Services · Workforce strategy
The right people pointed in the same direction
Most marketing teams are busy without being aligned. Strategic workforce planning sorts out which roles you actually need, who should own what, and how that structure connects to the pipeline number you report on.
“We know that the work we do is aligned with our strategic focus and not a one-off effort. This increases my job satisfaction, knowing that the work I do directly contributes to the success of our objectives.”
How it works
Look at the work before the org chart.
Restructuring usually starts with the wrong question, which is who reports to whom. It starts better with what the plan requires, then which skills that needs, then who has them.
Step one
What the plan needs
- The marketing plan and its priorities
- The pipeline number you report on
- Work nobody is actually doing
Step two
Roles and skills
- Skills the plan requires
- Roles, ownership, and overlap
- In-house, agency, or contractor
Step three
The staffing plan
- Who does what, starting now
- What to hire, and in what order
- What to stop staffing
Scope
What the engagement covers.
Where the team is now
- Current roles, skills, and workload
- Work that duplicates or falls through
- Where agency and in-house overlap
- Engagement and retention risk
The structure the plan needs
- Roles the marketing plan requires
- Ownership of the pipeline number
- In-house versus outside specialists
- How marketing connects to sales
Getting there
- Hiring sequence and role definitions
- Development for people already there
- Vendor and contractor decisions
- How you'll know it worked
This engagement produces the staffing plan. If you want someone to own the marketing plan and manage the team against it, that's fractional CMO.
Case study
How Strategic Workforce Planning Boosted Marketing Department Engagement by 52%
Discover how a Strategic Workforce Planning initiative transformed a marketing department riddled with inefficiencies into a high-performing team with a 52% boost in employee engagement. This whitepaper unveils the step-by-step approach to aligning talent with business goals, fostering collaboration, and driving measurable success.
Read the whitepaperBoost in employee engagement.
Questions
What founders ask me first.
Does this mean layoffs?
Not by default. Most of what I find is people pointed at the wrong work, not too many people. Where a role genuinely isn't needed, you'll see that before anyone else does.
We're small. Is five people enough to plan around?
Yes, and it matters more at five than at fifty. With a small team, one person aimed at the wrong work is a large share of your marketing capacity.
Do you help us hire?
I define the roles, the sequence, and what to screen for, and I'll sit in on interviews. I'm not a recruiter and I don't place candidates.
How does this relate to the other services?
Consulting answers a specific marketing question. Workforce strategy answers who should be doing the work. As fractional CMO I manage the team the plan calls for.
What do we have at the end?
A staffing plan: roles, ownership, hiring sequence, and the development moves for people already on the team, tied to the pipeline number.
Start with the real work
Take 30 minutes to talk through what your team is being asked to do. You'll leave with a clearer read on it either way.