3 Reasons MOPs Pros are Turning Over So Quickly

In all likelihood, your favorite MOPs pro will be working for someone new three years from now. 

That’s right: 72% of marketing operations professionals only last in a given gig for one-three years, while a microscopic 1% make it past the five-year mark, according to our 2022 State of Marketing Operations Talent study with Highway Education. 

Who or what is behind this professional whiplash? There are several factors at play, but all can be traced back to the talent crisis confronting the world of MOPs 

1. MOPs pros have their pick of jobs

There’s a serious talent gap plaguing the marketing operations industry. Teams have grown by 66% across organizations of all sizes in just two years, and with no reliable source of new talent, demand for new hires far outstrips supply. 

It’s Econ. 101: When more people are buying than selling, it’s the sellers who have the upper hand. 

“A lot of people won’t stay in a job if it doesn’t meet their expectations because they know other companies are looking for their skill set,” explains Crissy Saunders, co-founder and CEO of the marketing operations consulting agency CS2. 

“It’s a candidate’s market right now when it comes to marketing ops,” agrees Amazon’s Darrel Alfonso.

With competition hot for the best talent, hiring MOPs pros is only one part of the challenge—fending off attractive new offers is quite another. 

2. Veteran MOPs pros are stuck doing low-level work

With fewer junior hires available, marketing operations teams are often off-kilter, with larger numbers of senior and mid-level professionals employed than junior supporting staff. 

“When you consider how few really great marketing operations people are out there, they’re a rare and valuable asset,” says Pierce Ujjainwalla, co-founder and CEO of Knak. “Companies should make it their job to determine how they can use those people most strategically. Unfortunately, so many times we see these talented people stuck trying to get campaigns out the door, cleaning up data—doing low-value tasks.”

In fact, one-third of MOPs pros we surveyed told us that they found their work to be “too easy.” 

If your best people are bored, it’s safe to assume that it won’t be long before they start looking for a new challenge. 

3. MOPs burnout is everywhere

Regardless of how difficult the work in question is, the majority of marketing ops professionals agree they have too much of it. Fifty-seven percent of those we surveyed told us that their workload was overwhelming and that they were struggling with burnout.

It’s no surprise. Expectations around MOPs outcomes are the highest they’ve ever been, while a lack of qualified junior hires makes it difficult for teams to offload tasks. 

Sara McNamara, a marketing operations leader at Salesforce, feels that burnout goes beyond the pure math of workload. “I think you’ll find that any team in which people are reduced to just doing tasks and aren’t growing won’t feel valued,” she explains. “Even at 40 hours per week, that leads to burnout, too.”

Takeaways

It’s a marketing operations’ world and we’re just living in it. As demand for MOPs talent grows and the talent gap continues to widen, it will be up to marketing leaders to create teams resistant to burnout and turnover. Valuing employees, building teams in which strategic leaders receive adequate support, and proactively allocating competitive resource levels can all make the difference in retaining your oh-so-valuable marketing operations pros. 

This post is part of the State of MOPs Talent study jointly sponsored by Demandbase and Highway. Demandbase, smarter GTM for B2B brands, helps marketing and sales teams spot the juiciest opportunities earlier and progress them faster. Highway helps MOPs leaders overcome the industry talent crisis by providing job-ready junior MOPs talent for leaders to hire.