There’s more to assembling a successful marketing team than recruiting all the best and brightest talent, Avengers-style.

How can you as an employer ensure your employees’ long-term satisfaction with their roles? Continued professional education and employee training systems are critical to the success and cohesion of your team.

We talked with Dayta’s own Alison Zetah, our Instructional Designer and Learning Facilitator, to dive deeper into her role—the first of its kind for the company—and the significance of training in creating and strengthening marketing teams in the digital age.

Hi, Alison! Tell us about your role at Dayta. What does a day in your life look like in your position?

My position is new at Dayta, and my official title is Instructional Designer and Learning Facilitator. In a nutshell, this means I organize and create education and professional training materials for staff. My day-to-day covers a wide range of responsibilities including organizing onboarding training for new staff or transfers, developing training manuals, implementing our new learning management system, gathering staff feedback, and trying new processes to better support them in their role. I try to create a solid foundation of learning for staff from which they can grow and be successful. 

While this is my first position as an Instructional Designer, I have always worked in education in some capacity, including a K-12 school and even higher education. After receiving my undergraduate degree in Communication from the College of St. Benedict, I spent a few years working and traveling abroad before returning to school and receiving my M.Ed. in Education Technology. I knew I loved adult education and, in particular, using technology to improve learning outcomes. I worked for two and a half years as an E-Learning Specialist at Centracare before pursuing my current position at Dayta, which I was interested in because of the opportunity to work more directly with staff.

Why were you excited to take on this role at Dayta? What opportunities for team growth or continued development and marketing training did you see?

Not only did I see the opportunity for my own professional growth at Dayta, but I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer talent of the staff that make up this company. Their experiences, stories, and abilities continue to wow me nearly a year into this position. Additionally, the fact that leadership had created this position for a company as small as Dayta was unusual, and I find that to be very telling of the kind of company Dayta is — a small but innovative marketing company committed to supporting and improving the employee experience and, by extension, that of their clients. I knew then that I wanted to be part of this group.

One of the first opportunities for growth I saw at Dayta was something I am sure other businesses can relate to: Remote work and its challenges, including feelings of isolation amongst members of different teams or departments, which can lead to potential miscommunication amongst the staff. This is especially difficult for new employees who don’t have the same opportunities to build relationships outside of virtual meetings. One interesting aspect of my role was restructuring our onboarding process to improve staff outcomes, and as part of that initiative, we implemented a program to encourage inter-departmental connections among new staff hired at Dayta. We’ve gotten some great feedback and are hoping to continue expanding the program in the future.

Why are employee training programs critical for a marketing team?

The world of marketing is so varied and full of change that training is absolutely critical. Training and development at Dayta is not new; in fact, leadership’s understanding of the importance of education is why my position was created in the first place! If you’re working with a team that isn’t staying up to date with trends, processes, and technology, your company could be missing out on opportunities to strengthen and grow. In order to manage that overwhelming amount of information, your company needs to have an employee training system in place to develop, store, and present continuing professional education effectively. Without such a system, you risk overwhelming and confusing your staff, leading to burnout and dissatisfaction in their role. 

Staff who understand their role and have the resources needed to complete their work are going to be happier and more successful in their position. My goal is to make accessing those resources simpler and more intuitive in order to make us a more effective team.