How To “Uberize” Your Marketing Department Structure with a Liquid Workforce

How to Be a Better Marketing Manager with a Liquid Workforce

If you're a Marketing Manager or Director and lead a team, I suspect you will recognize these common and worrisome trends: shrinking budgets, headcount freezes, salary caps for new-hires, procurement restrictions for engaging freelancers, limited career tracks for specialists. I know because I’ve been there.

Likewise, I bet you intuitively recognize that there has to be a better way to structure and manage your department. You need [fast access to talent](https://www.workmarket.com/work-os) you know and trust on a flexible basis, and the talented people you know need an easy way to plug into your company and get paid – compliantly, securely and hassle free.

WorkMarket solved these problems for me – it’s a key driver of why I joined the company earlier this year. As CMO, I did what many “new breed marketing departments” are doing to structure their department – I built my own Marketing Labor Cloud and created a liquid marketing workforce to run my department. The results have been higher productivity, team engagement, and growth well beyond our numbers.

Here’s how I got started and how you can too:

1. Make a list of the most talented people you know. Be thorough – former employees, freelancers, alumni, interns, agency partners, etc. Find out if they freelance (or would like to start!) and, if they have a full-time gig, whether they “second shift” (i.e., do extra work on the side).
2. Make a list of projects or skill gaps in your department. Write briefs for the specific work that needs to be done.
3. Connect the two through WorkMarket. Here’s how:
1. Create your liquid team by having your key talent log into WorkMarket and build their profiles. (It takes about five minutes, especially if they upload their LinkedIn profiles in one click).
2. Build your company profile in WorkMarket. (There is no tech integration so you don’t need any procurement or tech department approvals to get started).
3. Send a project brief to your liquid team through WorkMarket. Super simple.
4. Use the system to assign tasks, track their hours and pay them. No hassle.

As one of my team members put it: “My ‘marketing labor cloud’ makes me look like a hero. Just last week, I was at an ANA Conference and on deadline for our 2016 Workforce Productivity Report. I dispatched a brief to one of my marketing-cloud team members, who finished the report while I focused on the conference. I delivered an exceptional product, our cloud-team member made some money. It was a win/win.”

In a few years, this will be the way every Marketing department gets things done. Why not be ahead of the curve?

3 Ways to Implement a Liquid Workforce Model

Accenture coined the phrase “liquid workforce” to describe the trend toward workforce expansion in its must-read report, Accenture Technology Vision 2016. It describes how cloud technology is enabling companies to employ agile, flexible workforce teams – a spectrum of full-time workers, agencies, temps and true freelancers – through intelligent automation and a single integrated dashboard. A few insights that are particularly compelling:

1. Last year, Millennials became the largest generation in the workforce. Their very different demands require new engagement strategies.
2. In three years, 43% of the U.S. workforce is expected to be freelance. This will transform how enterprises find and deploy talent.
3. In less than five years, a Fortune 2000 company will exist with no full-time workers outside of the C-suite.

You might be thinking that this sounds more like a startup model but, in fact, it is traditional enterprise companies that are leading the way. For example, as part of its FastWorks program, GE is embedding lean startup practices into their culture to make faster decisions while staying close to customers. Likewise, Walgreens is leveraging innovative technology to empower flexible servicing of stores around the country, and brands from JPMorgan Chase to FedEx are using service providers like NAVCO, which has been relying on a flexible, liquid workforce to respond to their clients’ needs quickly and more efficiently, for years.

The liquid workforce model is a new and emerging source of competitive advantage, and the trend is here to stay. Imagine what it could mean for your Marketing department:

1. Do More, Spend Less

   Fill immediate skill gaps and drive under-resourced projects when you don’t have budget for an agency.

2. Attract Millennials

   Chances are your Millennial team members already work a “second-shift” after-hours to learn and make a little extra money. Implementing a fluid workforce model will help you attract more talented Millennials, both full-time and part-time.

3. “Port” Your Talent

   Over time, as you build your stable of talent, you will have the ability to take these teams with you to any new department or company, with no non-competes or professional courtesies preventing you from tapping into your trained, portable team on Day 1 in your new role.

Get Started

WorkMarket makes it easy to get started building your own agile team. Head on over to the [Work OS](https://www.workmarket.com/work-os) page to learn the full capabilities of our workforce solution and sign up for a free account. What have you got to lose?