MEC and OMD top agencies in 2017 Best Places to Work rankings
WPP AUNZ’s soon to be merged media agencies MEC and Maxus have both been rated in Australia’s top 50 companies in the annual Best Place to Work rankings which appear to be devoid of previous years’ controversies.
MEC and OMD topped agencies in the 2017 Best Places to Work Awards
MEC was the highest ranked advertising and media industry business, coming 13th in companies with more than 100 employees, while Ominicom’s OMD was ranked 15th.
MEC’s WPP stablemate, Maxus, was ranked 15 in businesses with fewer than 100 employees, just behind ad agencies Zinc (10) and The Works (14), which was recently acquired by digital services consultancy group RXP.
Jasmine Lansdell, director of people and culture at The Works, said the agency was delighted to have been ranked the first time it entered. “We are incredibly honoured to be listed as one of the best place to work in Australia in our first entry into these awards. The Works are fiercely proud of the culture we have fostered over the last few years and this award is fantastic recognition for our people and leadership team.”
MEC and Maxus will be merged by WPP’s Group M at the end of the year, coming together under the leadership of Peter Vogel who was named the head of the merged entity two weeks ago.
Karly Leach, Maxus Melbourne managing director, said the ranking was earned through developing the right workplace culture.
“It’s a testament to the work we’ve been doing internally to continue to ensure Maxus a great place to work. We’re particularly proud of the efforts of our PACEMAKER Committee,” Leach said.
Organisers Great Place to Work split the competition into three categories from the previous two (over 100 employees and under100 employees) adding a category for businesses with over 1000 employees for the first time.
The move is a bid to attract larger companies to the Awards while creating a space for companies with fewer than 1000 employees
Mars Australia was named the best place to work over 1000 employees ahead of retailer Mecca Brands and Campbell Arnott’s.
Health care company Stryker was top in over 100 employees ahead of Salesforce and Atlassian, while Dental business Avenue Dental topped the under 100 employee category.
2017 is the second year Best Place Place to work has been an insert in Fairfax newspapers rather than being sponsor by the publisher after a controversy dogged the awards in 2015 after media agency UM gamed the voting to enter the under 100 staff category in 2015 by only entering its Sydney office.
Great Place to Work was forced to clarify entry rules after a number of protests were lodged and UM were not present on the list last year.
UM was also not named again this year, however, managing director ]of GPTW Australia, Zrinka Lovrencic said she could not comment on whether the agency had entered the awards or not.
Congrats MEC & OMD!
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Congratulations to all the companies that placed in the top 50. There’s a lot of work that goes into applying for these awards, and many of those companies – especially the ones under 100 employees with much smaller budgets – have to get really creative in how they build a welcoming and rewarding workplace, so they should definitely be proud of the achievement.
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