Current Retention of Marketing & Tech Roles

With many experiencing a rise in their costs of living, long-lasting job dissatisfaction, and changing safety standards, many Canadians are leaving their jobs for other opportunities. This period, beginning early in 2021, has been dubbed “The Great Resignation”. To learn more about how companies have been affected and how they are pivoting to increase employee retention in digital marketing and tech roles, Jelly Academy ran a survey, sponsored by Innovate BC, to obtain data from 2,000+ participants across Canada.

Jelly Academy is a digital marketing school that relies heavily on listening to hiring managers and industry experts in order to shape our curriculum. As a school, we work hard to stay on top of industry trends in order to determine what skills and credentials are needed for people to land digital marketing roles. Conversely, as Jelly Digital Marketing, the agency, it is also important to us to know what it takes to retain people in digital marketing and tech roles.

The participants of this survey are from Canada’s main industries including Marketing, Financial Services, Transportation, Food and Beverage, and many others. They were asked about the retention of employees in digital roles, what they are actively doing to hire for digital roles, which tactics are being implemented to retain employees in these roles, and how remote or hybrid options are affecting team culture.

A main takeaway from our study is that the majority of Canadian companies, as represented within this sample size, are currently experiencing a downward trend in employee retention for digital-focused marketing and tech roles. While a high percentage of participants cited workplace morale and culture as a reasoning for employee departure, nearly half of respondents admitted that they do not emphasize this within their businesses.

This study guided Jelly Academy to provide insightful recommendations in order to promote employee retention in digital roles. It also highlights the shortcomings of small and large organizations when it comes to proactively hiring and retaining diverse employees in digital roles. Management teams within businesses throughout Canada now have the opportunity to use these results to inform strategies that contribute to an overall more attractive working experience for employees in digital roles.

In order to retain employees in digital roles and attempt to reduce the effects of The Great Resignation, there needs to be greater resources available for employees to be able to continually progress their skills. Employers should also work to strengthen their methods of diverse employee hiring and retention, in order to promote a well-rounded workplace environment. By encouraging employees in digital roles to always be working toward a greater goal, employees are more likely to extend their time with an organization as they remain challenged and invested in their future.

To learn more about the key findings and recommendations by Jelly Academy, read the study here.

Darian Kovacs is the Indigenous founder ofVancouver based SEO company Jelly Digital Marketing & PR and digital marketing school,Jelly Academy. He is the host of the podcastMarketing News Canada, he is a contributing writer for the Globe & Mail, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Canadian Business Quarterly, Future Economy and is on the board ofNPower Canada. He was recently nominated by SME Magazine as Indigenous Entrepreneur of the Year. Darian lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife and four children and likes to mountain bike, watercolour and read in his free time.