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\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nPHD Media,\u00a0<\/b>320 employees<\/b><\/p>\n
When PHD Group chief executive officer Mark Jarrett talks about why the Australian arm of the global communications media and buying leviathan is one of the nation\u2019s best places to work, he attributes it to everyone in the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a reflection of everyone in the business and their collective commitment to developing the business, the culture and each other,\u201d Jarrett says.<\/p>\n
Jarrett acknowledges a lot of companies tend to mouth platitudes about the importance of their people, but PHD Group\u2019s focus is on developing people as a starting point.<\/p>\n
He says it\u2019s about building an environment of trust, and that\u2019s achieved by allowing people to work flexibly and also assisting them learn and grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can ensure people are engaged, they bring a lot to our business and clients,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve really worked hard on developing a deeper intrinsic understanding of people\u2019s need to grow and develop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sure, the stereotypical view of a media agency is one of hard work interspersed with moments of bacchanalian joy, and Jarrett understands fun has an important role to play, but the key thing is ensuring people flourish in their careers.<\/p>\n
The company has embedded a culture of self-leadership and accountability across the business over the last 18 months as it has focused more on its people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has also been a big drive around internal mobility. In advertising, people do tend to move around companies so we\u2019ve focused on identifying talent in the business and ensuring people are promoted and offered opportunities internally,\u201d Jarrett says.<\/p>\n
Obviously, COVID-19 changed the dynamic of the business last year and Jarrett says there was a six-week period when everyone was working from home. This slowly changed as lockdowns were eased in different states, but it meant the company could examine a more flexible working policy going forward.<\/p>\n
According to Jarrett, 95 per cent of staff have taken up this option but they understand some of the best ways to learn and develop is to be \u201con the job, in the job\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in service industries like media work best when people are in the office \u2013 it promotes ideation and collaboration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done is implement a policy where everyone has to be in the office three days a week. For those who\u2019ve been in the company for less than four years we\u2019re asking them to work four days in the office. It allows them to be better mentored and to grow,\u201d Jarrett says.<\/p>\n
For Jarrett, it\u2019s all about getting the best out of people and assisting them achieve their career goals. He says creating a great place to work is about setting out with a clear purpose and vision of what a company needs to be, and being absolutely committed to that vision.<\/p>\n
The upshot is this will wash through to the people because that clarity of purpose will be followed through in how a company develops its people.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to embed the right culture in a business to succeed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
PHD Media implemented and embedded the concept of self-leadership across the business. This was achieved by implementing a Careers Week, an online tool (Reflektive) to facilitate peer-to-peer recognition and several self-led learning programs such as the PHD Smart Fund, where \u201chigh performers are invited to pitch ideas to the business\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to Jarrett, the initiatives are about driving employee growth and development in the company.<\/p>\n
He says the whole idea of the company has changed over the last 18 months as the company has really focused on driving internal mobility. As such, retention rates in a notoriously high-turnover industry have improved markedly, with a 13 percentage point decrease in staff turnover across 24 months, and internal mobility boosted to 37 per cent annually.<\/p>\n
Further, in the last quarter of 2020, 86 per cent of staff agreed with the statement there are \u201creal opportunities for a meaningful career at PHD and the path is clear to me\u201d.<\/p>\n
Read the full article at Financial Review Australia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The\u00a0AFR BOSS Best Places to Work recognises organisations that are pioneering new ways of working and pushing the boundaries when it comes to workplace policies and practices. These prestigious awards are underpinned by a rigorous, scientifically-proven methodology outlined here. For 2020, the list has been split into 10 industry-specific categories. Here are the top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[493],"tags":[751,1964,1963,1961,1965,7,1966],"class_list":["post-22821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-afr","tag-australianfinancialreview","tag-bestplacetowork","tag-ceo","tag-mark-jarret","tag-news","tag-phdbestplacetowork"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phdmedia.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}