Creativity plays a pivotal role in business; fostering innovation and driving UK businesses to stay competitive on a national and global scale.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just consumer-facing sectors that can benefit from creativity, there is demand for creatives across the board, but in 2024, which industries place the most value on creative roles?
To find out, our team has crunched the numbers, analysing data from LinkedIn to rank the creative headcount of ‘design’ roles across a number of UK companies in traditionally ‘less creative’ industries, compared to overall headcount.
Surprisingly, the creative headcount for the healthcare sector is 295% higher than hospitality and 87% more than the fashion sector.
As well as healthcare, the data reveals that the building and construction sector is the second most likely to invest in creative roles, with sectors including accounting and finance and, surprisingly, food and beverages falling behind in the top 10 when it comes to hiring for design-focussed roles.
The healthcare industry came out on top with an average creative headcount of 17.87 percent. Boots, the health and beauty retailer, is an example of a brand that has heavily invested in creative talent. Boots launched its biggest ever campaign in 2023, ‘Our Health Is As Individual As We Are’, which championed women’s health, highlighting the support available for women through creative that was rolled out across TV, out-of-home, print, social media and online.
Building and construction came in second place with 12.29 percent and in third place with 11.12 percent, is the homeware and interiors industry - perhaps unsurprisingly as this industry naturally places great importance on design and aesthetics.
Out of the twenty industries analysed, transport and logistics and warehousing and distribution were revealed to have the lowest headcount of creatives in their workforce. This can be attributed to these industries having a greater need for functional labour roles - however, this is not to say that these industries would not benefit from a greater investment in creative roles to combat challenges that a frequently-changing economy can present.
Mark Fensom, director at Warbox, comments on the research:
“It’s interesting to see which industries are placing a higher value on creative talent in 2024. Creativity fosters innovation, enabling businesses to adapt to evolving market demands and remain competitive, which is key when it comes to running a successful business.
“Even those industries with a perceived lack of need for creative roles, such as the warehousing and distribution industry, could benefit from hiring creative talent - it’s important for businesses to realise that creativity can unlock fresh perspectives and offer unique solutions to business challenges.”
For businesses with a lower or nonexistent creative headcount looking to harness the power of creativity, working with a skilled brand communications agency can be a great alternative to hiring an entire in-house creative team. The creative minds at an agency can help create a strategy to define how they want to be perceived by potential customers and suppliers.
Methodology
Expert researchers at Warbox analysed data from LinkedIn to rank the creative headcount of ‘design’ roles including across a number of UK companies in different industries, compared to overall headcount. Warbox removed architecture and creative arts and design from the results as these industries have a naturally higher creative headcount. An average creative headcount was then calculated for each industry, with those ranking higher regarded as valuing creative roles the most, and vice versa.