26th January 2011 posted by Chris
Where are all the Senior PMs…2011?
A year on from the last post about a shortage of Senior PM’s looking for roles and the industry is in the same (if not worse) position. Perm SPM’s looking for a new role is now approaching 7:1. Whereas people looking for freelance SPM is more equal, if anything there are slightly more freelancers than roles. One change since my last post on SPM’s is there are now a lot of freelancers with the SPM title (and rates) that might be considered a PM level in a lot of agencies.
Looking at both the freelance and perm roles available combined means there are almost certainly not enough digital project managers working in the industry.
What does this mean?
• Companies hire freelance SPM’s to cover work and it affects their margins.
• Perm SPM’s who haven’t switched to freelance are working harder to cover more work and sometimes have to pick up on projects if freelancers haven’t delivered.
• Decent freelance SPM’s should have a steady supply of work!
Some thoughts and ideas to reverse the trend?
For agencies….
• Be more open minded about the talent pools from where you recruit and invest in heavily training. Why not re-train a developer in your agency that has the right mindset. Or better still hire a PM from a software background and develop their skills/knowledge.
• Start paying better salary’s for perm SPM’s and factor in career development plans to progress PM’s through your organisation. To put it into perspective an SPM on £50k could earn £65k as a freelancer (assuming they worked every day for 10 months of the year on £300 per day).
• The life of a PM is a tough one; protecting agency margins and keeping clients and other agency departments happy. Even the most diplomatic PM can get on the wrong side of people in other departments and sometimes the issues can be tracked back to badly run processes and heads of PM departments without the internal clout to address and resolve these. If you have high staff turn over in your PM department (and then struggle to recruit because of a shortage of talent) then maybe the solution might lie with the management structure of your organisation.
For freelancer SPM’s…
• Often when freelancing your skill base flat lines, as when interviewing for a role you are judged by what you have done previously and then offered a role to do the same (or less) for someone else.
• Sometimes the agency’s best work will go to their perm PM team and unless you are a specialist (e.g. a video and digital producer combined) this may effect the quality of projects you work on.
• Finding a company that will invest in your development and give you progression could be a good option. Though taking a pay cut to do more of the same might not be! However, it is worth remembering that taking a permanent role means you get paid holiday’s and benefits.
SPM’s working permanently…..
• You are in a good place to manage your career and look for progression and development opportunities.
• If you are considering switching to become a freelancer you should try to maximise your progression opportunities in your current company before making the move. Earning £800 more monthly might not satisfy you for long.
The future outlook….
The lack (could read absence) of agencies hiring of junior PM’s during the recession means this issue will become far worse in years to come. Also the fact that digital projects are becoming very specialised and agency models vary greatly the problem is going to get much worse before it gets any better.
Generally there are no formal digital PM standard courses, of course institutes such as Prince2 and PMI organise general PM training, why don’t the big players in digital get together to organise some industry standard training to develop the talent pool and make digital project management roles more accessible to people entering the market or growing their skills.
My final thought would be that the industry look into remunerating perm PMs’ differently, perhaps giving bonuses for the delivery of projects on time/budget that meet client (and agency) expectations. More people would consider perm vs freelance and agencies would be paying for results.
Intersesting post Chris. In my experience, as a producer, PM, and senior suit, there is also a huge skills shortage. I see plenty of people coming into digital with very little understanding or knowledge of what they’re doing, and in some cases have unjustifiably high salaries or day rates.
Of course agencies are continuing to grow as budgets get freed post recession. More jobs and fewer good candidates means 2 things: wage inflation (for some) and falling standards.
You raise some valid points but I disagree with the point about your skill base flatlining when you freelance. When you contract, you take ownership of your own career progression and it is up to you as an individual to ensure that your skillset is relevant and matches market requirements.
If you establish yourself as a Limited company and invest in diversifying your skillset or developing competencies in a shortage area, you will increase your worth as a consultant and thus differentiate yourself from other candidates working in the same arena.
My observation is that you’re more likely to flatline as a permanent member of staff with respect to skills development – caps on internal training budgets, unsufficient justification for a course that does not align with departmental objectives and being embedded on a client account with ingrained use of technology and process all impose constraints.
On a final note, agencies hire ‘safe hands’ as it reduces the level of risk attached to a project so contractors can and often do get given high profile projects if their skillsets are better matched than those of internal candidates. Different agencies have different approaches to risk management of course but don’t forget that contractors can serve to educate and improve the worth of internal teams by sharing their hard earned knowledge. This an intangible benefit of hiring a contractor which is all too often overlooked as agencies focus on margin versus organisational learning.
I agree Alex that freelancers who actively managing their skill base and being selective about projects can be in a better position than working perm somewhere. I know lots of people that fall into this bracket and they benefit from the best of both worlds.
I also see the value in highly skilled and versatile freelancers + lots of the agencies we work with would agree. I guess where agencies don’t like this model is bringing in freelancers to run standard projects because they can’t find perm SPMs and this is magnified if they bring in someone on an inflated rate that isn’t very capable.
Whether contract or perm employment is the best solution for the industry going forward, I think the problems with the lack of people in the market and rates and salaries going up as a result is the main issue we are/will face. Industry standards and employers investing in training might be the solution….
Why would anyone want to go permanent? Paid holiday and sick leave are finite benefits. The main reason I can be effective as a freelancer is because of frequent breaks, something I couldn’t do on a paltry 20 days a year annual allowance. I like the idea of some sort of performance related pay but it would have to be across the calendar year rather than project by project and it would also have to include the account team. Otherwise I’m left fulfilling the account handler’s promises when the account handler has no direct connection with the project outcome.
Training is just bullsh1t, every employer talks big on training and never delivers, they don’t really see the benefits and it looks like a cost on their balance sheet especially if that investment can just walk out the door on 30 days notice.
The bottom line is politics. Being a free lancer gives you that crucial arms length distance from the company’s internal management strife. You don’t need to be dragged in to other people’s career arcs or the grumblings about if the agency will close at Xmas and if the royal wedding will come out of your holiday allowance and who gets the best perks and which part of the office has the nicest light and why so and so got a promotion when they are a terrible b1tch and so on.
Sometimes being treated like a plumber, an expendable but necessary evil whose main job is to clear blockages, has its upside.
At least we can walk away with a clear conscience having done the job and count ourselves lucky that we don’t have to be there forever.