afa salary survey highlights new trends

November 27, 2008

The recent Advertising Federation of Australia Salary Survey reports that the advertising industry is turning increasingly towards freelance assistance as agencies fight to reduce their overheads in a slowing economy.

In a recent article from The Australian titled ‘Agencies Turn To Temps To Cut Costs’, it reports that finds in the recent Advertising Federation of Australia salary survey has revealed some interesting trends including the fact that staff turnover has reached near record levels with 79% of people surveyed being in their roles for two years or less, with the most movement being in account management and digital. The industry seems to be suffering from continuous high turn over and short term assignments, which indicates a further reliance on freelancers.

The survey, covering the 2007-08 financial year, was completed by 94 companies representing 3,500 employees. The agencies are from all across the country, representing full service, specialist healthcare and specialist digital agencies.

“The number of companies hiring freelance staff has again increased – from 40 per cent in 2007 to 54 per cent in 2008”, the report says with many of these being in digital production and creative roles.

Those with digital skills are being seen as the most valuable by agencies with many of their clients shifting budgets from more traditional print based advertising to online and one-on-one customer relationship marketing.

Another clear trend that has developed has been in the hire of multi-skilled staff as agencies continue to restructure in line with the current nature of business. This has also allowed agencies to become more financially smarter as their spends are on staff who have skills across multiple disciplines.

The online survey was conducted by Research International and was reviewed by accounting firm, HLB.

www.afa.org.au