CMOs worried that hybrid working is hampering company creativity

According to Marketing Week, nearly 90% of businesses in Europe are planning to offer employees greater flexibility around where they work. Consequently, many CMOs think hybrid working models could make it challenging to build meaningful relationships within organisations.

“Despite all challenges and concerns, most marketing leaders acknowledge flexible working is key to attracting great talent and improving workforce diversity – both of which lead to bolstering creativity,” the report says.

CMOs must find new ways of working

“Establishing new ways of working and helping employees to adapt would be the top priority of more than three-quarters of marketing leaders.”

Tom Pepper, Senior Director of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions for the EMEA and Latin American regions, is quoted as saying: “Creativity is crucial to brand building and an essential part of being a marketer, so it’s only natural that marketing leaders are concerned about how hybrid working will impact this important skill.”

Recently, Strategic Marketing for Africa, the magazine of the African Marketing Confederation, touched on the challenge of remote working and creativity in the African advertising industry.

Yasser Bagersh, group CEO of Ethiopian-based Cactus Communications, told the publication that, except for three weeks at the height of Covid-19 in April 2020, the company’s creative teams had felt it was more beneficial to be in the office together.

To mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and safeguard jobs, management established two daily shifts to allow for adequate social distancing while creative teams continued to collaborate and co-create in shared office spaces. 

“The creative process requires that people sit together and scribble on walls. When we worked remotely for three weeks our creative teams opted to return to the office for in-person meetings and collaborations,” Bagersh explained.