Media agencies score well on workplace conditions in bid to improve staff retention
Six media agencies have made it into the list of the top 50 large and small companies to work for in Australia as the industry looks at ways of improving staff retention.
UM tops the media agency pile, rising 11 spots on last year to come in fourth in the over 100 employees ranking of the BRW list, with OMD 21st, whilst independent Match Media is 20th on the small company table.
GroupM was the most successful holding group with new entrant Maxus fourth spot in the new category of workplaces under 100 people, whilst sister agencies MediaCom (15th) and Mindshare (17th) are both in the companies over 100 employees.
Maxus’ CEO Jon Chadwick said the strong showing from the media agency sector was a sign they are taking the high churn rate in the industry seriously. “We have got high churn rate in the industry, so agencies are realising they have to be competitive in the market place,” he said.
“But we’re not just competing against other agencies, there are also tech startups, who are well represented in this list, looking at the same talent so it’s a really competitive marketplace.”
Chadwick
According to a recent Media Federation of Australia (MFA) survey agency churn was at 33.5 per cent last year, up from 30 per cent the year before.
Low salaries are one reason given for the continual talent merry-go-round in agency circles, but Chadwick said he felt agencies were “competitive” in what they pay, adding: “What we offer is a career path, so in addition to the salary, training and travel opportunities, as well as services through the MFA, which definitely helps us focus on things other than money.”
“Awards like this definitely help with staff retention and recruitment,” Chadwick added.
In terms of staff numbers UM has 120, Mediacom 309, Mindshare 164, OMD 437, Maxus 66 and Match 52.
There were 137 companies vying for places in the two top 25 lists, while according to the BRW release female dominated workplaces were over-indexed in the final list, citing Mindshare and OMD as two companies had “management teams dominated by women executives”.
Caitlin Fitzsimmons, BRW deputy editor said: “An interesting shift in the BRW Best Places to Work list this year has been the inclusion of more female-friendly workplaces. Australia’s best workplaces are also more likely to have a woman as CEO than the ASX100 and 13 of the 50 had women making up more than half the senior management team. Gender aside, the workplaces that staff love the most have common qualities: bosses dedicated to empowering, training and valuing employees.”
Marketing services and sales lead company Saleforce is one place above UM, with Adobe 14th. In the small company list email service Campaign Monitor is sixth, Amobee is in seventh and direct marketing company Zinc is ninth, ahead of E-Web Marketing, cloud services Rackspace, while the The Web Showroom was 22nd.
Mat Baxter, CEO of UM Australia praised his management team for building “a simply amazing company culture”, whilst MediaCom’s CEO, Mark Pejic said: “We are so pleased to see our efforts recognised through a huge achievement of 15th place in BRW’s study. Our people are pivotal in MediaCom’s success and we are thrilled that this achievement is a reflection of how they feel about working at MediaCom in comparison to other businesses.”
Alex Hayes
Funny how creative agencies don’t bother with this and yet media agencies swarm all over it. Desperate to trying and prove they are different perhaps?
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MediaCom 15? Are you sure that isn’t how many people they have left now?
#verystrongjoke #solid
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@jon. Maybe they just want to make where they work a good place to be? Why does everything have to be about being cynical and calculated? A pretty sad way to see things in my view.
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Coincidence that the media organisation judging this is competing for attention/funds from media agencies?
Any word on if the churn rates of these ‘winning’ agencies are better than the 33% industry average?
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Maybe it is because they need to have a great place to work while they
are waiting for overdue creative arrive 😉
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I graduated from university almost a year ago now with a degree in Marketing and Advertising Communications and I am still not able to get a foot in the door in the industry. If retention is low and churn rate is high, where can I apply!? Main issue I face is not having experience, despite having many years of experience in a different industry. How can I gain experience if I’m not given a chance?
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Interesting. Media recruiters must be quaking in their boots :S
Through speaking to friends in the agencies mentioned, they have definitely come along way and are starting to understand the whole work life balance thing.
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Luna
you can reach out to me if you would like. If you are in Sydney then I am happy to get some of the guys meet you and have an initial chat.
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If this was based on Mediacom Melbourne aka the sinking ship and not Sydney, it would be a very different story……
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Luna
I’d also love to extend a similar offer to chat. I run the Sydney arm of SheSays, a network around helping women lead happy careers.
Drop me a line: shesays.sydney@gmail.com
Big round of applause to Mr Corbett!
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This is one of the most laughable quotes I have ever read…
“What we offer is a career path, so in addition to the salary, training and travel opportunities, as well as services through the MFA, which definitely helps us focus on things other than money.”
Surely he isn’t talking about media agencies? Since when did employing kids, working them to the bone, offering a couple of ‘training’ presentations through the year, then refusing to pay them what they’re worth when they learn their trade, become a career path? No wonder the churn rate is above 30% with an attitude like this at the top.
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I am glad to hear such great news and knowing the environment of this companies.
Agreed to Luna, I have the same issue. I have graduated since 2012 and have number of experiences through full time internships and experiences in digital and media industries. However, many jobs I applied for said that I still did not have enough experiences.
Again, how can we gain experiences if the chances were not given. I believe that graduates can do as much as those junior executives are. But I learnt that applying for start up business or smaller companies would gain more confidence and experiences instead of jump start to bigger companies.
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I think its great agencies like the above and our industry in general is being recognised. Our industry needs to be desirable and awards like this help all of us. We are competing for talent and career choices against tech startups, large multinationals, small service companies, you name it..
To the cynics out there questioning the value of, or alleging the rigging of, these BRW awards, get a life..
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Ha very funny reading comments; churn of 30%, loooong hours and clients dumping agencies like a bogan with a mullet ! Geeees
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@Kidding – sounds like you haven’t worked at UM or Maxus – 2/3rds of the survey here is based on employee feedback and you get marked down if people don’t respond to the survey. The media agencies recognised here must be doing something right
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Offering a career path isn’t really a justification for paying people low wages. This is partly why churn is over 30%.
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Congratulations to all the companies taking part in this survey particularly to the media agencies. This is the best culture industry survey to take part due to its rigour of process. It’s not easy creating and maintaining a great culture over time. To those grads looking to get in the door, apply to the MFA grad program and plenty of media agencies open their doors to graduates for internships, work experience toward full time roles. It would be great to see creative agencies in the 2015 list!
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It’s always been that you move to another agency and get paid a significant increase to do so when you are climbing the ranks.
Jeez there are some negative people, assuming you are unhappy working in an agency? There are alternatives.
Not so long ago there was no/very little focus on retention in media agencies.
It’s a fantastic career for many, but I will admit I left it behind in my 20’s in pursuit of work/life balance.
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@Luna,
Like the other very nice people, happy to grab a coffee and chat about different sides of the industry and intro you to some people. I too found it hard when entering the industry, so I feel your frustration 🙂
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Luna, we don’t belong to this demand-supply ecosystem. I come in this country with 10+ years of journalism, PR and business experience with all possible tertiary qualifications, though in Melbourne. But I need to have local experience. So, local freshers without experience and experienced professionals without local experience have nowhere to start. Experienced locals comprise of this 30% magic figure of churning. Good luck!
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Dear Luna,
It must be hard not being able to get a job in your desired field. From my experience, working in media / marketing for approx 20 years. Degrees are simply a piece of paper that, (if you have a 1st) will get you an interview. I have worked with amazing people who have a 2’2 in Geography (colouring in) and they are better at business than many who carry 1st class honours in marketing… I have also worked with amazing people who do not have degrees (it is usually harder for the folk without degrees to get interviews).
Smarts are what will see you through and smarts apply to a wide range of areas, such as: business acumen, relationships, eq, attitude, drive….blah blah the list goes on.
I have met a lot of people in my time who feel that a degree is the ticket to a job, it’s not. It will help, for sure, however it isn’t like a driving licence. Not everyone with a degree will drive the car that they have always dreamed of driving. Sometimes you need to start in an old banger and then, over time, work hard and smart to realise your goal.
Good luck.
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