Having a strong organisational structure in place is key to growing your digital agency.
Whether your agency is brand new or has 100 employees, the structure of the team is going to have a direct impact on your overall efficiency, culture, client satisfaction, and scalability. Without a considered organisational structure in place, many agencies suffer from poor communication and frustrated team members and clients.
So, what are your options when it comes to structuring or restructuring your agency? How do you know which structure is going to guarantee both employee and customer satisfaction and give you the permission to scale your marketing agency?
Get more brilliant advice from Janusz at the 12-month Mastermind group for agency leaders. Gain momentum, resolve and focus to achieve your goals, with the support, accountability and insight of GYDA experts and like-minded peers. Find out more.
1-Flat
A flat team structure is common in smaller agencies and start-ups. Flat structures have only a couple levels, if any at all, between management and employees. These organisations tend to require employees to ‘wear many hats’ and as such, often produce a lot of generalists but no specialists.
2-Functional
Then we have functional structures — in which teams are organised by services. For example, a digital agency with a functional structure could have a Social Team, an Email Team and a PPC Team, and so on.
A functional structure concentrates the expertise and knowledge within those services or groups. As such, this structure often falls down when the client requires more than one service from the agency, forcing disjointed communication between the executives in each team.
As the agency grows, communication and coordination between these teams is only more and more convoluted and scaling becomes very clunky and difficult.
3-Matrix
A matrix structure is similar to a functional one, with added levels of management and communication weaved into the mix, hence matrix.
This structure involves side-ways communication between team members, like account managers who coordinate other functions. Like the functional structure, the matrix is limited to a team of a certain size, as this web of communication is difficult to scale.
4-Holacracy
Holacracy organisational structure is where there are no clearly assigned roles. Employees are given the flexibility to take on any duty or role and move between teams freely. A holacracy can work well within some industries, but broadly speaking, this structure is a poor fit for all digital agencies as having expertise and specialism within your personnel is essential.
5-Pods
A pod organisational structure is where an agency arranges their teams by client type or sector, rather than the agency function or service.
This creates specialist teams, which function similarly to sports teams. For example, each ‘Pod’ would have a PPC expert, an SEO specialist, and a Social Media manager and this pod would service a particular category or type of clients, such as Automotive Clients or the Legal Sector.
Watch: A detailed look at Functional Structures Vs Pods (4min)
Utilisng a pod structure allows you to lean into your niche and achieve a deeper level of industry or sector specialism from each pod.
Pod structures also have no dependencies on other teams within the agency, thus there is no web of complex internal communication. This creates friction-free workflows within your teams and an enriched experience for your clients at the other end.
Finally, a pod structure creates accountability and responsibility among your team members. As employees are being regularly challenged by exciting projects within their specialism, they are likely to have increased job satisfaction levels.
At Digital Agency Coach, we advocate running weekly or bi-weekly workshops for all specialist executives, hosted by a technical lead. Keep the agency focused on strategy, process improvement and professional development and create a conversation the other experts from each pod.
Regularly hosting these casual, friendly and engaging workshops with employees of the same skill set promotes an easy and productive conversation with relevant learning and take-homes for each employee.
There’s no denying restructuring your digital agency can be a disruptive process in the early days and it probably won’t happen overnight. But once the hard groundwork is done, growing and scaling your agency can simply be a matter of copy and pasting a new pod.
This team structure eliminates the complex web of communication just as effectively as if you have a team of 30 or a team of 300 people.
If you are a full-service agency and your clients are purchasing multiple products or services from you, perhaps it’s time to reconsider your organisational structure.
Watch Our Quick Functional Structures vs Pods Explainer Video (4min)
If you feel you’d like any help or guidance with restructuring your agency, get in touch with Digital Agency Coach to arrange a consultation, we’d be delighted to help.
Get more brilliant advice from Janusz at the 12-month Mastermind group for agency leaders. Gain momentum, resolve and focus to achieve your goals, with the support, accountability and insight of GYDA experts and like-minded peers. Find out more.
Over the past decade I have painstakingly built a remote dev team. It took me from being a cash- and time-poor freelancer to owning something I can respectably call a web development agency.
But the process is far from straightforward, there are many pitfalls for the uninitiated, so I’ve put together this checklist for hiring remote devs.
Of course, if you’d rather not build your own dev team, you can always use ours! Our contact details are below.
This sounds obvious but the first time I did this I made the mistake of just shortlisting loads of candidates without being highly specific about what I was looking for. Whatever criteria are on your list, make sure these items are too:
1️⃣ Reliability. Obvs!
2️⃣ Communication skills. It doesn’t matter how good someone is – if they can’t communicate well with you, your team, and your clients, then it isn’t going to work.
3️⃣ Adequate equipment to do the job properly. A good enough computer, connection, work room etc. etc.. Figure it out in advance.
Tell people in your first contact with them how you plan to conduct the hiring process.
Respect their time – you’re likely to annoy good candidates if you forget that they’re busy people just like you.
The relationships you form should be mutually beneficial & respectful.
So do not allow the availability of plentiful skilled foreign labour at low rates (by your standards) give you a power trip: this leads to the worst kind of neo-colonial attitudes & will make you a terrible employer.
Interviews can tell you whether or not a person can communicate, and MAYBE whether they’re going to be fun to work with.
But for determining skills and abilities, they’re useless.
So set them an arthurian challenge. If they can successfully complete x then they get the job. Make it fun.
But … DO NOT be tempted to let candidates loose on client work (even if you’re paying them). For all you know they might wreck something, possibly your reputation.
Dan Norris (author of The 7 Day Startup and the man who launched WPCurve in a week: a very inspiring guy) talked about creating a dummy website similar to his clients’ sites and having candidates log in and perform various tasks on that as an aptitude test.
Even after 1) checking someone can communicate and 2) putting them somehow to the test, you still don’t know very much about this person.
There is still a good chance that they’re not the right fit. And there is a chance (very small) that they might be actively dishonest.
Tread carefully, especially at first, and protect yourself. Use your common sense. I would suggest not sharing client contact info or server/service passwords.
If you are transitioning from a 1 person company to a 2 person company then for the first time you’ll have to think about “culture”. It’s down to you to create one! How you behave towards your team not only creates the atmosphere in which you must (all) exist during your working days, it permeates your client relationships and your supplier relationships as well.
This is your legacy. Consider it.
Your relationship with a remote worker needs to be built up gradually, but this process takes place over strange, de-humanising platforms like video, text chat and project management software.
You are aiming for a situation – and this won’t happen overnight – where you can trust each other with money, client contacts, server credentials etc., and where you know that you can depend on each other when the pressure is on.
This cuts both ways.
In the early days a big risk is that your new worker will ghost you.
This is rude and annoying but sometimes people find it easier to just vanish (and lose their job) than to ask difficult questions or admit that they don’t know how to do something.
You can mitigate this risk by being super-approachable yourself and by fostering a culture where people are open and safe to expose their vulnerabilities.
This takes bravery and hard work – emotional work.
It will pay off in lasting relationships and decent behaviour all round.
In all relationships, but especially in trans-continental, electronic ones, you’re only as good as your word. So if you lost that, that you’ve lost everything.
Don’t make excuses.
Pay on time.
There have been times when the rest of my life has been collapsing around my ears and I’ve had to sell investments at the bottom of the market in order to keep to my word, but I did it and so must you.
This is about self-interest sure, but it’s also about not being an asshole.
As someone’s boss your scope for making someone’s life undyingly miserable is pretty much as high as it’s ever been (kind of like being a parent).
Don’t forget that and don’t abuse your power.
Decide in advance – so you can answer questions – how you’ll handle practical issues such as
👉 Hours. Do you care, or will it be results oriented?
👉 Public holidays. Obviously they’re different in different countries.
But to avoid misunderstandings your employment contract (did I mention that? you’ll need one, even if you don’t “need” one, then you need one) should stipulate exactly which days are to be worked and which not.
👉 Sick leave. It’s a thing.
👉 Annual leave.
👉 Payment frequency (I suggest weekly for the trial period to build mutual trust then monthly or twice a month to keep transaction costs down)
👉 Payment method. I’ve used worldremit.com (not affiliated). This works great but once on a work trip to Hong Kong I found out (on pay day) that it didn’t work from there. I had to trek across rush hour HK at the last minute to find a remittance centre which would take my money. This was the closest I’ve come to missing pay day & not a nice moment.
A good motto (for lots of things) is “Don’t a dick to your future self”. Document everything you learn. You don’t know when you’ll need it.
But don’t make the mistake of over-systematising or systematising too early. Figure out the best way to onboard new hires manually, and simply make notes. When the time comes that your hires are making hires, these notes will come in very handy.
In conclusion – don’t be an asshole. But you knew that.
That’s it from me. Thanks for reading!
If you need to get some development work done and would like to skip the time, expense and risk of building your own team, use ours! Ugli is a multi-disciplined web and software dev team with all the skills you need to get your projects out the door, on time and at very competitive rates. Get in touch any time on [email protected].
Watch A day in the life of – Heather Myatt, Senior Account Manager at P+S 2022 video here.
These are exciting times here at P+S Creative. We’re winning new business, taking on bigger and more complex projects with long-time clients, and continuing to expand our offering to meet today’s marketing challenges. In short – we’re keeping ourselves very busy!
And because of that, we’re looking for talented Account Managers to join our growing Client Services team.
What does an Account Manager do you ask? Well, I’m here to give you a complete run down on the role. I’m a Senior Account Manager working across a range of clients, including Panasonic Connect Europe, one of Proctor + Stevenson’s largest and longest running clients.
An Account Manager’s role is to be the voice of our clients within P+S, working across all teams to deliver high-quality work that stays true to the brief, meets all deadlines and stays within budget.
“…we’re organised, great communicators and problem-solvers…”
We also develop strong partnerships with our clients. We understand their business, their products and their goals and advise on new strategies, methods and programmes that will help their teams reach their objectives.
We’re organised, great communicators and problem-solvers – and we aren’t afraid to take on a challenge. And it’s that self-starter attitude that really helps us as we navigate our role and keep all our plates spinning.
The types of work we manage varies depending on our individual clients. In a typical week on Panasonic Connect Europe, we’ll research, build, and manage awareness and lead generation campaigns across a range of channels, work with the creative and technology teams to design and build webpages, create print and video collateral, and develop brand strategy for the organisation.
“…it’s that variety in work, scope and complexity that I find really rewarding…”
As an Account Manager, you’ll be in constant contact with your clients through weekly calls and emails, with new projects coming in daily. You’ll build out each project from your client’s brief and properly cost each phase, and then you’ll bring in the right people to get each project finished. Some projects last 3 days, some will last months, and it’s that variety in work, scope, and complexity that I find really rewarding.
And while we tend to manage our own projects, you’re never alone. The team is so supportive and always on hand to help you through the project management, spreadsheets and emails of your day-to-day. We’re surrounded by a very talented and experienced team at P+S and there’s always someone whose brain you can pick to help make your projects more successful.
It’s not all work over here – we also have a lot of fun! Weekly quizzes, Friday drinks, monthly pop-up lunches and various groups, sporting challenges and parties make Proctors a pretty awesome place to be.
As an Account Manager with P+S, you’ll be challenged, given the freedom to run with your ideas and the support you need to develop in your career. You’ll work on some incredible projects with clients who are making the world a better place. So, if you’re starting to think that a lot of what I’ve said sounds pretty good to you, go ahead and apply! And if you’ve got any questions before you do, please don’t hesitate to connect with me on LinkedIn. I’d be happy to help in any way I can.
Think you could be our new Account Manager? Check out the full job description and send your CV and cover letter to [email protected]
In case you hadn’t heard, we’re currently looking for a first-rate Digital Project Manager (DPM) to join our talented team here at Proctor +Stevenson. To give you a personalised insight into the role, we caught up with Billy Black – one of our stellar DPMs, who works across so many of our client accounts.
You can hear all about Billy’s work, the clients and projects he manages, and life at Proctors in our latest vlog, but be sure to read on to learn more about the role, plus a few insights from the P+S team.
A day in the life of – Billy Black, Digital Project Manager P+S 2022 video here.
What does a Digital Project Manager do?
At P+S, our DPMs are tasked with planning and delivering digital projects, working with our in-house teams, account managers and clients to ensure everything’s executed on time, within budget and to the client’s brief. We’re ambitious here, so ideally we’ll exceed expectations. But it’s also up to the DPMs to manage those expectations, so that everyone knows what we’re hoping to achieve, what’s possible (considering deadlines and resources),and what’s needed of them.
There’s plenty of organisation, budgeting and scheduling that goes into project management, but something that’s often overlooked is the opportunity to build relationships. At Proctor + Stevenson, we take the time to forge strong relationships with our clients – DPMs play a really important role in this.
“Building relationships is a really rewarding part of the job, and it’s always interesting getting to know people in different parts of the world. It also means that even if the project is challenging, there’s still a foundation of mutual trust and respect.”
What does a typical day look like at P+S?
Like most of our teams, DPMs at Proctors have really varied roles. One day you might be meeting with one of our clients before briefing the design team, and the next you’ll be overseeing a website project for a global tech heavyweight. You’ll work across our different teams and pickup a wide range of briefs, big and small.
But it’s not all about the work. A huge part of our day to day is our sociable culture – something we’re really proud of.
“Because everyone’s so nice you can’t help but enjoy the day-to-day atmosphere. There’s a real buzz around the office and people really take pride in the work they’re doing.”
We also have a hybrid working policy, so you’ll work three days in our vibrant Bristol office, and two from home.
“I love being in the office, but the option of working from home for a couple of days a week really comes in handy. As do the flexible working hours – especially if you have kids.”
Tell us more about the fun stuff
If you’re in the office, you can have a catch up in the cafe over lunch and compare notes on the latest Netflix documentary – the jury’s usually out, but you can’t agree on everything. We also have regular pop-up lunches from fab local eateries, and we finish early for Proctors Quiz on a Wednesday. It’s a great way to flex your trivia muscles or simply have a drink and give it your best guess, depending on the theme.
There are also some great lunch and learn sessions, where one of us educates the rest of the team about a specific area of knowledge or interest, and workshops from external speakers.
“It’s always nice to see what other members of the team are up to and learn something from them. Everyone has useful skills and expertise both job-related and outside of work and we’re always encouraged to share them.”
We also recently had our first collaboration day, which was a great way to find out what people do across the different teams and departments. It also opened the floor for insightful conversations about how we can build on our culture, reduce our environmental impact and support our local community.
But enough about us! We want to hear from you.
Think you might be our next Digital Project Manager? Check out the full job description and send your CV and cover letter to [email protected]
How it began
Hi I’m Luke and I am a Client Services intern at Proctor + Stevenson. I was in my second year of University studying Geography BA (Hons) at Durham when we were given the opportunity to apply for our placement year. I knew it was something I wanted to do, because it was a great chance to develop myself professionally, learn something new and may be even secure myself a job afterwards.
I’m now over halfway through my placement year and I’ve developed some strong relationships with co-workers, as well as clients. I’ve had the opportunity to manage and lead projects from start to finish and I’m pleased to say I’ve secured a job with P+S once I finish my third year, if I wish to return.
Proctor + Stevenson | My placement year 2021-2022 video here.
What drew me to P+S?
I had a meeting with a careers placement advisor at Durham University, who suggested Proctors as a suitable company to apply for. I did some research into the company and knew that it was the right place for me.
The P+S website had lots of information on the clients we work for and work culture, along with interesting blog posts. This meant I could thoroughly prepare for the interview, as securing a placement year can be very competitive. It also meant I knew what to expect when I started my internship.
Where I am now
So far, I’ve been given lots of responsibility to manage various types of projects. From short videos to full website and branding tasks.
A couple of months in, I was thrown in at the deep end – which is exactly what I wanted – having to manage various video projects with tight deadlines while my manager, Sam, was on leave for a few days. I was apprehensive at first, knowing little about the technical aspects of video production, but as the projects progressed, I quickly became more confident managing them.
These two weeks were rewarding as I could take full ownership of projects. I knew that if they weren’t delivered on time and to a good standard, even though I had support from Mark Jamieson, one of the Directors, and Phil Robinson, Creative Director, it would ultimately be down to me. This motivated me to put in overtime, when necessary, especially when working with clients across time zones, so being flexible to make it work made everyone’s lives easier.
My professional development
So far, I’ve worked mostly with Saudi Arabia-based clients, including the various arms of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) (particularly on recent branding projects), and Impact BBDO, among others. Learning about a different work culture has been interesting and working alongside organisations like the IsDB, who are doing incredible charitable work all over the world is really fulfilling.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work alongside a new client – The Runnymede Trust – a UK anti-racism organisation. I’ve enjoyed working with the design team to develop their new brand. I also learnt about front-end website design in Webflow so that I could communicate project status to the client effectively.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn about the broad array of services that Proctors offers, from graphic design and copywriting to front-end website design and marketing strategy – both online and off. This, along with the variety of clients that Proctors works alongside, makes the job interesting and means that no one day is the same.
During my time at P+S, I’ve developed a variety of skills. I’m now much less apprehensive to ask questions, even if they seem trivial. It’s been a steep learning curve, and simple things such as understanding what the different members of the team do, how they do it and how it all comes together, are much easier quickly described by one of the team, rather than figured out down the line.
I’m much more confident in creating and maintaining client relationships, too. And I have a greater understanding of many different aspects of marketing.
My goal for the next half of the placement is to take on challenging conversations more readily with clients, such as those about budget status and chasing for payment of invoices. I also look forward to a potential trip to Saudi Arabia in March, where I can meet some of the people I’ve worked alongside over the past seven months.
From Luke’s manager:
This is the first time we’ve had a placement year student, so we weren’t quite sure how it would all play out. Having done a placement year myself, I knew that the best way to make it count was to treat Luke as though he was one of the team, getting him working on and contributing to real projects as soon as possible.
Luke got stuck in straight away with some video projects for IsDB’s annual meeting. It was a big audience, with heads of state, heads of banks, royalty and many more globally influential participants in attendance, and a very important and stressed client to please. The Prime Minister of Uzbekistan even weighed in with some feedback.
From then on, Luke has been a huge asset to the team, and we’re really disappointed we have to lose him at the end of the year. But, we’re hoping this great start means the programme will go from strength-to-strength, and we can continue to build our offering for placement year students, giving them a really strong start to their careers.
If a placement year is something you are contemplating and you would like to gain experience within a full-service marketing agency, contact us at [email protected].
First up ADLIB. Our very own Steve Kay has been promoted to MD of ADLIB 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
12 months ago, we set out to achieve a lot in preparation for this move. The result of which has seen us deliver our best ever financial year, the development of the ADLIB x enable group proposition, organically growing a group headcount of 55 talented and lovely people, all which comes without any need to scale and sell and best of all we’ve built an infinite business model that opens career opportunities without ceilings and a stakeholder profit model for all to enjoy.
Steve’s been with ADLIB for 9 years and instrumental to our growth and success from the day he joined. Alongside Steve is an incredible management team that have stepped up to support him in realising our future ambitions.
Next up is enable. It’s taken time to pull together the perfect leadership team that balances energy, opportunity and structure, but we now have it, and it’s been well worth the wait.
Tim Macmillan, enable’s Founder, brings his unstoppable energy and the ability to create opportunity, Oliver Howson has been promoted to be our new MD. Ollie flips seamlessly between the vision and driving the team’s success, whilst Shannon Matthews rejoins the business to bring the structure that underpins everything. enable is bursting with energy and opportunity, the team is growing fast, B Corp is underway, we’re excited for how the next 12 months will unfold.
As for Nick, he’s here to help our new MDs and leaders, to be the best the business has ever had (his words).
Viva ADLIB & enable.
To support the expansion of our Bristol team and better serve our growing list of clients, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve opened an office right by Bristol Temple Meads station.
Eight of the 21-strong team will now be based in the new office, with Operations Director Mike Sharp heading up the Bristol space.
He says of the opening: “Our mission is to be the happiest paid media agency in the UK. We believe that happy people do great work. It’s brilliant to open the Bristol office because we know that our people want to be back in a shared environment, both for their own mental health, and their ability to work closer as a team to deliver for our increasing client-base in the Bristol area.”
We are actively recruiting to fill roles across the business as we respond to increased demand. Having recently been recognised as the Best Small PPC Agency in Europe and praised for our ‘team-centric’ approach, if you’re passionate about paid media, we’d love to hear from you.
For more information on the roles available – based in Bristol, Exeter, or remotely – visit www.launchonline.co.uk/careers/
Leading independent brand and creative agency Mr B & Friends is celebrating its 16th birthday with a significant senior appointment as it embarks on an ambitious five-year growth plan.
Ellie Wilson will join the business as Managing Partner, bringing her expertise in managing high performance agency teams and building long term client relationships to Mr B & Friends.
Wilson is moving from Taxi Studios, where she worked for eight years, most recently holding the role of Operations Director. At Mr B & Friends she will join the senior leadership team and will be working with Client Services, Operations and Finance to ensure the business is in optimum shape as it eyes expansion.
Wilson’s appointment is crucial as the agency seeks to expand its presence at home and abroad to accelerate the growth of the business. Over the last 18 months, Mr B & Friends has seen a rapid increase in activity across existing client business, while securing a number of new clients including OVO, Britvic, Marsh and BMT. Increasingly working with more international clients, such as InterContinental Hotels Group and Sofidel, has ignited the agency’s ambitions to further its reach in a number of key cities.
With a host of clients already based in London, a new office there is a natural progression. This will be followed by a base in West Coast US close to the HQ of its sister company Noble, while a further presence in SE Asia is planned for 2025 to complete the trio.
Back in the South West, Mr B & Friends is due to move into a new HQ at Whitefriars in Bristol in July, offering more space for its growing Bristol team. The agency team across all departments will be offered the chance of secondments and relocation to the new locations as they are established.
The plans coincide with the agency celebrating 16 years in business. Still focused on delivering brand expertise, Mr B & Friends has attracted an enviable client roster of consumer and B2B brands seeking brand strategy, identity, communications, internal communications and creative services across some high growth vertical markets. The growth plans will see head count within the business more than double to 70 employees by 2026.
Founder and CEO Simon Barbato says, “This has to be the most exciting phase in Mr B & Friends history. We have engineered our business to deliver superb brand consultancy with creativity for ambitious clients while delivering a sustainable business model to encourage future growth. I am delighted that Ellie is joining us and will help spearhead the expansion of the business. She brings a huge amount of talent and experience in all levels of agency management, which will enable me to focus on our growth plans. The future is something we’re all excited about.”
Managing Partner Ellie Wilson added, “I’m thrilled to be joining Mr B & Friends at such a pivotal point. My conversations so far have confirmed that we’ve got an outstanding team and firm foundations in place to take on the expansion. I’m looking forward to playing my part and ensuring we all enjoy the journey.”
As Generation Z (aka Gen Z) talent becomes an increasingly important part of future-proofing your business, so does the conversation around how and where to find them.
At a recent BCI keynote event, Mae Yip and Sam Hornsby, co-founders of career guidance platform ERIC, shared strategies for attracting and recruiting Gen Z employees. Dan Martin summarises their brilliant advice.
Gen Z is the generation of people who were born between 1997 and 2012.
Having grown up with digital technologies, they are the internet and smartphone generation. They will make up 27% of the workforce by 2025.
The first step to attracting Gen Z talent is doing your research on who they are.
Sam shared some stats:
“You will never be able to attract young people if you have no idea what they’re thinking,” Sam said. “You need to deep dive into understanding this generation because your Gen Z strategy will be dictated by how well you know them.”
To help with your research, ERIC has a resources hub with stats and studies about Gen Z.
If you ask a 16-year-old what would be their dream employer, they are likely to name companies such as Netflix, Apple, Google and TikTok. “They are aware these brands exist from a very young age through advertising,” Sam said. “They end up becoming superfans who would give their right arm to work for them. That is the kind of employee spirit we’re all looking for.”
You may not be a massive consumer brand that directly appeals to young people but you can still attract their interest by harnessing similar creative messaging.
“Employer branding is showing young people that working for your company is an aspiration and a desirable thing to do,” Sam advised. “You need to communicate that your jobs aren’t just jobs, they are lifestyle choices.”
One brand that does this very well is Heineken. It has created a careers website with humorous videos of employees that communicate the personality of the business. Here’s an example:
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Among your greatest assets for recruiting young people are your existing Gen Z employees. “Get your Gen Z staff to create recruitment content and share it on social media for engagement from other Gen Z people,” Sam said.
There’s more advice on employer branding on the ERIC website.
Sam argued that businesses shouldn’t just focus their recruitment on university graduates.
“Gen Z are active learners regardless of whether or not they went to university,” she said.
“Their natural instinct is to self-teach through Google, YouTube and TikTok which means that university no longer separates the wheat from the chaff. They’ve been trained by technology to consume large amounts of information at hyperspeed whenever they want.
“Unless a job really requires a degree, think about the skills that you actually want a candidate to show. Do you want them to demonstrate a thirst to learn? They can demonstrate that through learning on YouTube.
“Do you want them to have to ability to apply themselves? Self-teaching three different coding languages in a summer break could be seen as more of a demonstration of an ability to apply oneself than learning throughout a three year degree.”
In the past 10 years, we’ve seen the launch of Snapchat, Uber, Twitch, Amazon Alexa, 4G, TikTok and many more. These are the tools and platforms that Gen Z use because they have grown up with them.
The platforms that you might be using to try and recruit Gen Z, such as LinkedIn, are more than double the age of the platforms that Gen Z are using.
As mentioned above, only 4% of Gen Z use LinkedIn which means, Sam said, “you are not using your recruitment budget effectively.”
You need your recruiters to reflect the talent you are looking for so to reach Gen Z talent, use Gen Z platforms. As well as ERIC, examples include Otta and BYP Network.
Research has shown Gen Z to be the most curious generation, they prefer learning from YouTube rather than books and they value personal development over pay.
“Young people are telling us not just how we can attract them but how we can make them happy and keep them”, Sam said. “Be the employer that nurtures curiosity and prioritises personal development.
“You could provide online therapy services, an investment fund for them to play around with, confidence workshops or side hustle lessons.”
46% of Gen Z have applied for an internship or job via a mobile device so you need to make sure your application process is ready for that.
Test your job application experience and make sure it’s mobile friendly.
The career journey doesn’t start when young people first apply for jobs, it starts in schools when they are choosing their GCSEs aged 13.
“Young people want more companies to tell them that about their business as a career option,” Sam said.
“Don’t underestimate how little they know about the world of work. It is up to you to put your industry and your company on the map with young people as early as possible.
“The companies that appear earlier have the best chance of getting the best talent. If you are only appearing at the last hurdle, you’re not just competing against your direct competitors, but every company in every industry.
“To get young people’s attention and interest, you have to give them a reason to connect with you. You have to invest in being part of their career education.”
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Mr B & Friends has welcomed Charlotte Hoare to the team as an Account Director to bring her client services expertise to some of its newest accounts.
Having spent over a decade in London consultancies, from BBH to VMLY&R to Isobel, Charlotte brings a wealth of experience to the agency. She’s led campaigns across a range of sectors for clients such as Virgin Media, Silent Pool Gin, MS Society and Petplan, and has honed her skills in seamlessly bringing client’s visions to life. Among the notable projects Charlotte’s worked on is RSPB’s ‘Give nature a home’ five-year strategic campaign to shift the charity from solely focused on birds to a wider approach to whole nature preservation. She was part of the team for the Savills ‘With us it’s personal’ advertising campaign, designed to reposition the estate agency with a warmer approach increasing appeal to a wider audience and BrewDog’s ‘Rate Beer’ OOH activity across central and wider London.
Mr B & Friends stood out to Charlotte because of its no jargon, no bluff, no added nonsense approach. She says that she got a sense that while an efficient outfit, there was a great sense of culture at the agency and the focus on relationships appealed to her.
Charlotte says, “I came across Mr B & Friends and felt the values reflected mine, and the agency just seemed to be a great fit generally. I’m really enjoying getting stuck in.”
Based in Totnes and working predominantly remotely, Charlotte enjoys throwing ceramics and spending lots of time outdoors when she’s not at her desk. On top of effortlessly juggling multiple projects at work, Charlotte is also organising her spring wedding and daughter’s first birthday celebrations.
Simon Barbato, CEO of Mr B & Friends, says “We’re delighted to welcome Charlotte to our growing team. We’ve had a really positive start to the new year, and I have no doubt that Charlotte will help to contribute to that momentum.”
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