Almost without exception, agencies are embracing a more flexible attitude and approach to work and an overwhelming majority of employees would like to see this continue. But as you get to grips with what the future of work might look like, some aspects of agency life should become less flexible and even non-negotiable. And this is actually a good thing.
Flying in the face of constraints, the winning agencies will be the ones with an uncompromising focus on their culture, focusing on how they can support their people to be their best selves and do era-defining work. An awakening for some perhaps, but really just smart business as the battle for talent ramps up. The quality of agency culture is topping the list of reasons for the top talent to stay or go.
So where does an uncompromising approach pay when it comes to the codes you set, the teams you build and the way you work together?
We know from recent research and extensive work with our clients that a new cultural contract is emerging. Operating with a clear purpose, solid values and an unwavering commitment to wellbeing, diversity and open communication is non-negotiable. Structuring and supporting teams to play to their strengths, build healthy habits and be impact-driven is non-negotiable. Creating a connected working experience that makes the most of time and space wherever you might physically be, is non-negotiable.
We explore this new cultural contract and more in the Future Positive Talent guide, which you can download today. Find out more about what a new era of work demands and gain some critical advice on how to master it.
As we continue to grow we are looking for some top talent to join us in our journey.
We’re looking for an awesome PPC Paid Media Executive or Manager specialising in Google Ads management for our growing Premier Partner advertising agency. Passion for PPC a must. We are looking for 2+ years experience, part time and remote working considered. Salary £20k – £27k dependent on experience. Launch Online is committed to creating a diverse environment. We recruit, employ, train, and promote regardless of race, religion, colour, origin, sex, disability, age.
Contact us by using one of the contact methods below. All enquiries will be treated with the utmost confidence. All enquiries will be treated with the utmost confidence.
Phone Number: 01392 280300
Email Address: [email protected]
We’re looking for a Digital Marketing Data Analyst with agency experience and a proven track record of delivering marketing insights to give clients the edge of their competition.
You’ll have experience with tools such as Google Analytics, Tag Management, and Google Data Studio. You’ll be joining an award winning growing paid media agency and working with an exciting client list of ambitious advertisers.
This role can be fully remote or you will be able to work from our Exeter office when it is safe to do so. Part-time or flexible working hours are welcomed.
Launch Online is committed to creating a diverse environment. We recruit, employ, train, and promote regardless of race, religion, colour, origin, sex, disability, age.
Salary range from £25k – £35k depending on experience.
Contact us by using one of the contact methods below. All enquiries will be treated with the utmost confidence. All enquiries will be treated with the utmost confidence.
Develop Me, working in partnership with Babbasa, are offering fully-funded tech bursaries for four young Black people living in Bristol to learn how to code and begin their career as software developers.
Develop Me’s programmes have a market leading, 95% post course hire rate into the tech industry. The bursaries aim to remove the social and economic barriers of entry for under- represented young people by providing opportunities and access to education connected to highly paid in-demand tech careers.
With 18% of tech employees from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds; and specifically, only 2% from a Black, African, Caribbean or Black British background – a long climb to diversity remains for the industry (The Chartered Institute for IT/BCS 2020).
Al Kennedy, Director of DevelopMe, explains, “Now – more than ever – is the time to work together across the Bristol city region – to invest in local talent and to create supported high value career pathways that are accessible to everyone to become future leaders in the tech sector.”
Comprising of four fully-funded places (valued at £9,450 each) on Develop Me’s newly launched part-time 52 week Coding Fellowship Bootcamp, every student will have access to Career Coaches, full learning support, industry mentor community to help set them up for their future careers, as well as a loan of an Apple Laptop for the full duration of the course.
This initiative is co-funded partly via Develop Me’s Opportunity Fund supported by hiring partners, matched by Develop Me, plus the generous support from their mentor and alumni community. Bristol inner-city-based youth empowerment social enterprise, Babbasa, is supporting with recruitment and access to under-represented communities.
For further information head to their webpage: https://developme.tech/black-bristol-tech-pathway/
Access Creative College (ACC) has begun work on Phase Two of its campus in Bristol City Centre, which will see it occupy the former site of legendary music venue, Bierkeller. The development represents an investment of £4.5m by the college, as it looks to give the space a new lease of life with a host of cutting-edge sound facilities and classrooms for ACC’s range of creative courses.
The Bierkeller site has remained unused since it closed its doors to music fans back in 2018. Over the years, the venue welcomed some of the biggest names in music to its stage, including Nirvana, The Stone Roses and Arctic Monkeys, to name just a few. At over 13,000 sq. feet, ACC’s Phase Two development will more than double the floor space of its Bristol Campus, as the college looks to develop the talent and skills that are so vital to the future growth of the creative industries in the city and beyond.
Mark Smithers, Access Creative College Bristol Centre Manager commented, “Bristol has a rich heritage of creativity and it is an exciting place to be teaching the next generation of digital and arts professionals. As we break through into the former Bierkeller site next door, it will soon be home to some of UK’s leading creatives of tomorrow as we bring it back to life as an education and state-of-the-art events space.”
ACC’s Phase Two facilities will include an events space and stage, a music studio and production pods, where students will be able to mix music, create podcasts and record video and sound. There will also be a range of classrooms equipped with all the latest tech, as well as a number of breakout spaces and student collaboration areas.
Smithers continues, “As an organisation we have been in Bristol for the best part of two decades now. The opening of the first phase of our city centre campus meant we could expand our offering to students, providing a broader range of courses with cutting edge facilities for the very best learning experience. We couldn’t be happier to now take that to the next stage with this new development.”
Following an initial investment of £5m, Access Creative College launched Phase One of its new digital and games campus back in March 2019 and has since rolled out a range of courses including Esports Management, Creative Computing, Software Development, Games Art, Games Technology, Film, Video & Photography and Graphic & Digital Design.
Jason Beaumont, Chief Executive at Access Creative College, added, “As we approach our 30th academic year, this Phase Two development is proof if our intentions for further growth. We understand that by listening to the needs of our students and the wider industry, we’ll be in the best position to provide meaningful education and continue our track record of high student achievement and progression.’
“We are continuing to adapt our curriculum to support the increasingly digital market and of course working closely with industry and employers to best prepare our learners for careers remains a core focus of ACC’s approach to Further Education.”
Having previously operated out of its campus in Hengrove for over 18 years, ACC was Bristol’s first college with a sole focus on the creative industries. Artist Development, Music Technology & Production and Vocal Artist courses, which were previously run from the South Bristol site, will now be brought into the main campus in the city centre, where ACC’s Phase Two facilities will play a pivotal role in skills development.
This announcement follows a significant year for Armstrong Learning group, the owners of the College, during which it secured investment from Apiary Capital and welcomed the National College for the Creative Industries (NCCI) to its portfolio. ACC has also recently announced a number of new senior appointments, including former Minister of State for Universities Jo Johnson, as the college’s new chair, and former Ofsted inspector and Adult Learning Inspectorate Steve Stanley as Director of Evaluation and Impact.
For more information on the development, please visit http://www.accesscreative.ac.uk/bristol
Announced Summer 2020, the Kickstart Scheme offers thousands of job opportunities for 16-24-year-olds to help them take the first steps in their career. Here at Digital Visitor, we are excited to be part of such an important project and will be offering placements as part of the scheme.
The Kickstart Scheme offers paid 6-month placements to young people who are most at risk of future unemployment, bringing them into work and equipping them with the skills they’ll need to succeed.
At Digital Visitor, we will be offering multiple placements to fit alongside our award-winning team to provide genuine, integrated work experience and give applicants the first steps of a career in digital marketing. Alongside direct experience, we are committed to helping develop our applicants’ softer skills and try and help them secure future opportunities via CV support and interview training.
“As experts in our field, we pride ourselves on our knowledge so we’re very happy to be part of the Kickstart Scheme and be able to share our skills with those that have been hit particularly hard over this last year. Digital skills are incredibly important in today’s world and so we hope these placements would be a great opportunity for applicants to help launch their careers” Samantha Hickery-Cabreira, Head of Finance & HR, Digital Visitor
We will initially be offering five placements. An overview of each role can be found on the Digital Visitor careers page.
To be eligible for the Kickstart scheme with Digital Visitor, you must be:
If you fit all these criteria and would like to find out more, speak to your work coach at your local Jobcentre for further details and how to apply.
Here at Armadillo we’re excited to announce that we will now be offering all staff external coaching with renowned confidence coach, Jo Emerson.
The introduction of external coaching follows our decision to move away from a traditional line managed structure. We have chosen to replace line managers with networked support; task-based support to bring clarity to deliverables, skills-based support to build expertise in key specialisms, and growth-based support. This is where the coaching will come in. We hope that this move will give people the headspace to work through their challenges, ambitions, frustrations and ideas, as well as empower staff to seek their own solutions and decide their own actions.
Fiona Craig, our Strategy and Planning Director, explains why external coaching was a must-have for us: “Internal support is very much focused on the work we do for our clients – you could say the client is the key stakeholder here, and all efforts are focused on doing a good job for them.
Fiona continues: “The support offered by external coaching is centred exclusively around the individual – often there can be a tension between the two areas of focus, and in a traditional structure, line managers can struggle to do a really good job of supporting on all fronts. So, this allows those who are exceptionally skilled in one area to excel, while the individual still gets supported on all sides.”
Jo Emerson is a confidence and human behaviour expert, author, and the winner of International Executive Coach of the Year (2019-2020).
Fiona goes on to say “Jo is highly experienced in dealing with change and confidence, and has a wonderful energy that felt right for us here at Armadillo. She will spark some great conversations and even greater ideas, we feel sure.”
Jo adds, “It’s a real privilege to be working with Armadillo at such a critical time and to support team members as they grow and develop within an incredibly fast-paced industry. Armadillo’s new networked-support structure coupled with external and objective coaching shows what an innovative and agile company they are!”
We hope you will join us in offering Jo a very warm welcome. We thoroughly look forward to working with her and cannot wait to see members of the Armadillo team succeeding in their career and self-development goals.
Spicerack has been named highly commended for the South West in the National Apprenticeship Awards 2020. The virtual ceremony to announce the regional winners was held on 6 November.
Spicerack’s motivation for offering an apprenticeship each year is primarily to offer an alternative to mainstream education that has the potential to really propel a deserved individual into a happy and fulfilling career. If you refer to any online blog, article or government site, the benefits of hiring an apprentice are often very much focused on the employer. It’s true that an apprentice can breathe fresh air into a business, as any employee has the potential to do. When an apprenticeship with Spicerack is successfully completed, we also feel great about the collaborative part we played in that.
As a relatively small company, working for large international clients, we offer an exposure to an array of projects. Our studio environment is extremely collaborative, and it’s an ideal environment for apprentices to absorb the work that is going on around them.
We’re a steadily growing agency, and now see apprenticeship programmes as key to our business. We don’t expect apprenticeships to offer us a low-cost team member. We’re primarily looking to send someone out into the world with exceptional experience and skills. The first apprentice we hired was a great experience for both parties. Although we were unable to offer him a full-time position following the apprenticeship, we were able to support him in joining a competitor agency in the same city, where he still works 4 years later. We were able to offer our second apprentice a full time position, and he has now been working with us for nearly 2 years since completing his programme, working on genuinely innovative web development and agency R&D.
Spicerack apprentice Shannon commented:
Spicerack have been patient and encouraging every step of the way. Working here has opened my eyes to a new way of work and design. I have been given so many opportunities to learn more and grow my career.
Before starting at Spicerack, I had no idea what networking was. I did not even know that design seminars were running in Bristol constantly, and I have been here all my life. We are constantly given opportunities to go and see talks from other creatives, or meet up in networking events to meet others in the south west. It is also invaluable to be allowed to sit in meetings with clients that we are working with, like Dyson or Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
Spicerack’s founding partner Dave said:
We primarily offer apprenticeships to give something back; something we really believe in. Typically, during the first few months, apprentices aren’t skilled to work on commercial work. College work and commitments also take priority, which in turn dictates the type of commercial work our apprentices can work on. But the overall experience as a result is intended in a small part to meet our industry’s future needs. Also, as has been the case previously, if we are able to offer a full time position at the end of the apprenticeship, we will, in the knowledge that the programme we have supported and delivered has resulted in an exceptional candidate who would stand out proudly amongst the more traditional university-educated applicants.
Caragh brings invaluable experience from previous roles at Huggg, Bristol 24/7 and comms agency JBP to help shape the agency’s project and strategic partnership delivery.
The appointment marks an important step in Noughts & Ones’ growth and promises an exciting future for the creative development agency.
“We are incredibly excited to have Caragh on board – her natural ability to build strong professional relationships and ultimately get shit done is going to be an absolute game changer for Noughts & Ones.” – Tom Locke, Agency Owner
As well as helping to shape project and partnership delivery Caragh, alongside the wider Noughts & Ones team, will be playing a key role in shaping the agency’s identity as they embark on a brand repositioning project that is set to launch in early 2021.
“I am delighted to join the Noughts & Ones team at such an exciting time. As the e-commerce industry continues to grow, you can expect some big moves from this little agency. Over the next few months, I’m looking forward to forming new partnerships with brands and agencies that share our vision of doing some good in the world.” – Caragh Jones, Project Manager
Keep up to date with the latest new and updates at 👉 noughtsandones.com
Check us out on Instagram 📸 @noughtsandones
ADLIB, a B Corp certified recruitment business based in Bristol has become one of a handful of recruitment agencies in the UK to transfer 100% of its business to its employees. The company provides recruitment solutions across several core sectors, including Technology, Data, Engineering, Science, Sustainability, eCommerce, Marketing and Design. The business works with all manner of clients, from start-ups and scale-ups, through to global brands across the UK and increasingly overseas.
The Employee Trust will work alongside ADLIB’s Directors, to oversee strategy and growth, with an emphasis on ensuring that the business’s sense of purpose and values remains paramount.
ADLIB’s major shareholder, Nick Dean, will remain part of the Trust for the foreseeable future, whilst staff will play an increased role in directing business profits and inputting into the running of the business via the Trust, a model similar to that of the John Lewis Partnership.
A share ownership scheme will provide each and every employee access to share options based on length of service and responsibility. New employees will also be eligible to access the scheme and take advantage of a reward and ownership model that will significantly boost their earning potential, whilst creating a deeper sense of purpose and engagement.
Nick Dean “Over recent years we’ve been considering the future of ADLIB. We’ve always felt it would be a challenge to find a suitable buyer who would retain ADLIB’s ethos, substantiated by our B Corp certification in 2019, and the drive to balance profit and purpose. The most important factor was retaining our independence and the flexibility to invest into our growth, whilst ensuring we retain our B Corp certification. By far the best solution to ensure ADLIB has a long standing future, was to hand over the business to the people we know and have helped create it into what it is today, whilst adding an additional layer of employee attraction for those who will help spearhead our next phase of growth.”
Bristol Creative Industries is the membership network uniting Bristol, Bath and the South West’s creative sector. We are the largest creative network in the South West with over 500 members and a robust following across all the main social media channels. Industries include, advertising, marketing, design, digital, PR, graphic, film, TV, video, radio, photography, IT, software, createch, publishing, events and games.
Guess what? We are also open to students and graduates looking for work experience placements, short term contracts and full time jobs. It’s the place to join if you are looking to build a digital portfolio, make contacts and find employment. And, for students and recent graduates, it’s totally free to join.
Bristol Creative Industries brings together a community of like-minded individuals and creative businesses to promote opportunities and support sector growth. Each member gets an online profile in the membership directory which is a great place to get to know local employers. We also have a jobs board and host training and speaker events to inform and inspire our network.
As a Student / Graduate member you will get your own profile in the directory so employers can get to know you too. Also pick up discounts on training workshops and speaker events, and a host of other perks like money off your coffee fix!
All in all, it’s a great place to get noticed by employers, discover what’s going on in the creative sector and hear the latest industry thinking at our training and speaker events.
Sounds exciting? Sign up here.
Get involved, get connected and your career will start to take off.
Photo Credit: Access Creative College
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