Paul Holmes of the eponymous Holmes Report has said that we are now the second best of all the multi-national agencies in Europe to work for (we were fourth last year). This is based on his now-established study of what employees think, so I am happy we have made some progress.
Here’s what he said:
Edelman has been steadily improving its ranking on our U.S. Best Agencies to Work For survey, and now it is climbing the ranks in our European study too, reflecting a series of cultural initiatives that have transformed the giant family-owned firm into one of the best workplaces among the multinational agencies, attracting and retaining top talent at impressive rates after learning how to leverage its independent status as a competitive advantage. In London, deputy CEO Susan Eastoe has been developing a strong talent management programme, and the training programme has now expanded to offer more than 150 different courses. A serious commitment to quality— including frequent client satisfaction surveys—has helped boost client retention too, to better than 90 percent last year. In addition, the firm has made environmental improvement a priority across the network, setting minimal standards for environmental impact and reducing CO2 emissions—a commitment that has been driven from the bottom up (but now has the attention of senior management as clients start to ask about suppliers’ carbon footprints). Perhaps the most ambitious initiative, however, is the plan to imitate McKinsey and create something Brain is calling Edelman Boot Camp: bringing together the firm’s best thinkers and speakers and inviting the industry— including clients and competitors—to come and learn from them. The firm scored highest relative to industry averages on two criteria: on values (and in particular when employees were asked whether their firm would rather be the best than the biggest) and on communication. “You can feel it is a family owned business which I clearly perceive as an advantage,” says one respondent. “I also feel that Edelman is great in offering new challenges and allowing employees to ‘shape’ their job profile.” Another likes the fact that “the management is highly accessible and the people here are decent, honest and smart. There is relatively little office politics, which is quite an achievement in the PR industry.” And finally, there’s a feeling that “for so long we have been shy to sing our praises but we are doing so now and we are beginning to be rightly recognized for the good work we do and pioneering PR in the new 2.0 world.
[tags] Paul Holmes, Holmes Report, Best Agency to Work For [/tags]
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