Embracing continuous career development through more proactive talent management tops a list of recommendations for advertising agencies in a report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

The report, based on workshops and roundtables with 150 people across the communications industry including clients, ad agency CEOs, HR directors, new recruits and middle managers (Gen X), urges HR directors to take the initiative with staff, by developing them as they go through various life stages so that they continue to be effective.

Other recommendations include:

• developing a structured approach to meet the expectations of how Generation Y wants to work by identifying ‘rising stars’
  
  
• the re-emergence of the ‘senior suit’ to management of client-agency relationships, and a way to retain older experienced talent in a specialist ‘sideways’ role at a renegotiated salary
  
  
• building talent networks by offering a talent network made up of freelancers

Liz Nottingham, chair of IPA People Management Group, HR director, Starcom MediaVest Group and country talent and transformation officer at Vivaki, says: “Ad-Land cannot be transformed over night, but with these findings we have the opportunity to start the journey now by offering step changes that can make a real difference to the workplace going forwards, by listening to the needs of Gen Y- the idealistic tech-savvy generation who are the managers of the future.”