Martech and data consultancy Venntifact has appointed Leisha Morrison to the newly-created role of head of talent. As head of talent, Morrison will build a new and unique recruitment model within the Australian market.
The new model will help Venntifact’s clients grow their data and technology teams, strengthen their talent attraction and retention strategies, and will grow globally as Venntifact scales. The news forms part of Venntifact’s mission to solve the martech industry’s skills gap through training and talent solutions, alongside its consulting business.
“When we talk about there being a skills shortage in martech, we don’t necessarily mean that there aren’t enough technical people,” said Morrison. “Often, a candidate is very technical but lacks specific knowledge or understanding of the business problems that brands are attempting to solve today. This is largely because they’ve never been given the opportunity to learn in these areas, creating a bottleneck for emerging talent.”
Morrison has designed a flexible project-based recruitment model, meaning big recruitment fees will no longer be the only option open to businesses when using external help to recruit tech talent.
A business might be looking for full end-to-end recruitment, or they might simply need consulting on defining the technical requirements of the role, how to assess these skill sets, or simply need help with their diversity and inclusion strategy, for example.
“Many businesses have a strong internal methodology for most of the recruitment process such as arranging interviews, controlling hiring managers and offering a contract,” Morrison said. “This is why, generally speaking, they don’t see the value in paying five figures for what they see as simply ‘providing a few CVs.’
“Venntifact aims to offer a more affordable, project-based model, fit for purpose for brands that are undertaking digital transformation, building new teams or capabilities, or looking to build resourcing for new technology which is being on-boarded to the business.
“We have designed our talent services to fit around the stages of the recruitment process that we’ve observed businesses most need help. If you only want help developing the job description, assessing candidate technical skills or sourcing CVs, we’ll only charge you for that part of the process. It really is a more flexible solution.”
Morrison is well versed in solving these challenges in the data and technology field, having founded the popular Women in Data networking events in Sydney, which are sponsored by the likes of Accenture and KPMG and have partnered with Atlassian and Canva as an innovative way to attract diverse talent.
“Diversity and inclusion is a critical factor in any talent strategy,” she said. “The first step involves driving awareness from the top down, and the second is about coming up with sustainable, actionable solutions.”
Along with an expanding talent team, Venntifact recently partnered with social learning platform OpenLearning on a series of online courses to help marketing and digital professionals stay up to date with the evolving demands of modern digital roles.
Morrison plans to leverage this training platform to engage with candidates on more occasions than when they’re simply looking to find a new role. Having previously worked as client services lead at Precision Sourcing Australia – where she founded Women in Data – Morrison knows only too well of the need for such a platform.
Venntifact co-founder, Damon Etherington, added: “Talent is a core part of Venntifact’s value proposition and something all brands need help with in our evolving industry. We’re thrilled to have Leisha onboard helping brands to solve their tech and data talent needs in innovative ways. The industry is crying out for strong leadership in addressing the skills shortage, and Leisha’s values and capability are a perfect match for making a significant impact.”
The appointment follows a period of rapid growth for Venntifact, which has seen Deloitte Digital’s Jakub Drhlik join the business as director of consulting, and James Wawne joining to lead Venntifact’s Brisbane office. Since its launch in early 2018, Venntifact has grown to a team of 30, working with brands including Xero, Westpac, Flight Centre and Virgin Australia.
The company’s mission is to develop skills and capability for the data-driven digital economy, help brands to build an effective technology strategy and empower teams to deliver data-driven customer experiences.
