The AFR BOSS Best Places To Work has dropped, and several agencies, including Equality Media + Marketing, Today The Brave, Akcelo and This is Flow head up the media and marketing list (see list below).
The Media Store (TMS) was a finalist and also took out a special award in ‘belonging’. The agency introduced a policy that rewards staff for new business leads that convert to revenue.
The Media Store also partners with an online booking service to offer staff holidays, rather than cash rewards, and employees are given three additional paid leave days when they redeem their holiday gift.
TMS chief operating officer Jacquie Alley told B&T that The Media Store’s secret to running a ‘belonging’ workplace was creating an environment that is honest, authentic, listens and always communicates, whether it is positive news or not.
“We know we can’t offer some bells and whistles that bigger companies can offer,” she said. “I may not be able to do six months parental leave or a four day working week, but what I can do is place a value on every individual person, check in with them and they’ve got what they need to do the best work possible. It’s not rocket science, it’s just about showing up in a human way and being honest.”
“If you can get people to feel they truly belong–which for me has always been way more important than just being a diverse group of people or being included–that’s the bedrock of great work and culture.”
The Media Store, led by Alley and CEO Stephen Leeds, has consistently ranked among the best places to work in the industry for the past few years.
Alley admits that being an SME – with fewer than 100 employees – makes it easier to provide that human touch to individual employees, but she says that honesty and transparency are just as important irrespective of size.
“It’s been a really tough few years, even for us as an agency. And yet what we do is we transparently take our staff on the journey. Last night, Stephen and I at the bar were celebrating and said we’d love to take them all to Fiji to say congrats. But we don’t have the funds to take our team to Fiji to celebrate, so we will do something in-house that is a genuine celebration of what we’ve all achieved together,” she said.
“If people stop focusing on the perks and the things that you can PR and actually just focus back on the individuals you’ve been entrusted with and making sure you give them what they need to flourish. That’s the key.”
Other agencies who continue to shine on the people management front include B&T Awards Grand Prix winner Akcelo, B&T Awards Culture winner BMF and B&T Women In Media Employer of the Year Equality Media + Marketing.
Equality Media + Marketing CEO Marilla Akkermans told the AFR that the business has had the strongest 18 months in its history, highlighting that a strong workplace culture drives business results.
Here are the top 10 in the media and marketing list:
- Equality Media + Marketing
- Today the Brave
- Akcelo
- This is Flow
- The Media Store
- BMF
- TRA
- iProspect
- Dentsu Queensland
- King Kong
