Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that recently, we held our annual B&T Awards at Sydney Town Hall.

The sell-out event saw over 800 of the industry’s best deck themselves out and celebrate the Aussie advertising, marketing and media industry.

36 shiny trophies were handed out on the night, and you can check out all the winners right here. Plus, find all the snaps from this year’s awards here, here and here.

One of the most coveted awards on the night (aside from the obvious Grand Prix) was the Best People & Culture award – one for under 100 employees and one for over 100 employees, sponsored by Tonic Health Media.

The winner of the latter was The Monkeys, which coincidentally also took home the Best Out-Of-Home Campaign gong, and was also named Advertising Agency of the Year and Agency of the Year.

So, to find out what exactly makes the people and culture at The Monkeys so great, we chatted to Haanim Montgomery, head of human resources – who said workplace culture is something they’re continually working on.

“A lot of our people practices come from the early days when we were a start-up, but having such a talented bunch of Monkeys helps us to continually evolve our culture,” she said.

“We have formal mentoring in place, a leadership development program and a strengths-focused approach to learning and development.”

The Monkeys also have an active well-being program with free counselling and fitness sessions, as well a global exchange program, where employees can be sent to work in different parts of the world, as The Monkeys is now part of the Accenture Interactive family.

Montgomery also said that at The Monkeys, everyone gets given a fair go, including junior staff and parents alike.

“Having access to the founders and a flat structure means that everyone gets a go and the prospect of creating a national TV ad for our biggest client in your first year as a creative is achievable,” she said.

“And this year we increased our paid parental leave policy to offer three months at full pay. We offer flexible working hours and have a 100 per cent retention rate for Monkey parents returning to work.”

Tonic Health told B&T they couldn’t think of anyone more deserving to win – and we can’t thank Tonic Health enough for sponsoring this uber-important category.

“As a company who believes our people are our greatest asset, the Tonic Health Media team would like to congratulate The Monkeys on winning this fantastic award,” a spokesperson said.

“One our developers, Han Lee, just celebrated his 10-year anniversary. In his speech he talked about still being focused every day on delivering provocative new ideas that haven’t been done before,” Montgomery added.

“It’s this freedom and creativity that means after 10 years he has never lost interest in his work. To me, that sums up being a Monkey.”