Howdy! I came across a presentation buried within the Marketing Accountability Standards Board website that sparked a few thoughts on lowering staff retention. My gut tells me retention is becoming a bigger problem on the agency side. Particularly at bigger agencies. The problem might exist on the client side, too, as CMOs roles are being eliminated and/or devalued.

The presentation, written by some brand smarties at Deloitte, talks about a company’s brand and why “brand health” should be in the executive boardroom. Two stats in the deck jumped out at me as it relates to retention and recruiting:

• 40% of new hires are less likely to leave a company with a strong brand.
• And 50% of workers won’t even consider working for companies with a bad reputation.

I suspect that last number is even higher in professional services. This is why agency CEOs, presidents and agency Chief Talent Officers should be thinking about these issues.

No doubt about it: your brand – and how it’s perceived in the marketplace – impacts recruiting and retention. And of course it impacts new business.

So here are a few thoughts that can help inspire potential change that makes recruiting, retention and new business easier and more efficient:

Recognize you have a brand health problem

What’s this? You have high staff turnover? A declining employee tenure? Not enough candidates for great jobs? An increase in recruiting costs? Longer times to fill? Crappy Glassdoor ratings and reviews? An increase in base salaries compared to your competitors? You say new business is hard? Any/all of these measures can suggest you have an agency brand problem. And admitting it is the first step in fixing it.

Understand how & why it’s happening at your shop

Agency, heal thyself. Apply what you do for clients to your own agency. What makes that a more helpful statement is exploring what you can do to uncover the reasons behind the problem. An audit of sorts. A few areas to look at (with a smidge of context):

Your employees. Quantitative and qualitative surveys, onboarding / exit interviews and other initiatives will provide valuable insights. Keep in mind no one wants to get fired for speaking truth to power. So consider using a third party for some of this to drive employee candor and participation.

Your clients and prospective clients. This area has a lot more to do with new business than staff recruiting and retention. But there’s definitely a relationship between  the kind of clients you have/attract and the kind of staff you keep/attract.

Your suppliers. This is another key (and often overlooked) resource. Suppliers know you well. They also work with your competitors. So they’re in a good position to know how you compare with your peers. Just having the conversation can yield a potential candidate to hire or a new business lead that wants to hire your agency.

Your industry. This category is a catch-all, including sources like trade associations, trade press, search consultants, and more. Insights in this area will help establish benchmarks. Research in area can also uncover more ideas and solutions. Related: if you’re looking for true innovation to fix brand reputation problems and recruiting & retention issues: look beyond the agency world into other professional services; brief some creatives; or hire outside experts.

What’s next? Invest!

Here’s part two of this post, offering you more ideas on how you can address and then solve a poor agency brand perception challenge.

photo credit: arbyreed Tidy Shop via photopin (license)

(Here’s part two of some thinking that can improve staff retention, lower turnover and make recruiting and new business easier for your agency.)

Once you admit your agency has an agency brand perception problem and have identified why it’s happening, you can do something about it.

Invest

There’s a whole lot of stuff you can do to fix a brand problem. And yes, this requires investment. But it will positively impact your top and bottom lines over time. Quantifying that impact needs to be a part of your business case to senior management / holding company overlords.

Here are just a few areas worth your agency’s time & money:

HR Department	Training & Development	Empathic HR Policies
Award Shows	Agency Press	Endorsements / Social Proof
Event Sponsorship	Speaking Events	Social Media
Touchpoint Programs	Controlled Digital Snapshot	Uncontrolled Digital Snapshot

Some of the above are obvious. Some, not so much:

Touchpoint programs. This is a catch-all for exploring an employee’s “journey” with your company. And then tweaking those spots a little bit. Sometimes, these kinds of programs garner trade press, which can always help.

Controlled vs. uncontrolled digital snapshots. These include things like your website and employment-related sites. You control how / what you say on places like Linkedin. You have less control over what’s said on Glassdoor. But your recruits and employees are paying attention, and will probably put more emphasis on sources over which you have little control. Here’s some smart thinking on how to improve Glassdoor ratings.

Do you need a happiness guru at your shop? Someone whose charter is to shape stakeholder’s perceptions of your agency? Hmmm.

Capture what your brand stands for

Good ol’ mission, vision and values thinking. Your agency’s manifesto. When I start a recruiting assignment, I sometimes ask for (but never get) an agency credentials presentation written for a key audience: potential employees. This is potentially a huge missed opportunity for you to attract terrific people!

Something to consider: a lot of mission / vision / value work feels too inspirational or too unrealistic. Is there a chance to add some accountability? Some authenticity? Some charisma?

Minimize the corporate speak, maximize your personality

We’ve been talking about HR stuff here. So there’s a necessary level of formality and corporate-speak. But we’re in the agency business. It’s supposed to be fun! And it can be.

Here’s one example of a Chicago-based company that does a pretty good job of balancing their brand with the HR stuff. An employee handbook. And a list of their benefits. Beautifully written. They make me want to work there. How does this compare with your company?

Recognize / celebrate / reward good staff behavior

So while you begin to uncover an agency brand problem and put in place an idea or two to help fix it, here’s something you can do right now that doesn’t cost too much: spotlight good things already happening. What is the equivalent of putting an employee’s name on the wall at your agency? What can you do that feels on-brand?

Amp up “potential brand impact” in corporate decisions and behavior

Just about any decision you make as a senior leader can impact your agency’s brand. Here’s a negative and positive example of an issue (client choice) that impact’s agency brand sentiment. And here’s a timely and positive example of a holding company on diversity and inclusion.

These are easy examples grabbed from just over the last month. But it’s more than just clients and your perspective on current events. Broadly thinking, it’s about the choices agencies make in how they treat employees, clients, suppliers, candidates and alumni.

Agency brand perception problems are fixable

Hope this has provided a thought or two you can use at your agency to address growing problems in our industry. Should any of it spark something you’d like to discuss, feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience. Thanks. And happy fixing!

Other helpful articles

• How HR can make your agency different and better
• How to earn more staff referrals and lower outside recruiting costs
• How to use agency credentials to attract and retain people
• How your agency’s HR function can be made more valuable
• How agency recruiters uncover passive candidates

photo credit: daver6sf@yahoo.com Swanton Pacific Railroad 4-2019 via photopin (license)