The annual study undertaken by Arktic Fox and Michael Page Australia surveyed more than 220 marketing and digital leaders across Australia, with the major issues uncovered relating to training and development.
The study found that nearly four in 10 teams do not have a dedicated training and development budget in place, and of the ones that do, 41 per cent are investing $1,000 or less per team member in training and development.
This lack of investment is occurring in companies of all sizes, with the study finding that 55% of the companies without training budgets having a turnover of $50m and 34% having a turnover above $100m.
The study also covered topics such as digital transformation, how ready teams are for impending privacy and 3rd party cookie changes, and MarTech areas of investment.
Teresa Sperti, founder and director of Arktic Fox, said: “A good learning and development program isn’t just about training, it is about leveraging an array of learning modes and providing learning opportunities for team members to bolster their skills and experience, across both soft and technical skill areas.”
“Whilst on-the-job learning has always been seen as the best approach, the cost of not complementing this with other forms of learning and development can be significant.”
Also found within the report are figures relating to knowledge and literacy within marketing teams, with 34% of leaders agreeing that data literacy is strong within their marketing department and 55% of marketing leaders admitting they don’t feel they and their teams have a strong understanding and knowledge of Australian privacy principles.
It also found that 57% of those who see brand development and brand purpose in their top 3 priorities
do not have full ownership over leading the CX agenda, which Laura Houlston, director of Michael Page Australia, says requires “marketers to influence up and across the organisation.”
“As marketers’ remits expand and we are expected to play a bigger leadership role, the ability to manage up and across the organisation and influence becomes critical – but leaders are telling us that it is these soft skills where the biggest skill gaps exist,” she said.
