B2B marketers across the US and UK are as likely to report that their staffing levels have decreased as increased this year relative to last, per results from a study [download page] from Integrate and Demand Metric. Some 36% say that they have significantly (12%) or slightly (24%) more staff (including full-time, part-time and contractors), while 37% say they have significantly (13%) or slightly (24%) less staff.
These results are not consistent across geographies, though. Respondents from the US are more likely to report higher (44%) than lower (28%) levels of staffing this year relative to last, while for those in the UK it’s the opposite, with 29% saying their staffing levels have grown against 40% saying they’ve shrunk.
Additionally, the rate of attrition appears to be higher among marketers in the UK. Among those who have experienced attrition or staffing cuts, 41% in the UK say that more than 15% of their staff has been let go in the past 6 months, compared to 35% of those in the US who say the same.
Likewise, budgets trends are diverging across the Atlantic. Whereas B2B marketers in the US are more apt to say their budget is higher (45%) than lower (31%) this year relative to last, their counterparts in the UK aren’t as fortunate, with more saying their budgets have decreased (45%) than increased (34%).
It’s possible that budgets in the US are growing in response to marketers’ widening responsibilities since the pandemic.
Nonetheless, both groups are responding in somewhat similar fashion. When asked how their companies are adapting to layoffs or budget cuts, the leading response for both those in the US and the UK was to cut travel budgets, as cited by 51% of the former and 40% of the latter. However, US marketers are consolidating teams/jobs (49%) to a greater extent than their UK counterparts (34%), with the latter instead more likely to rely on contractors (38%).
Also of note is that US marketers are about as likely to cope by relying on agencies (36%) than contractors (35%), whereas in the UK it has been slightly more common to rely on contractors (38%) than agencies (32%) in response to budget cuts or layoffs.
For more, download the report here.
About the Data: The results are based on a March survey of 547 marketers at mostly B2B (53%) and both B2C and B2B (47%) companies in the US (56%) and UK (44%), across industries and company sizes.
