Creative Agencies And Their Unicorns!

Author

Nelly

Date

4 May 2021

Creative Agencies And Their Unicorns!

Are you a small or medium sized creative agency?

Do you have a few key employees that have been with you from the very beginning and their value and input have evolved in line with your agency’s growth? They usually wear many hats and cover a variety of roles across multiple departments.

What if one of these key employees left tomorrow? What impact would this have on your agency and client delivery?

Where do you even begin to find a like for like replacement? Easy, right? A bit like trying to find an all-singing, dancing one eyed unicorn who can start next Monday?

So, what can you do to try and mitigate risk and protect your agency’s reputation, performance and client delivery in the likely event that key employee’s move on?

  1. Develop and imbed a succession plan!
  2. Review and acknowledge who your key employees are currently and incorporate future head count resource needs.
  3. Ensure organisational structures, job descriptions, and personal specifications adequately capture the necessary attributes and capabilities to successfully perform in each role.
  4. Make sure processes, methods of working, work instructions are clearly written down, up to date and accessible using effective technology in support of record keeping.
  5. Have a clear understanding of your employee’s own career development needs.
  6. Identify which employees would be the strongest candidates for alignment and stepping into applicable roles?
  7. Identify skill gaps and training needs of your existing employees.
  8. Implement an effective training and development programme.
  9. Conduct regular performance and training support reviews.
  10. Ensure you have the appropriate notice periods in place for your key employees to support a sufficient handover and training.

By not having a clear succession plan in place for your existing employees, consider the amount of time and money spent recruiting, selecting, training and managing new employees, as well as the negative impact all round of not appreciating and investing in your own people.

Pink Giraffe deliver Talent Acquisition and HR Services for Creative agencies across the South West.

If you need any support regarding your succession planning strategy, please contact [email protected]

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