Comments on: Agencies ‘undervalue human resources to detriment of stressed staff’

By: Barry

Barry — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:27:43 +0000

Larry makes a good point accept that agencies have some responsibility for pushing titles not roles beyond the individual.

When some agencies went down the road of title shifting without remuneration or development they have left themselves wide open for staff to be poached.

You don’t need a HR officer to sit down with your staff & start a conversation but if you are employing a reactive save strategy too late they are gone.

By: LIAM

LIAM — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:11:11 +0000

Lee, as usual is right.

It is embarrassing that agencies undervalue HR.

And it is part of the reason agencies have an average age of 27 while most other sectors are at 42.

By: Brentoe

Brentoe — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:30:07 +0000

mmm…good comment from many but ultimately lets go back to the top of the page and the first comment made; I’m with Monkey…!

By: Chris Walton

Chris Walton — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:39:59 +0000

Agree. The structure of management KPIs are largely wrong. Too much focus on short-term dollar goals takes focus away from clients and deters investment areas that make a real long-term difference.

Cost structures also wrong – why should the most expensive people be the managers, who spend least time working on client issues? This overlaps into career-pathing, effectively pushing great practitioners away from what they are great at.

By: Mich A

Mich A — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:30:29 +0000

Andre 2009! LOVE your comment!

By: Andre 2009

Andre 2009 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:18:19 +0000

Oh the rise of the holding company.

Mangers are now incentivised to squeeze the margins and hit their quarterly numbers.

No long term thinking or quality control of work.

The cost is human.

And the current shit served up as ads.

By: The Accountant

The Accountant — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:25:05 +0000

How is that the since the advent of pitch consultants, agency / client relations have been breaking down? Clients aren’t getting what they think they pay for, and agencies are feeling underpaid for the value they deliver. Pitch consultants supposedly help match the client with the right agency, yet the results seem worse than ever.

This may cause an outcry, but it seems to me that the idea of pitch consultants should be given a big FAIL.

By: The Dr

The Dr — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:17:27 +0000

What I really dislike is people who want to work in an advertising agency because they are dynamic fun environments.

The problem for most people in advertsing is that they start off young, loving the dynamic culture and fun work hard play hard atmosphere, then get old and boring and want stability and 5 o’clock home time.

By: Mich A

Mich A — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:05:02 +0000

Chris, I agree!
It’s not just happening in agencies that persons who have no clue how to manage are put in a management role. I am working in technology for 25 years and I can count on one hand the good managers I have met.

By: Chris Walton

Chris Walton — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:55:59 +0000

Reevesy – you hit upon a very good point. Not enough is invested in developing managers so that they can manage. All too often those in management positions are there because they have risen the ranks of a specific discipline (eg. planning). But being good at planning doesn’t mean you are good at managing,

It is one of life’s cliches that people work for individuals, not companies. We are in an industry with staff turnover hovering around 30%. What does that say?

By: PK63

PK63 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:35:20 +0000

Having stressed staff breeds contempt definately and I’m a big fan of having a good work life balance. There are a number of agencies in the marketplace who have adopted a much better work/life balance ac ross the board for their entirestaff and have reaped the rewards of happy and contented staff – the big plus is these agencies are producing some of their best work! The GFC has seen many companies cut staff and double the workload on the remaining staff. These individuals left to pick up the pieces are more often than not overworked in the first place, so to just throw more at them with a bigger salary is a short term fix. Sooner or later work/time/effectiveness/productivity suffers and the ultimate bottom line is that the staff members carrying the load fall apart and you have nothing left. It’s only then unfortunately that companies get a light bulb effect and really review what they should have done at the outset – re-evaluate the scenario properly and employ more suitable people to do the job or help to do the job. Bringing on grads at least once or twice a year is also a brilliant way to go. Grads are like sponges they are keen and can do much of the grunt work and are happy to learn by doing this. If you treat your grads well they will stay with you for the long run.

Managers must take the time to properly review work and headcount and look at resourcing correctly to cover the unexpected. Dumping additional workload on already overworked staff never works – even when you throw more money at the individual! There are agencies to help you do this correctly! Any resourcing agency worth their salt will happily come in and help you with your resourcing – long or short term – you just have to ask.

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:33:20 +0000

hmm I thought my post had a few ideas around leadership from the top, demonstrating the right behaviours etc..

By: The Dr

The Dr — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:19:19 +0000

And while you’re all moaning, not one of you has come up a good idea.

By: Reevesy

Reevesy — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:03:22 +0000

In the case of many agency manager the roles these people hold have been are evolutionary. People did not necessarily start out in ad land to become manager of people, and in many cases they may not be equipped or trained to deal with the requirements of their positions and the responsibilities inherent in these roles.

Management training on topics like issue resolution, how to deal with problems, recruitment and so on are significant advantages of having an in-house HR team.

By: Lou

Lou — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:48:52 +0000

I could talk at length as to how true this is and how many ridiculously unprofessional agency professionals I’ve worked with in management positions who think that working your employees til they burn out is something that is across the industry and therefore acceptable.

Oh well I am just extremely thankful that I don’t have to put up with it anymore being on client side…