All in one web expert required

Sunday, 19 July 2009 12:01

Recently spotted - an ad by a local organisation who were looking for a "website marketer". This person would be responsible for the design and maintenance of the online presence of this particular organisation, as well as the development of 'strategic partnerships' and 'response-driven digital marketing strategy and initiatives'.

Ok - design, maintenance and a strategy. Good to have. Expecting one individual to work on maintenance on one hand and strategy on the other will either present a stretch for someone operating at a maintenance level, or boring and tedious tasks for a strategic operator. But you never know, some people like working at both levels for a bit of variety.

But what inspired this post is the skills/qualifications being sought:

• A tertiary qualification in communication, marketing and/or digital media related discipline
• A minimum of approximately five years related experience
• Demonstrated expertise in web content, usability, architecture, development and design
• Knowledge of web design and programming

How realistic is it to expect to find someone who (regardless of the level they operate at) has a marketing orientation as well as abilities in all those other areas?. It would be a very rare individual indeed who did all these things well, and you would assume the organisation in questions wants that - as opposed to someone who is rubbish at one or more.

You tend to find these web related skills grouped something like this (if grouped at all, some people are very good at one thing and that's ok too):

• Marketing, design and possibly usability.
• Design and development - a combo not that easy to find
• Occasionally, design and programming - even harder to find. Read: expensive.
• Content management, usability and architecture with some level of either development or programming
• Content management, usability, architecture and design

The point being, not all together. Of course it depends on what level of 'knowledge of web design and programming' they want.

Why does this happen in the web field? You don't see ads such as this:

Wanted: Experienced test pilot. As well as at least 20 years of commercial airline experience, applicants must also be skilled in designing avionics systems, and have a demonstrated ability to deliver quality in-flight service including the design of refreshment plans and menu's. They also must have a degree in meteorological analysis and forecasting, and impeccable grooming. Ability to land a plane in a river with no loss of life would be considered advantageous.

From a web professional's perspective, this kind of recruitment strategy does not help our industry. If organisations are serious about doing well online, they need to get serious about recruiting the right skills for the job. Like most other business disciplines, there is a range of skills required and if you don't have an organisation big enough to recruit a team with the relevant composite skills then you should probably consider out-sourcing parts or looking at other flexible options to get the skills you need. Otherwise it simply leads to compromise of quality, missed opportunities and stressed, over-stretched employees. Not to mention less than wowed customers.