The Marketing labor market in Vietnam is witnessing an alarming paradox. Businesses are always in a state of “thirst” for real talent, ready to pay attractive salaries to recruit the best “warriors”. However, the rate of personnel leaving the company after only 3 months of probation is at a record high, creating an endless recruitment whirlpool.

The Marketing Team Management Effective In-house management is becoming a challenging puzzle, causing headaches for many SME business owners. At DPS.MEDIA, with real-world experience since 2017 and having successfully served over 5,400 customers, we deeply understand this pain point of businesses.

According to reputable human resources research, the actual cost of replacing a mid-level Marketing employee can be up to 150% – 200% of the annual total salary of that position. This huge figure includes not only the costs of recruitment and retraining from scratch but also invisible losses due to disruption in the operation of campaigns.

This in-depth article will not share empty management theories from books. We will summarize and send to you the most “bloody” experiences, strategies that have been practically proven to help you build a Marketing team that is not only combat-ready but also long-term cohesive.

Clearly understand the root causes that make Marketing personnel "leave" early

To thoroughly address the issue of early staff turnover, first, those in charge of Marketing Team Management must be brave to look frankly at the root causes. Why do personnel rush to leave before their seats are "warm"? Practical experience shows that the answer often does not lie in salary and bonuses, but in the environment and the way of operation itself.

Unrealistic Expectations and Ambiguity from Leadership

Many SME owners often make serious mistakes when expecting one Marketing staff member to "balance" the whole world. They expect to recruit a "superman" who knows how to write million-view content, run ads that generate explosive orders, and simultaneously handle image design and TikTok video production.

When the daily reality of the job differs greatly from the initial job description, personnel will quickly feel deceived. They become overwhelmed by having to force themselves to do tasks outside their main expertise or strengths. This disappointment and sense of exploitation is the fastest poison to kill work motivation.

Moreover, ambiguity in strategic direction is also a fatal cause. If leadership cannot paint a clear picture of business goals, the Marketing team will work like blind people groping in the dark. This lack of clarity makes them feel their work is meaningless and does not create real value.

Lack of Clear Career Advancement and Development Path

Marketing personnel, especially young Gen Z, often have very high career ambitions and desire continuous development. If after 3 months they still don't see a specific career progression path or opportunities to improve skills, they will start looking for a new landing spot.

A working environment that only knows how to "squeeze" labor without focusing on training or nurturing talent will not be able to keep good people. They need to know that if they dedicate themselves fully, what position they will achieve, what their income level will be, and what they will learn in the next 1-2 years.

Toxic Work Environment and Lack of Deserved Recognition

Corporate culture is the deciding factor to the commitment of employees. A toxic working environment, full of envy, factions, or micromanagement, will make personnel feel suffocated. They cannot promote their creativity – which is the breath of the Marketing industry.

Additionally, the absence of praise or timely recognition when the team achieves results is a common mistake. Marketing personnel often work under high pressure; if their efforts are taken for granted, they will quickly lose fire and feel unappreciated.

List of Early Warning Signs That Staff Are About to Quit:

• Frequency of sudden leave requests or coming in late increases significantly in a short time.
• Reduced interaction in team meetings, fewer contributions of ideas or new suggestions.
• Work attitude becomes indifferent, only completing the minimum to get by.
• Frequently complaining about workload, processes, or other colleagues.
• Unusually updating professional profiles on networks like LinkedIn.

Real example 1: A fashion company recruited for the position of "Content Marketing Specialist". However, upon starting, this person was required to also handle page management, replying to customer messages until 10 PM, and packing goods when the warehouse was overloaded. As a result, she resigned after only 2 weeks due to exhaustion and feeling that she was not working in her expertise.

Real example 2: A Marketing team lead at a tech startup left after 4 months because the CEO kept changing business goals every week. One week focused on user growth, the next demanding immediate profit optimization. This inconsistency prevented the team from building any long-term strategy.

Action lesson: Perform monthly "stay interviews" with new personnel instead of waiting until they submit their resignation to perform "exit interviews". Sincerely listen to the difficulties they are facing and commit to taking action to improve the situation immediately.

Effective Marketing Team Management Starts with Accurate Recruitment

Many issues in the process Marketing Team Management are actually consequences of mistakes right from the recruitment stage. Hiring the wrong person is like trying to fit a mismatched gear into a machine; it will cause damage to the entire system. To retain personnel long-term, you must select the right person from the start.

Build a Detailed and Realistic Candidate Persona

Never start recruiting with a job description (JD) copied superficially from the internet. Take time to sit with relevant departments and build a detailed candidate profile. You need to know exactly who you're looking for, what hard and soft skills they need.

More importantly, clearly identify personality traits that fit your company's current culture. An overly introverted person may struggle in a dynamic, constantly communicating Marketing team. Conversely, an overly individualistic person may cause conflicts in a harmony-focused environment.

Absolute Transparency About Challenges and Pressures During the Interview

A classic mistake of recruiters is only "rosying" the company to attract candidates. They paint a picture of an ideal working environment and broad promotion opportunities but hide the terrible pressure of KPIs and nights having to do OT (overtime) to keep up with campaigns.

At DPS.MEDIA, we always apply the principle of absolute transparency. During the interview, we will share frankly the difficulties and challenges that this position will face. This helps to filter candidates with enough courage and iron spirit, while avoiding "culture shock" when they officially start work.

Use Practical Competency Tests Instead of Relying Solely on CVs

In the Marketing industry, a beautiful CV does not necessarily go hand in hand with actual working capacity. There are many candidates who possess very good "profile polishing" skills but are confused when getting to work. Therefore, applying professional competency tests is an indispensable step in the recruitment process.

Tests should be designed based on real situations the business faces. For example, ask candidates to create a content plan for a new product or analyze a failed ad campaign and propose solutions. Their approach and problem-solving will reveal their thinking ability.

Thoroughly Assess Cultural Fit with the Company

Professional skills can be trained, but attitude and cultural fit are very difficult to change. A staff member with good expertise but a negative, uncooperative attitude will become a "rotten apple" that spoils the whole barrel.

In interviews, use behavioral questions to deeply probe personality and values. Observe how they interact with interviewers, how they speak about past companies or colleagues. These small details often reveal much about their true character.

Comparison table: Old-style recruitment vs Modern recruitment for Marketing team

Real example 1: A real estate business recruiting for Digital Marketing Manager position. They rejected a candidate with 5 years of experience at large corporations because during the interview, the candidate showed arrogance and did not value coordination with the sales team. Instead, they chose someone with less experience but demonstrated humility and excellent teamwork spirit.

Real example 2: DPS.MEDIA when recruiting for Content Creator position always has a test requiring candidates to write 3 different content formats for a hypothetical client within 24 hours. This test helps evaluate the candidate's ability to handle time pressure and diversity in writing styles.

Action lesson: Apply the philosophy of “Hire slow, Fire fast”. Do not rush to recruit an under-standard candidate because of the pressure of being short-staffed. The price to pay for hiring the wrong person is much greater than waiting a little longer to find the right one.

Building an Onboarding process that "touches the joy point" in the first 90 days

The first 90 days (probation period) is the most sensitive phase determining if the employee will stay long-term. A superficial, unprofessional Onboarding process will make new employees feel lost, confused, and want to leave quickly. Conversely, a structured process will help them quickly adapt and feel part of the organization.

First Week: Integrate into Culture and Familiarize with Work Tools

In the first week, the most important goal is not assigning work but making new employees feel welcomed. Prepare everything in advance from computer, email account, access to necessary tools before they arrive. Don't let them sit idle on the first day because the computer isn't ready.

Organize a thorough introduction session with the whole company or at least the Marketing team. Assign a Buddy – an experienced, positive senior employee – to mentor, answer questions, and help the new employee integrate into the team culture during the initial disoriented days.

First Month: Assign Small Tasks, Create Quick Wins

After the familiarization week, start assigning new personnel specific tasks, but at a simple and easy-to-complete level. The purpose is for them to get used to the workflow and, more importantly, to create “quick wins”. The feeling of completing the job well from the start will help them build great confidence.

For example, with a new Content employee, you can assign rewriting old fanpage posts from a new angle, or editing blog articles. Avoid assigning large, complex projects requiring multi-party coordination right away as it can overwhelm them, lead to mistakes, and cause discouragement.

Second Month: Gradually Increase Difficulty and Grant Autonomy

When the employee has adapted to the work rhythm, this is the time the manager Marketing Team Management needs to gradually increase task difficulty and workload. Let them participate more deeply in important campaigns, encourage them to propose ideas and solutions for existing issues.

Start granting them certain autonomy within their scope. For example, allow them to decide on illustrations for articles, or plan content for a week. This trust increases responsibility and makes them feel like an important part of the team.

Third Month: Comprehensive Performance Evaluation and Adjust Expectations

The end of the probation period is the golden time for a comprehensive performance review. Sit down with the employee, review what they've achieved and not achieved compared to initial goals. Provide specific, sincere, constructive feedback.

This is also the time for both parties to adjust expectations for the next phase if they officially join the company. Discuss long-term career development paths, listen to their aspirations, and agree on new challenging KPIs with commensurate benefits.

Sample 30-60-90 Day Onboarding Plan Table for Marketing Staff

Real example 1: A software company with a very poor onboarding process. New employee on the first day has no computer, no guidance, left alone to read outdated documents. As a result, that personnel feels isolated and resigns right after the first week because they feel the environment lacks professionalism.

Real example 2: At a large Agency, each new staff member is given an impressive "Welcome Kit" including a T-shirt, notebook, company-branded water bottle, and a handwritten welcome letter from the CEO. This small action creates a very good initial impression, making the staff feel appreciated and warmly welcomed.

Action lesson: Prepare a detailed checklist for the onboarding process in advance and strictly adhere to it. Don't let busyness sweep you away and forget the extremely important first experiences of new employees. A good first impression will be the anchor that keeps them when facing difficulties later.

The Art of Managing Marketing Teams: Balancing Creative Freedom and KPI Discipline

Managing a Marketing team is an art that requires utmost finesse. You are managing creative people who hate constraints and rigid rules. But at the same time, Marketing is the department directly responsible for dry growth numbers. How to reconcile these seemingly opposite factors?

Set SMART KPIs but Maintain Flexibility

KPI (Key Performance Indicators) is an indispensable tool to measure the effectiveness of the Marketing team. However, imposing KPIs mechanically and rigidly will kill creativity. KPIs need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) but also need some flexibility.

For example, instead of only focusing on the final revenue number (which the Marketing team cannot fully control), set intermediate KPIs (proxy KPIs) that reflect their efforts such as: number of potential customers (Leads), landing page conversion rate, or social media engagement level.

Create a safe space for "crazy" ideas to sprout

Breakthrough creativity often comes from the most seemingly crazy ideas. A good manager is one who creates a psychologically safe environment where employees dare to propose novel ideas without fear of judgment or ridicule if they fail.

Organize periodic brainstorming sessions with the "no judgment" principle. Encourage testing new channels, new content formats (e.g., podcasts, short videos...). Accept the risk that some tests will fail, and consider it a necessary tuition fee to find more effective new directions.

Replace Annual Reviews with Continuous Feedback

The once-a-year performance evaluation model is too outdated, especially in the lightning-fast changing Marketing industry. Don't wait until the end of the year to tell employees what they did wrong from... 6 months ago. By then, everything is too late to fix.

Switch to a continuous feedback culture. Conduct quick 1-1 check-ins weekly or bi-weekly. Timely praise what they do well and immediately suggest points for improvement. This timely feedback helps personnel adjust behavior quickly and feel closely cared for.

Use Technology to Free Staff from Manual Tasks

Nothing kills creativity faster than doing repetitive, boring, time-consuming tasks. Invest in technology tools to automate manual processes, giving Marketing personnel more time for strategic thinking and creative work.

Use CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) to automate lead nurturing, Social Listening tools to monitor market feedback, or project management software (like Asana, Trello) to track work progress visually instead of messy Excel files.

List of Powerful Tools to Support Marketing Team Management:

• Project Management & Processes: Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Base Wework. Helps transparently track progress and individual responsibilities.
• Communication & Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom. Ensures information is transmitted quickly and seamlessly.
• Document Storage & Sharing: Google Workspace (Drive, Docs, Sheets), Dropbox. Facilitates easy document collaboration.
• Data Analysis & Reporting: Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, Power BI. Helps make data-driven decisions.
• Marketing Automation: HubSpot, Mailchimp, GetResponse. Automate email marketing flows and customer care.

Real example 1: A Content team under KPI pressure has to write 60 SEO-standard articles per month. To achieve this number, they are forced to write recycled, low-quality content. The consequence is the website gets penalized by Google, traffic drops disastrously. Later, management changed the KPI to focus on quality and traffic generated per article, resulting in clear improvement.

Real example 2: At Google, they apply the "20% time" principle, allowing employees to spend 20% of their working time pursuing personal projects they are passionate about, not necessarily directly related to their main job. Many of Google's breakthrough products like Gmail and Google News were born from this policy.

Action lesson: Become a "protector" for your team against unreasonable pressure from other departments or from higher leadership. Use data to prove the value of long-term brand-building activities, instead of just chasing short-term revenue figures.

Long-Term Talent Retention Strategy: Beyond Just Salary and Benefits

Competitive salary and bonuses are necessary to attract talent, but never sufficient to retain them long-term. Talented Marketing personnel often leave not because of money, but because they feel no space for development or not respected properly. An effective retention strategy must impact their intrinsic motivations.

Build a Structured Training and Skill Development Roadmap

The Marketing industry changes at a dizzying speed. Today's knowledge may be outdated tomorrow. Therefore, the need for Marketing personnel to learn and update new knowledge is extremely high. A business that doesn't focus on training will soon have an outdated team.

Build a professional competency framework clearly for each position and corresponding training roadmap. Organize weekly internal knowledge sharing sessions (Internal Sharing), invite industry experts for in-house training (In-house Training), or sponsor budgets for employees to attend reputable external courses.

Foster a Culture of Instant Recognition and Appreciation

Don't wait until the year-end summary to honor employee contributions. Recognition must happen timely, right when positive actions or good results occur. Delay will significantly reduce the impact of praise.

Build a culture of instant recognition. It could just be a public compliment in the company's general chat group when a designer has just completed an excellent design, or a small unexpected gift (coffee voucher, movie tickets...) for a team that has just successfully run a difficult campaign.

Grant Real Empowerment and Trust in the Team's Expertise

Nothing is more frustrating than a manager without deep Marketing expertise constantly crudely interfering in specialists' work. A typical example is the boss keeps forcing the designer to change colors, fonts according to personal taste instead of design principles.

Learn to trust the expertise of those you have hired. Give them the final goal to achieve (What) and deadline (When), then let them freely decide how to do it (How). This empowerment is the strongest motivation for them to maximize their abilities.

Genuinely Care About Staff's Mental Health

"Burnout is a chronic disease of the Marketing industry due to constant work pressure and high intensity. A manager with a heart must know how to observe and recognize signs of employee overload to intervene in a timely manner.

Create a balanced working environment. Encourage employees to take full leave to regenerate energy. Organize team building activities, sharing sessions on stress management skills. Sometimes, just a sincere question "Are you okay lately?" is worth more than a thousand empty promises.

Table of non-financial benefits to increase employee engagement

Real example 1: An Agency company applies a "No-Meeting Friday" policy. Every Friday afternoon is dedicated to internal training activities, knowledge sharing, or light team building. This policy helps reduce weekend pressure and creates space for learning and bonding.

Real example 2: At a large corporation, they build a "Shadowing" program, allowing Marketing employees to have the opportunity to observe and learn from the work of other department heads (such as Sales, Product) for a day. This helps them broaden their perspective and better understand the overall business picture.

Action lesson: Turn the workplace into a "tribe" where everyone shares the same set of values and common goals. When employees feel they are part of a cohesive collective, where they can be themselves and be supported, they will not easily leave their "tribe" just because of slightly more attractive material invitations from outside.

Conclusion: Managing People is a Journey, Not a Destination

Retaining talented Marketing personnel, especially in the first stormy 3 months, is a significant challenge for any business. There is no universal formula guaranteeing 100% success, as each business has its own culture and each individual has different motivations.

However, by deeply understanding the root causes, investing seriously in the recruitment and onboarding process, skillfully balancing creativity and KPI discipline, and most importantly building a human-centric corporate culture, you can completely break the "job-hopping" curse.

Remember that, the work of Marketing Team Management is a continuous improvement journey that requires patience, listening, and readiness to change from the leader themselves. When you take good care of your team, your team will take good care of your business. That is the inevitable rule.

At DPS.MEDIA, we not only provide practical Digital Marketing solutions but also are ready to share valuable experiences in building and operating effective In-house Marketing teams. If your business is struggling with Marketing personnel issues, don't hesitate to contact us for in-depth consultation.

We believe that with the right strategy and dedication, you will build a Marketing "Dream Team" that is not only expert in profession but also sustainably cohesive, together with the business conquering new peaks of growth.