Over the past year, I’ve increasingly been brought into hiring processes at the point where internal routes haven’t delivered, timelines have tightened, or discretion is critical.
As recruitment and executive search lead for VMA Group North & Midlands, I regularly partner with in-house Talent Acquisition (TA) teams when they have business critical hiring needs in their marketing and communications teams. A common thread runs through the conversations: specialist support works best when it’s positioned as a strategic partnership, not a last-minute contingency.
Here’s what I’m seeing in the market, and how TA teams can get the very best from their specialist recruitment partners in communications and marketing hiring.
1. Confidential Hires: When Visibility Is a Risk
There are situations where organisations simply cannot be seen to be recruiting:
- Replacing an underperforming senior leader
- Building a new function ahead of an announcement
- Managing a sensitive restructure
- Entering a new market
In these cases, discretion is essential and a specialist recruiter can best position opportunity with potential candidates.
A specialist partner allows you to:
- Map the market confidentially
- Approach passive candidates with care
- Protect employer brand
- Maintain internal stability
How TA can maximise value:
Bring your recruitment partner in early. Share the broader business context, even if the brief is sensitive. The more strategic understanding we have, the better we can position the opportunity to senior-level talent without exposing internal dynamics.
2. Time-Sensitive Hiring: When Continuity Is at Risk
Another trend I’ve seen is urgent cover requirements:
- Two team members going on maternity leave simultaneously
- Sudden resignations within a small function
- Immediate contractor need during a transformation project
- Critical handover periods before a major launch
Internal TA teams are often stretched, balancing multiple business areas. When speed is essential, specialist recruiters can:
- Access ready-to-move interim talent
- Tap into pre-qualified contractor networks
- Compress time-to-shortlist
- Maintain hiring momentum
How TA can maximise value:
Be clear on non-negotiables versus “nice-to-haves.” In urgent scenarios, precision beats perfection. A tight, realistic brief helps us move quickly without compromising quality.
3. Team Building at Scale: Hiring Multiple Roles Simultaneously
One of the most interesting shifts I’ve seen is organisations choosing to build entire functions at once, rather than hiring a senior leader and asking them to build their team from scratch.
This often happens when:
- The business is repositioning its brand
- Communications or marketing is becoming more strategically aligned to the board
- A digital transformation is underway
- Private equity driving accelerated growth expectations
Simultaneous hiring brings complexity:
- Role clarity and hierarchy is not always defined
- Skills must be complementary, not duplicated
- Ensuring culture team fit without knowing all the pieces
- Timelines need coordination
A specialist recruitment partner can help design the structure as well as fill the roles, ensuring the team works as a cohesive unit across the project. They also know how to engage and reassure potential hires through the process, particularly when their line manager position is also being recruited for.
How TA can maximise value:
Treat your recruitment partner as an extension of your workforce planning process. Share org charts, future plans and reporting lines. The deeper the context, the stronger the long-term team outcome.
4. “We Tried Direct and Didn’t Appoint”
This is perhaps the most common scenario I’ve been brought into over the last 12 months.
The internal team:
- Advertised the role
- Screened applicants
- Interviewed several candidates
- Didn’t find the right calibre
- Now has an urgent vacancy
Often, the challenge isn’t volume, it’s relevance. Senior communications and marketing professionals may not apply to direct adverts, particularly when the salary isn’t shared. They often will get in touch with their trusted recruiters to ask if they are working on the role and want to understand context of the hiring need rather than blindly apply.
Specialist recruiters add value through:
- Deep sector networks
- Credibility within niche talent pools
- Honest market insight on salary and expectations
- Repositioning the opportunity where needed
How TA can maximise value:
Be open about what didn’t work. Was it salary? Scope? Location? Hybrid expectations? Senior candidates respond to authenticity, and so do recruitment partners. The more transparent the post-mortem, the stronger the relaunch.
The Strategic Shift From Supplier to Partner
The most successful TA relationships share a few characteristics:
- Early involvement, not emergency-only engagement
- Honest feedback loops on both sides
- Clear ownership between internal and external teams
- A shared understanding of employer brand positioning
- Realistic alignment on market conditions
In a competitive communications and marketing talent market, specialist recruitment shouldn’t be viewed as a sign of internal weakness. It’s a strategic lever.
FAQs
TA teams typically engage specialist recruiters for confidential hires, urgent vacancies, senior appointments or roles that have not delivered through direct advertising. Early involvement often results in stronger shortlists and a more efficient hiring process.
Many senior professionals are passive candidates who prefer confidential conversations before entering a formal process. They want insight into strategic objectives, reporting lines and business context.
Clarity is critical. Aligning internally on essential requirements, salary expectations and working patterns helps avoid delays. Partnering with a specialist recruiter with access to established interim and contractor networks can significantly accelerate time-to-hire.
Author Bio
Julie Mazzei is an Account Director at VMA Group, leading the North and Midlands practice across communications and marketing recruitment and executive search. With deep regional network and market expertise, she helps organisations secure the strategic communications talent needed to manage reputational risk and support long-term business performance.
