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Corporate Culture Drives Effective Advertising Agency Recruiting

If you’re a CEO/COO/General Manager/Boss or Whatever Leader Title you got… you know that one of the most important things to a company’s success is attracting and retaining top talent. In the marketing and advertising agency world, this is CRITICAL. To do this in 2022, you need to have a corporate culture that prospective employees will want to be a part of.

First. What Is Corporate Culture?

Corporate culture is the set of values, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that characterize a company and its employees. It’s what makes a company unique and is reflected in everything from the way employees interact with each other to the company’s core values and mission statement.

A strong corporate culture can be the difference between a company that is able to attract and retain top talent and one that is not. This is especially true in the case of Gen X and millennials, who place a high value on finding a job with a company that shares their values

Define Your Agency Culture to Drive Advertising Agency Recruiting.

Three reasons why having a human-oriented culture will deliver success.

It attracts top talent: As we noted before, corporate culture can be the deciding factor for candidates who are trying to choose between two similar job offers. If Company A has a corporate culture that appeals to the candidate more than Company B, then the candidate is more likely to accept a job offer from Company A.
It promotes employee retention: Once you’ve attracted top talent, you want to keep them around. A strong corporate culture can help with employee retention by fostering loyalty and commitment among employees. Employees who feel like they belong to a supportive community are less likely to look for new opportunities elsewhere.
It attracts passive candidates: Passive candidates are those who are not actively looking for new job opportunities but might be open to hearing about new ones. A strong corporate culture can help attract passive candidates by making your company more attractive than others in your industry. If your company has a reputation for having a ‘humanesque’ corporate culture, you’ll have an easier time convincing passive candidates to interview with you.

Yes, be human. Just like Patagonia.

Proof? Some Research.

A study by Glassdoor found that 60% of job seekers would not apply for a job with a company if they didn’t like the look of its website*, and another study found that 78% of employers believe that a prospective employee’s cultural fit is more important than their skillset.

What does this mean? It means that if your company doesn’t have a well-defined corporate culture, you’re going to have a hard time attracting the best and the brightest.

* Make sure that you discuss your culture on your wonderful website.

No Not That Ping Pong-Table.

To appeal to the ‘younger’ demographic (yes, even older demos), companies need to make sure that their corporate culture is one that would be attractive – caring. Sure, this sounds obvious. But getting there takes a bit of strategic thinking and action.

Your corporate culture should be more than just a bunch of ping-pong tables and free lunches (although those things don’t hurt). It should be reflective of your company’s values and mission. This is what prospective employees are looking for when they’re considering whether or not to apply for a job with your company. They want to know that they’ll be working somewhere that aligns with their own personal values.

Personal Value Food For Thought.

Here are some ideas, and thought starters to get your advertising agency culture in gear. Riff on these. Discuss the value of each idea. Get internal feedback, read about what works, and study your competitors. Defining your culture is not the best area to be dictatorial. Yes, being dictatorial ain’t a good corporate culture thang.

Have a new employee onboarding system that recognizes your agency ‘space’. Are you all in one office? Running a three-day in-office system? Are y’all distributed around the world? Create meet-and-greet opportunities. Have department leaders talk about their objectives.
Consider having a platform (in person or digital) that allows employees to share ideas, personal info, and dreams with each other… Build that culture.
Have offsite group meetings. In many cases, this will cost less than keeping all of that expensive office space.
Provide your staff with learning opportunities. Size matters so you will need to tailor your training to your agency’s size and resources.
Develop a paid employee volunteer program to address community issues. Walk the talk.
Invest in a training and development program. Show employees that you want them to grow. A triple win – this works for the employee and you. And, yup, your advertising agency clients.