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Why we invest ten times more in training talent than the average Belgian company
Vincent Kompany tried his hand at Anderlecht, but he didn’t last long as a player/coach. Coaching is not something you can just casually add on the side. At Hybrid, we go against the classic agency model: our experienced team leads are only ‘billable’ 50% of their time, and the other 50% they focus solely on their role as coaches.
Companies that want to carry out projects for, among others, government institutions must meet certain sustainability criteria. This is now more the rule than the exception. What’s new is that some of these companies are now also considering training as an essential part of sustainability. It’s actually quite logical: how can you ever build a sustainable company—a company that still exists and is relevant in x number of years—if you don’t invest in training your employees?
Yet training remains a blind spot for many companies. According to a survey by SD Worx, only 7% of employees aged 25 to 64 (excluding young starters) reported having participated in any form of training or education in the past month. In Belgium, companies are legally required to allow their employees to take five days of training each year. But this is an average at the company level, and it says nothing about the quality or substance of those training programs.
In practice, a large portion of employees miss out, or the training offerings are a series of disconnected efforts: a seminar or conference here, an online course or a lunch & learn there.
Coaches are engines for exponential growth
Training employees should not be a bonus; it must be at the core of your culture and way of working. At Hybrid, training and coaching employees is the beating heart of our organization. According to the VBO, companies invest an average of 2.4% of their labor costs in training. For us, it’s 25%. Ten times more.
Our team leads are 50% of their time billable, and the other 50% goes into training their team members. In the short term, it’s definitely not the most profitable choice to be part marketing agency, part college. Our team leads are experienced professionals, and in the current marketing landscape, we could charge a lot of money for their expertise. But if we sent these experienced people to meetings, brainstorming sessions, and other strategic sessions (like many agencies do to maximize their profitability), who would train the young, raw talent?
We don’t invest a quarter of our labor costs in training out of idealism. It’s an economic choice. Continuing to deliver added value is our only reason for existence. The flow of talent is our only guarantee for long-term sustainable growth. Our team leads are accelerators, engines to make our business grow exponentially. If they train a team of 5 people, and one of those five becomes a team lead, that one person can, in turn, prepare 5 talented individuals. Two teams immediately become four teams. And so on.
Brilliant marketer ≠ brilliant marketing coach
Marketers are not our biggest challenge in the labor market; it’s marketers who have both experience and the ability to distinguish trends from fads, and who also enjoy coaching young talent. We work without account managers. The people you see and talk to as a client are also the ones who are in the trenches, building your campaigns. This dual role requires skills, but above all, self-confidence. And that also requires coaching.
Coaches have a different profile. You can be a brilliant marketer, but that doesn’t make you a good coach. It’s primarily about a shift in mindset. Of course, we will welcome brilliant marketers with open arms, but we won’t force them into a coaching role. A coach should not (anymore) feel the need to be the one on the field. Players who are still eager to score goals should wait a little longer before becoming a coach.
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