The Media Store was announced as one of Australia’s Best Workplaces for 2023 by Great Place to Work at an event last night.
Great Place To Work is the global authority on workplace culture using rigorous analytics and confidential employee feedback. Employees respond to 60 statements on a 5-point scale as well as open-ended questions.
Collectively, these statements describe a great employee experience, defined by high levels of trust, respect, credibility, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The Media Store is renowned for its inclusive, family work culture. All initiatives are founded on the “Five Ways of Wellbeing” framework and are born from its people.
The agency offers extensive staff benefits to support work life flow and personal wellbeing, invests heavily in training and coaching and encourages transparent communication. With a complementary leadership duo in CEO Stephen Leeds and chief operating officer Jacquie Alley, the team has genuine support and access to the owners of the business who are laser-focused on putting people first.
In the words of Nicole Boyd, head of client services: “Through transformational change TMS have never lost their heart and soul and have been true to their vision and values, built and embraced by all.
“At TMS I feel encouraged, supported, trusted, valued, cared about and it’s a joy to come to work. They invest significantly both financially and in time in personal development through training, coaching, and mentoring to bring out the best in their teams. They embrace regular staff feedback, formal and informal, and through this have fully supported work life balance, sustainability, and community initiatives valued by the team.
“Performance is not measured on hours but rather output and trust is given to allow flexibility. Stephen and Jacquie walk the talk, caring about their employees and respecting their opinions, at all levels.
“I think the culture at TMS is best described by a returning team member – ‘while there are many changes and new faces at TMS, the one thing I love most is that the culture and positive environment has not changed’.”
TMS performance director, Annie Marendaz, said: “It was clear from my initial interview that the senior team leads from the heart and has a deep passion for people and making change. TMS has seen a strong presence of women at the top, they take feedback graciously, allowing for robust discussions on the best way forward for the agency, and allowing all team members, at any level, to come forward with ideas. This creates a safe place for all.”
Jacquie Alley, COO/director at The Media Store, added: “Fostering a healthy, happy and inclusive culture has always been our priority here at TMS.”
Alley continued: “In fact, this intangible specialness of our culture, with a genuine sense of belonging, has been part of the agency’s DNA since day one 26 years ago. Our people are cared for, rewarded, and developed to be the best media practitioners they can be. Our clients are the direct beneficiaries of a cohesive team who love to come to work to innovate and deliver business results. We couldn’t be prouder of this acknowledgement, that belongs to every TMS-family member who has been on the re-imagination journey with us. We congratulate our indie friends at This is Flow too, who were the only other agency on the esteemed list!”
Roland Wee, managing director of Great Place To Work Australia and New Zealand, said: “We congratulate The Media Store and all companies on this 2023 List, and they are indeed Best Workplaces, as validated by the voices of their employees. In today’s talent market businesses need to put their best foot forward to showcase their great workplace culture to retain high performing employees for the years to come. Companies who have made it onto this year’s Best Workplaces list are a testament to consistently improving and maintaining their great workplace culture practices.”
