How do you conduct a performance review of your marketing team?

We hire marketing managers and marketing executives varying from entry level through to CMO. What strikes me about marketers in agencies is that they tend to be more demanding, which makes perfect sense given that their jobs are high pressured, billed by the hour and require them to always be on.

There are some key areas to address when recruiting a new marketing hire. They include;

• Ensuring that they fill in their expectations, dreams and goals when they first start.
• A list of KPI's and performance goals should be provided along with a fluid job description.
• Creativity must be addressed and time allocated for marketers to explore possibilities.
• Learning and development schedule to be signed-off on.
• Networking events need to be captured early on so that the marketer can plan their diaies accordingly.
• Address ways in which management will help the marketer achieve their goals.
• Set up weekly calls and monthly meetings with marketers to ensure that they stay on track. Having this in their diary is beneficial because it keeps both parties on track.

Monthly meetings;

• Each month a face to face meeting allows for the marketer to address where they think they are at when it comes to achieving their goals and what they feel they are falling short of.
• Ensure that a written email addresses the conversation and start each monthly meeting with an evaluation from the month before.
• Use this time to motivate your marketing professional and ensure that you share with them where they have succeeded. This is particularly important for marketers who can go from hot to cold, all within a day based on an experience they may have with a customer or internally.
• Empower the marketers on your team to get everything off their chests when it comes to pet peeves.
• Encourage your marketing professionals to share how they would improve your company and culture. 
• Evaluate their performance based on the criteria and never steer away from that.
• Ask your marketing professional how they have contributed to the company's brand, social media presence and marketing efforts. The level of engagement by a marketer actually speaks volumes. If they are not engaged, then they are most likely not going to stay around. You see, good marketers are on social media. Engaged employees are proud to share updates on the company they work for.

Quarterly reviews;

• Aside from the monthly reviews, the quarterly review is all about statistics and deliverables from both sides. Is the company contributing to the overall performance of the employee and assisting them in achieving their goals from a career perspective. What is their social media influence and how is that showing their engagement with the company? Are they contributing to company blogs, social media and promotion. A quarterly review digs deep into the data behind performance.

Yearly reviews;

• Is the company more profitable because the employees contribution is so high? If so, they need to be compensated.
• If their performance has been exceptional and their job has evolved, then a 5 to 10% payrise is the the norm.
• If an employee isn't performing, they would already know this as it would be been a topic in each monthly meeting. At this point, the tough conversation has to be had. With marketers, if they are not happy or wanting to try something new, this is the time that they will be doing it. Most millennials move jobs yearly. 

Key questions when developing a performance plan:

• Strategic priorities and shared goals: This should be based on your on-boarding strategy.
• Performance objective: How does the marketer plan to contribute to the strategic priority or shared goal that is within their role as a marketing professional, whether it is as a marketing manager or marketing executive?
• Measurement and target: What are the customer, poeple and financial KPI's that will measure the marketing professionals success?
• Completion timeframe: When wil the objective be achieved?
• Actual results achieved in relation to specific performance objective.

Marketing Professional development plan questions:

• Learning objective: What skills, knowledge and behaviours are required to support the marketer in meeting their current performance objectives and long-term career goals?
• Key development tactical actions: What activities, experiences or opportunities will assist the marketer in meeting their learning objectives?
• Key responsibilities and timeframe: Who is responsible for organising the development actions and by when are they organised for?
• Outcome: What are the on the job outcomes and behaviours that will be achieved?
• Cost: What are the costs associated with the learning and development action?

Leadership Plan questions:

• Leadership priorities:Be customer experience driven by understanding the psychological profile of your customer and what experience ensures that at every level, their expectations are exceeded. How can you develop and build foundations to create customer advocates? Create a winning culture focused on exceptional marketing capabilities, fostering a can-do approach, culture enhancing actions and recognising your peers for job well done. Be inclusive in the workplace by understanding and working on differences within the team. Collaborate with creativity and workflow.
• Performance objectives: How do you plan to contribute to the marketing strategy or priority within your role?
• Measurement and target: What are th eKpi's that the marketers success will be measured on?
• Completion timeframe: When will these objectives be achieved?
• Actual results: What have you achieved?

Engaging with marketers early and defining the measurement of their performance is integral to the overall engagement level within an organisation. Companies need to plan to have marketing professionals within their company leave at a much more rapid rate than other roles, so ensuring that this is catered for is imperative.