‘UPSKILLING A MUST’
BMAP aimed at promoting culture of continuous learning for benefit of agencies and clients, says 4As
BBDO general member and Association of Accredited Advertising Agents in Malaysia (4As) council member Farrah Harith McPherson speaks to NST Business about the need to upskill in the advertising industry.
Question: What is the rationale for initiating and enforcing the Boomerang Membership Accreditation Programme (BMAP)?
Answer: BMAP was created as a simple yet rigorous way to promote a culture of continuous learning in the industry for the collective benefit of the talent, agencies and clients. BMAP is a way to track the efforts of agencies to ensure that there is continuous learning and upskilling and to incentivise them to do so, and to maintain their eligibility to remain in the 4As.
Q: Why is BMAP an important element for member agencies to maintain their membership?
A: 4As aims to improve the professional standing of agencies in business and the community. Ensuring that they apply continuous learning is a necessary effort and helps in maintaining the quality and standards of the agencies that are a part of 4As. Q: Do you think the BMAP Points requirements are an effective way to lift industry standards and retain talent? A: Yes, because training is often overlooked or not prioritised. Making it a requirement for membership ensures that agencies have to meet, at the very least, the basic requirements for sending their staff for training. This, in turn, will help with the talent’s individual growth, leading to better quality talent and better quality output for the agency.
From a staff perspective, an agency that values continuous learning is one that demonstrates its commitment to their employees’ career development and intellectual well-being. This will make the agency that places an emphasis on training look more desirable as a place for career growth, as opposed to just a place of employment.
In my experience, high quality talents always ask what the training and learning opportunities are within an organisation. This is because they know that continuous improvement of skills, exposure to new tools and techniques, and exposure to trainers is key to ensuring they keep themselves up to date and relevant in our dynamic and competitive industry.
Q: Why is there an emphasis on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) across all disciplines and industries?
A: We are living in a fast-paced world, where things evolve and change in the blink of an eye. Regardless of what industry one is in, CPD is key to ensuring that talents are well equipped with new knowledge. CPD benefits agencies, talent, and clients.
For agencies, it demonstrates that there is value to talent growth and helps improve the professional standing of agencies in business and the community. For talents, it provides a formal programme for continuous professional development, which they might not do on their own. For clients, it gives them the comfort of knowing that their agencies will ensure the best output.
Q: What are the identifiable factors that may prevent companies from providing learning opportunities despite recognising its importance?
A: The key barrier is more often than not budget. When business is tough, companies will cut costs to maintain profitability. Sadly, training often falls under the category of “nice to have” and not essential, hence it is often cut.
Q: How do you encourage agencies with a limited training budget to continue nurturing and empowering their staff ?
A: There are many ways to train and nurture staff, and formalised third party training is not the only way. Knowledge transfers can easily be done from within. If an agency has no budget for third party training, putting together a simple structure that helps the seniors within the agency transfer their knowledge to their teams is also an effective way of training.
Mentorship is another good idea, and mentorship can be from within as well as from clients or partners. Learning is more enjoyable when it is a collaborative effort. Agencies can also initiate things like book clubs and lunch discussions to stimulate their teams intellectually. Most of this would cost almost nothing, perhaps just the price of a meal.
Q: Apart from training and human resource development, why does the programme reward BMAP Points for service and participation?
A: We reward points for things like entries into award shows and service to the industry, such as judging, speaking at colleges and attending workshops and seminars. A combination of these activities also helps in things such as exposure, knowledge and contribution back to the industry and community. Q: How do you assess the relevance of the training programmes and award points accordingly?
A: We look at things like content, trainers, method of delivery, and participation. We also look at cost and duration.
Q: Do you foresee any changes to the programme, particularly in the BMAP Points system?
A: The point system is meant to help encourage, not hinder, and so it is extremely flexible in the sense that we understand that training and CPD comes in different forms.
So, while the objective of the programme will not change, the way we evaluate and award points as well as decide on what training can be accredited is very flexible, and is done for the benefit of agencies and talent.