What's in a name? Selecting the right job titles

What's in a name?
How I determined the correct job title for a marketing hire using digital tools

Introduction
After nearly a decade, my company has reestablished its marketing department following leadership changes on the board. As we seek to hire marketing talent, much consideration has been given to the title of the role due to ensure we are attracting the desired applicants. The title of the role becomes increasingly important as it is advertised digitally, and job-seekers are able to filter and specify their search terms to find new roles.

Our Hiring Challenge
While our parent company, Halma, generates over $1.5 billion in revenue, our little subsidiary company contributes less than 3% to total earnings and consists of roughly 20 non-production employees in sales, engineering, and administrative roles. With our limited size and budgets, we intend to attract applicants who are willing and able to execute on marketing projects but who also have the ability to think strategically about the direction of our products and business. Historically, we have seen risks in hiring from high levels of seniority at large companies, as there are expectations from these employees that someone else will do the detailed work. While our leadership team has agreed on the responsibilities of the new marketing role, we have not reached an agreement on the title of the role or the minimum qualifications.

So our challenge is this - What title should be used for this new marketing role to attract applicants through digital hiring channels?

Data Collection

Data was collected using LinkedIn through their Job Search tool. Relevant competitive opportunities were identified that met criteria the following criteria:

Criteria	Filtered Values
Job Function	Marketing
Industry	Hospital & Health Care, Medical Devices, Chemicals, Environmental, Health, Wellness and Fitness, Pharmaceuticals
Experience Level	Entry, Associate, Mid-Senior, Director
Geography	Greater New York City Area

From this refined list, 32 opportunities were identified and various information about the role and company were captured including job title, minimum required years of work experience to apply, company size, and seniority level of role. Additionally, the seniority level of applicants was captured by using LinkedIn’s premium service.

Data Analysis

A first analysis was performed that compared the seniority level of the opportunity to the seniority level of the applicants. The following was observed:

When companies seek an 'Associate' level role they receive:

- 30% of their applications from entry level job seekers

- 60% of their applications from manager or senior level job seekers

- 10% of their applications from director or VP level job seekers

When companies seek a 'Mid-Senior' level role they receive:

- 15% of their applications from entry level job seekers

- 55% of their applications from manager or senior level job seekers

- 30% of their applications from director or VP level job seekers

When companies seek a 'Director' level role they receive:

- 2% of their applications from entry level job seekers

- 45% of their applications from manager or senior level job seekers

- 53% of their applications from director or VP level job seekers

A second analysis was performed that compared the seniority level of the opportunity to the minimum years of experience required by the hiring company to apply to the role. The following was observed:

When companies seek to hire an 'Associate' level role they require applicants to have 3 years minimum work experience, on average.

When companies seek to hire a 'Mid-Senior' level role they require applicants to have 5 years of minimum work experience, on average.

When companies seek to hire a 'Director' level role they require applicants to have 7 years of minimum work experience, on average.

Selecting a Role Level and Title

A decision was made to maximize applications from manager and senior level job seekers while minimizing applications from entry level job seekers. It is assumed that manager and senior level job seekers have built a level of expertise in marketing and can both coordinate and implement marketing activities - to what extent will be determined through the interview and screening process. Meanwhile, it is assumed that entry level job seekers have yet to build up the relevant marketing expertise that our organization currently lacks. 

Considering these assumptions, a Mid-senior level role should be advertised to attract the best fitting applicants. To determine the title of the role, a qualitative analysis was completed to determine which role titles fit best with each level of seniority. 

A few notable trends can be seen from this data. First, 'Product Manager' and 'Marketing Manager' are ambiguous and ill-defined titles that span the 'Associate' and 'Mid-Senior' role levels. Second, the words 'Senior' and 'Global' are used most often in the 'Mid-Senior' role level followed by 'Manager' titles. Lastly, roles at the 'Director' level are quite uniformly defined across companies, as all the job titles in this role level include the word 'Director' in some capacity. 

Given this information, two potential titles and qualifications will be proposed: (1) Senior Marketing Manager; and (2) Global Marketing Manager. Lastly, the qualification for these roles will include at least 4 or 5 minimum years of work experience.

Conclusion

In a fast moving digital world, not only does marketing itself allow for increased segmentation but the hiring of these marketing roles does too. Using the data accessed through LinkedIn Premium, a job description can be created that improves our hiring efficiency and increases our chances to find a marketer that will help drive our company's growth.