business will struggle to be successful. Creativity is key in marketing and empowering your experts can make all the difference to both atmosphere and output. 

However, there’s little doubt that COVID-19 has shaken up business as usual – so how can your company balance essential processes with creativity?

Having full control of your marketing processes and utilizing the power of technology can certainly provide a launchpad for creative victories. In this article, we take a look at how you can transform your creative efforts effectively.

The roles of technology and in-house marketing

In-housing, driven by various factors including powerful technology, has been a hot topic in recent years. In a recent study, marketers revealed that they feel in-house marketing will be essential to the sector this year and in the future. 

Bannerflow carries out an annual report looking into the state of in-house marketing – the 2021 study reveals that 58% of marketing decision-makers have noted creativity increases from their in-house teams.

Businesses involved in the study are looking to in-housing more and more, too – 73% said they’ve brought all or some of their digital marketing in-house showing a clear popularity increase.

CEO of Bannerflow, Nicholas Högberg, commented on the findings:

“After a turbulent and challenging year for most sectors, many marketing teams remain in-house, but it’s great to see that creativity isn’t being limited – instead it’s flourishing.”

Creativity certainly seems to have been high on the agenda for marketers in the past year. Many have strived to empower this within their in-house teams and maintain motivation during COVID-19 times.

So what have marketers done to inspire creativity in their in-house teams?

• Creative workshops – 66%

• Cross-team collaboration tasks – 65%

• Collaboration tech – 63%

• Training – 48%

Interestingly, barriers included organizational structure, pressure to deliver results, plus lack of time and technology. 

When it comes to tech – digital transformation has been a big topic for many years, especially in the past year. In fact, digital communications have been sped up by up to four years due to the pandemic, according to a McKinsey report. 

Widening your technical capabilities can be a huge driver for success in this area and can amalgamate with in-house marketing to inspire a recipe for success when implemented effectively. 

In-house marketing is an exciting, evolving framework and solution – it’s also incredibly flexible and can work for your business in ways that can fit for your business. Businesses are choosing from three ways of in-house working that click with their structure – these are:

• A complete in-house marketing agency model 

• A traditional method 

• A hybrid approach

Moving further forwards into 2021 and the future, 62% of marketers think in-housing will create the space for more efficient working in a remote setting. In addition, 58% envisage it helping to save on external costs and 57% believe it could increase creativity.

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The next steps you can take to empower your workforce

• Get everyone involved 

It’s not just the exec team who has great ideas. Lean on your delivery teams for inspiration and creativity when it comes to the services you offer and how to keep people happy in your business. They carry out the day-to-day work so know first-hand what’s important and what’s achievable. Blue sky thinking is great but only if the idea can be serviced. 

• Allocate time for creativity 

Capacity may be tight but it’s important that time is allowed for people to get their heads together and thinking creatively. Schedule dedicated internal time for this and encourage employees to work collaboratively. This could be a regular meeting to discuss plans and strategy or simply an hour in an employee’s schedule for them to think about projects or plans and to offer up to three creative solutions for everyone to consider. 

• Mix up teams 

It’s easy for people to get stuck in a certain way of thinking so have a shake-up when it comes to teams. Encourage cross-collaboration and ask that people learn what others have to offer or what they need for the business to thrive and be innovative. 

Your marketing team, for example, may need more input from your sales team in terms of what messaging they think works with clients and what keeps people engaged. 

Mix up your teams regularly, ensure people get face-to-face time with those they don’t work with day today and you’ll soon start to see creative solutions to problems at hand. 

• Delegate responsibility 

It’s understandable as a manager or business owner to want to keep those creative ideas close to your chest but delegating responsibility for coming up with ideas can empower people to think creatively. Let people lead and take inspiration from them. 

• Set clear expectations 

Don’t send your employees off on a wild creativity goose chase, ensure they understand why they’re being asked to come up with ideas or get involved with wider business decisions. Set boundaries on what they’re expected to achieve or offer up and you’ll find people more inclined to get involved. 

Try to avoid tight deadlines, give people plenty of time to come up with creative solutions to problems. This means taking the time to scope out your plans for the months ahead and briefing people in beforehand on what you aim to achieve and how they can contribute. 

• Introduce tools that help with collaboration

Project management tools and collaboration tools that allow your workforce to band together to come up with more creative ideas is essential when adopting this shift in mindset. 

It’s even more important with more and more businesses now working remotely, allowing employees access to platforms that make collaborations easy. 

• Reconsider what you can do in house 

You know your industry and business better than anyone. Is there work that can be managed in-house that can be injected with a little creativity? As noted, marketing is one area where many businesses are implementing in-house teams. 

This allows them to implement processes that allow room for creativity with no need to brief in and manage an external agency. Take back your content creation for social media channels and print advertising. 

Is there something that can be done with tone of voice to increase engagement? Are you sharing your message on the right platforms? It’s time to rethink and strategize creatively when spreading the word about what you can do. 

• Be transparent

Much like setting clear goals and objectives when empowering people to be creative, you should also be transparent about why you’re encouraging this and what you hope to achieve. Everyone needs to be bought into this creative approach and so transparency at the start is key. 

Moving your marketing team in-house can have clear benefits for your business – combined with being progressive with technology can contribute to empowering your workforce for years to come

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About Author: This article is written by a marketing team member at HR Cloud. HR Cloud is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.