Companies cramming six roles into one

Source: mseap.com
Source: mseap.com

This may not be practice but it is certainly something that we need to speak about. Now, since my speciality is in the digital marketing and e-commerce space, I’m going to use that as my point of reference, but I do acknowledge that this is happening in many other spaces.

Companies are taking five or more specialisations and have begun combining all of their duties into one role, labelling the roles as “associates” or “juniors” so that they can justify paying people as little as possible.

From the start of this year, I started a series on my TikTok and LinkedIn channels called Companies Are Wilding, where we take a look at job postings, read out their requirements and then offer some suggestions as to what they could have done better. It’s caused quite the wake-up call, but not enough, because by the time we did the fourth video, we realised a lot of the job postings were just continuing to get worse.

People who have just left the companies reviewed started to give their testimony about their treatment, the pay and even abuse they suffered from the employers, and we, the public, have been noticing job roles at the same companies being advertised every three months, some going as far back as three years of trying to fill a role.

Let me give you an example.

There is a job vacancy: Looking for a photographer/videographer.

The responsibilities they want this person to execute are:

• Must create ALL promotional photos and videos for campaigns

• Must capture ALL event content

• They are responsible for the entire process of creating content, from capturing the footage to editing everything

• Must assist the marketing team in hitting its objectives

• Must use graphics, animations, data visualisation, music and voiceovers to create professional-grade content

• Must co-ordinate all activities for the projects

• Must secure and archive all permissions to use photos/videos of individuals

• Remains up to date on photo/video trends

• Must be in the marketing meetings

• Must have excellent knowledge of digital media

• Must have experience with industry editing tools and asset management software

• Ability to multitask and work in a fast-paced environment

• Must be open to flexible working hours

• Sound knowledge of social media

• Must work well under pressure

For the qualifications, they want:

• An associate degree in photography

• Strong proficiency in shooting high-quality cinematic video

• Five years of experience

• Strong portfolio

They even went as far as asking for excellent “IT skills” especially in “editing software.”

Now, there is so much wrong here.

For starters, this company is essentially looking for a team of people and packing all the duties into one role.

No one person should be responsible for the work an entire agency is typically brought in to do, and paid less than what someone should get for doing half the work.

What makes it worse is that this is a full-time, in-office job that will lead to burnout, or the person being able to produce high-quality work, given the duties.

Rather than look for at least three or four freelancers, this company would rather pack all the roles into one.

We understand that a lot of the jobs and roles are pretty new to most companies, and they don’t understand the weight of the responsibilities they are hiring for. Companies in TT are also not learning fast enough the new ways they can add talent to their organisations so that they can attract and retain good talent.

This is why we are seeing so many of the marketing or creative jobs reposting positions every three months, because they have burned out the individual, the person realises that this role isn’t working for them or the company doesn’t like the quality of work being produced, so they let them go.

If companies don’t figure out this problem, they stand to lose big and be left behind in this evolving world.

Our best talent is figuring out that they are no longer limited to jobs in Trinidad and Tobago and are now getting remote jobs working for international clients, freelancing on platforms like Upwork/Fiverr/Freelancer.com or starting up businesses that would allow them to get clients from anywhere in the world.

In the end, local companies are suffering from not spending enough time learning the digital business and how the new formats of work can help all parties involved.

As we go into 2023, the brain drain will continue, but now people do not need to leave the country to work for global entities. They can do that from the comfort of their homes, earn US dollars and be treated better for their skillsets.

Keron Rose is a digital strategist who works with Caribbean entrepreneurs in building and monetising their digital presence. Learn more at KeronRose.com or check out the Digipreneur FM Podcast available on all podcast platforms.

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