Workshop
The Right Staff
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Lauren Wilbert Staff Writer
Introworks Inc., a business-to-business marketing firm that helps clients define their sales and marketing messages, is growing so fast it needs additional staff as soon as possible.
The Hopkins-based company is remodeling its space to accommodate more people, and projects continue to come in with existing accounts and occasional new ones. Introworks has 11 employees now, and expects to double that in two years.
Here's the problem: Introworks President Bob Freytag and his team of managers have been interviewing various candidates for months now, but still haven't hired anyone.
Recently the company came close to landing a new employee, but lost the candidate to a competitor.
But hiring is not the only issue at Introworks. Freytag and co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Mike McMillan want to be sure the company will be prepared to continue once they decide to retire.
Keeping quality intact is especially important for the business partners, who started the company from scratch nearly 15 years ago. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal invited Freytag to discuss these challenges with a panel of experts in recruitment and management.
Filling empty desks
Introworks might be picky when it comes to hiring someone, but then, its products are different than those of a consumer marketing or advertising firm.
"We're much more complex than [advertising] campaigns, and employees need to understand product branding," Freytag said. "We're guiding our clients to also find what their sales strategy might be."
More specifically, the company works with a client's sales and marketing forces to get them on the same page as a company's intended message.
"Your sales force is your No. 1 marketing tool," Freytag said. "If your sales force isn't delivering the same message that the marketing force is promising, it won't work out."
But Introworks might not be conveying its own message clearly to potential employees. Freytag said he's learned that many job candidates get the misperception that the position involves doing market-research reports, and that turns some of them off from completing the interview process.
Freytag and his colleagues aren't just looking for someone with advertising skills. They want someone who is well-rounded in sales, marketing, advertising and writing.
They've tried free-lancing, but realized the company needed someone internally who could be on the premises.
For its next hire, Freytag said, Introworks is looking for a copywriter with a consulting background who is on the path to be creative director (McMillan fills that role now).
This description confused Donna Menzies, owner of Minnetonka-based employee search firm Menzies Search.
"Some things that I thought you wanted, you've gone a different direction," Menzies said. She suggested that Introworks spend time improving its recruiting package to include definitions of its business and operations and what type of employees it wants.
Introworks has contracted with a recruiter, but panelists thought the company should explore other avenues for finding employees.
"We're not tapped into the creative community nearly as much as we should be," Freytag acknowledged.
He could try looking for talent in unlikely venues, such as corporate groups and clients, or even graduate schools.
"The University of St. Thomas has a masters in communication business, with some on the account side and others on the creative side," said Marlys Tamte, president of The Prosper Group Inc., a Minneapolis-based management consulting firm.
"Many [of those students] come from the corporate side, and they get into a masters program and become dissatisfied with their current job," Tamte said. With about 75 percent of masters students changing their jobs upon graduation, that group of professionals could be a ripe pool of talent for Introworks to pull from, she said.
Introworks usually interviews a promising candidate at least four times before making an offer. But after panelists asked how frequently Introworks kept in touch with candidates between interviews, Freytag acknowledged that communication is lacking.
Not hearing from an employer can be discouraging to someone who has other job offers on the table or isn't sure of whether an employer is still interested.
Someone internally should let that candidate know why they're being asked for more interviews, Menzies said. "Tell them, 'It's not that we're not sure [about you], it's because we're more sure.' "
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