NEWS & OPINIONS

This is a photo of an empty lecture hall, a few minutes before the doors opened to our first ever university lecture. Ready to mould young minds, alongside some friends of mine. Behind the camera is me. Bricking it. But I did it. It was fine. Rather good, actually. The positive feedback we received afterwards from the uni – if I’m honest - was humbling. When we were first asked to run this lecture, my immediate thought was to say no. Mainly because we’d not done one before (read: I was worried I might be a bit shit) but it turned out to be really enjoyable; certainly something I'll be making a habit of. So my point is this. Sometimes it's best to go against your gut and say "yes, alright, I’ll give that a go". Throw yourself in. Send the lift back down, if you can. All that good stuff. You never know where it might take you. And even if you help just one person, then it's worth it for that alone. :o)

Ask a room of recruiters if there’s a talent drain of women in the industry and they might shake their heads in absolute disbelief. You’ll probably hear someone pipe up “but there are so many women in recruitment”. There are. But it would seem that they’re not necessarily hanging around. The gist of it goes like this: women enter the recruitment agency world, see some success and may get to senior management (high five!) but then jump ship before they bag a board level position (ooft). So what’s going on? I went to an event a few months ago where this was discussed. The general thinking was that a lot of women simply don’t take their agency career seriously as a long term career option. Or can’t see a way of making it work when they have family commitments; making alternative career plans well in advance. Maybe they go in-house, perhaps they set up on their own or maybe leave recruitment completely. Pretty much every recruitment agency boss will lament how difficult it is to hire ‘good consultants’. So this all seems a bit careless, doesn’t it? To lose some of our most deeply networked, experienced and valuable individuals. Particularly in an industry that already suffers high attrition rates. But they’re right there, you silly sausage! They are right there in front of you. Ah, no. Sorry. Not anymore. They’ve gone I’m afraid. Put off by inflexible working practices, silly KPIs and a lack of real benefits. The recruitment agencies who are getting it right play by grown up rules: they enable people to manage their own time; provide the right technology so their employees can work flexibly if they need; they empower a focus on results, not spray and pray KPIs; provide proper benefits and parental leave policies that are clear and fair; they pay and promote on Moneyball merit not on loudest voice. They look outwards, constantly, to their clients and job seekers with respect and the absolute understanding that jobs transform lives. These are the recruitment businesses that will retain women as they reach their 30s and beyond. It’s these businesses that will welcome mums back after maternity leave, are supportive of working fathers too, and won’t roll their eyes about the F word or the C word (flexibility, childcare). It’s these businesses that will ultimately retain and attract really good people. And it’s these businesses that will, in turn – and this is absolutely crucial - present more balanced shortlists to their clients. Leaders in these businesses do not behave appallingly: they don’t give pornography to their employees at Christmas; they don’t bully or sexually harass their staff; they don’t think air honking boobs is a good way of saying hello; they don’t hire female employees based on how presentable they are; they don’t constantly ask ‘so when are you planning on having a family’; they don’t rely on getting everyone smashed as their main incentive. And unlike the views of one influential industry figure, they don’t suggest that “It’s just a bit of banter. Just ignore it and be better than the guys”.

Campaign50: The future of advertising careers As part of Campaign's 50th birthday celebrations, our Founding Partner, Emma Love, was asked to predict how the industry will change in the next 50 years, and how we will keep up... This article was originally published in Campaign. 50 years ago, as Campaign was going to press for the first time, my parents were planning their wedding. Things were rather different back then. Once married, my mother gave up work and – like many of her friends – never really returned. Of course, mum had the full time (and totally unpaid) role of raising children and absolutely supporting dad’s career for almost 40 years. In truth, my father’s profession defined us as a family. That was the ‘60s. The time of industry legends like Ogilvy and Bernbach; the ‘golden era’ of advertising, fuelled by the rise of mass consumerism, youth culture and disposable income. A decade that brought with it incredible societal changes that are impacting our lives today: important reform around abortion, divorce and homosexuality; the pill was introduced; 850 women in Dagenham went on strike for equal pay. The decade came to an epic close, with the world watching the first steps on the moon. Even with all of that excitement of the 1960s, nobody could have predicted how far society would have moved on today. We live in a world of constant change. Turn on the news and it’s easy to be pretty baffled – frightened, even - about the outlook: the environment, Brexit, house prices, Trump. Advertising and creativity is completely dead of course. And the robots will take all our jobs. Run. Run for the hills! Calm down, dear. Creative thinking is hardwired into our DNA and will remain as important as it was 50 years ago. The same with technology. And automation. In 50 years’ time there will still be goods, products and services that need selling. Meh, maybe we’ll call it advertising, maybe we won’t (we will). There will still be jobs. Some will be the same. Many will be new. I find it heartening to remember that Britain’s creative industry (including advertising), plays a crucial part of the future economy and is something we should be very proud of. It employs 2 million people, is worth over £90 billion and the industry is growing twice as fast as the economy as a whole. The Creative Industries Sector Deal announced in March this year is a strong statement of intent that focuses on investment across innovation, STEM education and cutting-edge tech. So what of the future? "We cannot underestimate how much the creative agency landscape has changed over the past five years" darkly whispered a big dawg CSO I work with. And it’s true. The production model, in-house model, business transformation consultancies and brand hubs have all been happily (*buzz word alert*) disrupting the status quo haven’t they. Well, good! We can’t just stand still, can we? Let’s crack on and see where it leads us. And the future of careers? Well, when it comes to this, we’re really talking about life. My life. Your life. Whilst there’s really no crystal ball here, we can consider a few current themes and mull over what they might mean. Brexit Might as well get this one over and done with first . So far, Danny Dyer is seemingly the only person in Britain able to cut through the Brexit bluster, Jaguar Land Rover has threatened to leave the UK (I’ll call that Jexit), Theresa May is suddenly our dancing queen and the government is less coherent than my toddler. What we do know is that Brexit - AKA whatthefuckisgoingon - is driving business uncertainty, which in turn affects the job market from the top down. That said, we’ve got over significant bumps in the road before: whatever happens, we will get over this one. My mum tells me "life goes on" whenever things don’t go to plan. She’s right. What about diversity? Current entry routes into the industry are tight, particularly given the current economic climate. Snowflakes? Are you kidding? Icicles trying to climb a mountain, more like. Give them a break! It’s up to all of us to shape the industry we want in the future and we must all consider - today - how we are sending the lift down, how often and to whom. Assuming we want a best-in-class industry that reflects our society, we must be more inclusive and work harder to welcome a richer spread of individuals to the fold. What is your company doing to nurture an inclusive culture? In 50 years’ time, if we get entry routes into the industry right, it will be more inclusive throughout and pay gaps should be less stark than they are now. And working parents? Whilst there is a pretty robust male:female ratio overall, there is still a clear talent drain of working mums, and worrying inflexibility towards working dads. For an industry that has spent decades appealing so heavily to youth audiences and parent pockets, isn’t it just so odd that many company cultures have been so unwelcoming of people who actually have children? Thankfully, whilst there is work to be done, we are going in the right direction as flexible hours are becoming normalised – for dads, as well as mums (and indeed for anyone who is a carer). Companies will need to continuously think about their corporate culture, and what community they are building. Does your company, for example, have clear parental leave policies in place (or is it still something negotiated on the dreaded ‘case by case’ basis)? Are parents in your company able to go to school sports day and Christmas concerts without taking a whole day’s leave? Can they easily work from home when a dependent is unwell without colleagues rolling their eyes? This is not special treatment; it’s a positive way society can behave, and a mature way of building employer / employee trust. If your company is doing this already, great. If not, why on earth not? We’ll be working longer, right? Absolutely. In 50 years’ time there will be way more over 50s than there are children in the UK. This is a massive societal shift. Do you want to be doing what you’re doing now, forever? Hell no? Non-linear career paths and career switches will become more normal. But, for now, think about how you perceive age. When you look at a CV, do you instantly scroll to the back page to ascertain the applicant’s age? Are you instantly disregarding people based on their abundance of experience? Do hiring managers in your company only ever hire people younger than themselves? And think about this: with fewer young people entering the workforce, companies will need to develop stronger L&D strategies to help their existing employees keep up with the pace of change. Hopefully scrapheaping will be a thing of the past. Of course, keeping up with the new is a challenge for us all – personal and corporate. Every day is a school day: keep learning. And for gawdsake don’t put off your retirement planning. Will we move jobs all the time? That’s up to you. People are indeed moving jobs faster than ever before and our relationship with our employers is changing. The term ‘gig economy’ can make it sound like career nirvana is just around the corner: you can choose your hours, earn bags of money, skip from one gig to another and be totally #winning the life/career merry-go-round. The point is to stick to your path and – if you are choosing to move jobs – do so when it is right for you, not because ‘everyone says’ you should move companies every 12-18 months. Employers highly value attributes such as adaptability, pragmatism and resilience: the more senior you get, the more they will seek out those qualities. In return, you should expect a decent suite of grown-up benefits and play by grown-up rules. And we’ll all work remotely from the beach, yes? Tech will continue to enable us to work effectively away from the office. It can (quite literally) be a breath of fresh air and we can only predict this gathering pace. That said, I doubt we’ll all completely forgo working in an office environment. Businesses are a community of people, after all. The happier the individuals are, the better the community works as a whole. Being together will continue to be part of that...just not necessarily parked at a desk for nine hours a day with a hellish peak time commute either side. With that said, do try to switch off. Put your phone down. Stop checking your emails late into the night. Unless of course you are actually on the beach and working to a different time zone. So where will we be in 2068? I’d hope: looking at a diverse pool of talented people working in the vibrant, globally respected creative industry that I have adored since I was a teenager. Mainly though, I hope we will all have followed our own path in life and remembered the most important things: family, friends and community. As that’s probably all I’ll remember when I’m 90. In the meantime, we’ll raise a glass to say Happy 50th, Campaign. And happy golden anniversary, Elizabeth and John. Love you guys.

A round up of this year's winners at Cannes and particular congrats to Adam&Eve/DDB who won Agency of the Year. In a fitting tribute to Ben Priest as he leaves the agency he co-founded, Adam&Eve/DDB walked away with the Agency of the Year award at Cannes 2018. The other UK winners included: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO winning the Glass Lion Grand Prix for its work on Bodyform plus PR and Design Grands Prix for the LadBible "Trash Isles" campaign McCann London picked up the inaugural Creative eCommerce Lion and Gold in the Direct Lions for Xbox The inaugural Social & Influencer Grand Prix went to Wieden & Kennedy for the "Nothing beats a Londoner" campaign for Nike Bartle Bogle Hegarty London shared the Media Grand Prix with Mediacom for their work with Tesco Continuing a turbulent time for WPP, their 7-year hegemony as Holding Company of the Year (since the award was created) as been broken by Omnicom. For a full rundown of all the Grands Prix winners, have a look at Campaign's coverage at http://bit.ly/CampCannes2018. If you would like to discuss how The Great & The Good can help you achieve your career goals, give us a call on 020 3567 1284 or email David Love, Founding Partner, The Great & The Good

Emma meets She's Back founders, Liz and Deb, at their brilliant event, held at Mother's glorious office and in celebration of International Women's Day. She's Back helps organisations access the potential of women at all levels, support women who want to return and campaigns on behalf of women. You can get involved with this brilliant bunch at www.shesback.co.uk.

As part of our Talent Expert series, we have been speaking with David Regan, Senior Associate at Squire Patton Boggs. For Mental Health Awareness Week (8th-14th May 2017), David explains how best to support an employee who may be experiencing mental health problems. One of my employees has become withdrawn and irritable; the quality of their work has also dropped. I am worried that they may be stressed and/or depressed – what do I do? First, the most important thing is do not avoid the issue! Often, regardless of the situation, employees may want or need help, but they just either don’t know how to ask for it or are scared that if they do ask for it then the "stigma" having asked for it will follow them around, possibly impacting their career prospects. Employees should feel able to approach their managers or HR to discuss their problems – a failure to do so can, over time, lead to difficulties in the relationship between the employee and their manager/the business. If you are nAdobeStock 107129665ot sure how to open the conversation with your employee, speak to HR and ask them to help you speak to the employee. Most HR staff will have dealt with similar situations and many have had training on mental health issues (or know someone who has). Asking employees how they are doing is not about you, or indeed the business, looking to 'fix' the situation, it is about helping the employee understand that you and the business are willing to listen and, where appropriate, will try to find them help – this can come in many forms, from mentoring, engaging an employee assistance programme ("EAP"), or in more serious cases, an asking an occupation health specialist to make recommendations to help an employee. One important question which may arise is whether or not the employee is "disabled" for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 ("EA") – this will depend on the facts of a specific case. Where an employee is disabled for EA purposes, there can be additional obligations on an employer – for example in certain circumstances employers should consider whether they need to make 'reasonable adjustments'. This is often a difficult exercise, as it means balancing an employee's needs with the resources and demands of the business, as well as ensuring that other members of the team aren't overloaded. David Regan is a Senior Associate at law firm Squire Patton Boggs. A specialist in media and advertising, David deals exclusively in labour and employment law.

What's the going rate for an Account Director? How much should an Account Executive expect to earn? Please see below for our survey of average account handling salaries in 2016. This data has been taken from a broad selection of London agencies, from large networks to small independents. 2016 was a relatively steady year for average salaries in account handling. There continues to be strong demand at the mid-level (particularity SAMs) which has continued to drive salaries up further towards an average of £40k. Of particular note is the substantial decline in the use of the ‘GAD’ title. An increasing number of agencies are dropping this in favour of a broader SAD title with the next step being Business Director or equivalent. The insatiable appetite for Direct and CRM skills has continued unabated; this has been further increased by several large client moves and the increasing business focus in the space from more traditionally ATL-focussed agencies. To discuss salaries for other roles, please contact Emma, James or David on 020 3567 1281 or at sayhello@greatandgoodtalent.co.uk. If you would like to discuss how The Great & The Good can help you achieve your career goals, give us a call on 020 3567 1284 or email David Love, Founding Partner, The Great & The Good

Georgina Collins, Interbrand's Executive Director, HR – EMEA & LatAm, chatted with our Founding Partner David Love. Read Georgina's advice around a thorny career issue. At some point in your career, unless you are very lucky, you are likely to question your salary level and whether it continues to be appropriate for what you do. In today’s world, there are many sources of information which can give you an idea of salaries for roles – surveys, recruiters, job adverts, internal salary bands to name a few [You can find The Great & The Good's salary survey for Account Handling roles here] These can help you to benchmark your role and give an idea if your salary is in the right ballpark. However, do proceed with caution, as titles and roles vary from agency to agency and may not always give as accurate a view as you might hope. For every example where you can find a similar role with a higher salary, there is likely to be another example with a lower salary as well, so make sure you have taken into account these different sources and you have set a realistic benchmark. Similarly, it’s important to consider your total package. Benefits packages differ hugely between companies and need to be factored in when you are thinking about your overall compensation. Benefits – such as generous pension contributions, childcare vouchers, private healthcare, variable bonus schemes and even the use of a mobile phone – can all add up and should be taken into consideration when looking at your compensation. Depending on the make-up of your full package, you may be better off on a lower salary with a fantastic benefits package, rather than just a higher base salary. Finally, it’s worth considering where you are on your career trajectory, where you are aiming to get to and how your employer can help to support you to get there. Salary is only one element (albeit an important one) of your relationship with your employer and if you enjoy your role and you are getting personal satisfaction and development in your job, it may be worth a short-term trade off on salary in return for longer-term career aspirations. But only you can answer that! Having taken everything into account, if you still have concerns about your salary you should speak to your line manager or HR. An open and honest conversation may help you to understand why your employer feels you are at the level they pay you and how, if possible, to improve your salary or you may be given the reassurance you are looking for that your employer is committed to your personal development and salary progression. Moving role isn’t without its risks so it’s worth weighing up if the gain of a potential new role is worth it – a simple conversation with your employer may well help facilitate enough change that you get a better balance of risk/reward than changing jobs based on reward alone. If you do decide you want to raise it with your manager or HR go to the meeting prepared - try not to be defensive when you meet but to talk through your concerns and where possible back them up with facts. Similarly be realistic in your expectations and how your company might be able to handle your salary issue as they will need to take into account a broader view of the team as well as the overall business. In larger agencies there may also be set times of the year and specific processes which need to be followed to review salaries. Try to remain open minded and work with the company to understand what can or can’t be done and in what sort of time frame.

Diversity has to be an innate part of the recruitment process, says McCann's head of talent, in this exclusive interview. Robert Stone is McCann Worldgroup's head of talent. In conversation with our co-founder, Emma Love, Robert shares his insight and advice on how to build a more diverse workforce. Robert, what does a diverse workplace looks like in your eyes? To us, diversity isn’t a box-ticking and quota-checking exercise. It has to be an innate part of our recruitment process that aims to attract a broad representation of people, not just limited to gender, race and religion but also drawing from social, economic and geographically-varied backgrounds. Diversity has been a hot topic for some time, when did you start thinking about it and why is it important? Diversity in some guise or another has been part of our conversation for as long as we can remember – it’s been an evolving topic over the last few years and it’s encouraging to see that there are some powerful organisations within the industry that are now affecting positive change. What is McCann London doing to embrace diversity? We believe that building talent from the bottom up is the way to do this effectively, otherwise we are still recruiting from the same limited pool as all the other agencies. We particate in a number of internship schemes that help us to recruit from varied backgrounds: Miami Ad School, IPA’s STEM programme and the Art Against Knives charity. We are also launching a few initiatives to attract a more diverse workforce, such as Open Hour in which our senior management devote an hour a week to Skype with anyone interested in entering the industry. We’re not just targeting the usual university grad route through this initiative, but aiming to increase the pool of background and life experience by targeting schools for pupils who wouldn’t necessarily have considered a career in advertising, or job centres for those wanting a career change who have valuable experience gained in a different industry. But we also believe that much of this is about creating an open culture based on honesty that allows our employees to achieve the best of their potential in a supportive environment. You can have all the initiatives in the world, but if the basic culture doesn’t support that then they won’t be successful. (Above) McCann London's latest campaign for True Match foundation How does a diverse workforce benefit McCann London and your clients? Immeasurably! If we can’t truly understand the client’s customer, then we give ourselves a far greater challenge in delivering truly effective work. Ultimately, a diverse workforce produces a stronger, more effective product. What are the key challenges around diversity that agencies are facing? The pace of change is always going to be a challenge that needs managing. Understandably, people want change yesterday. But in reality, building an effective solution that will work in the long-term takes time. Also, in recruiting a geographically diverse workforce, you can’t escape the fact that London is an expensive place to live! There has to be a strong incentive to attract potential talent who hadn’t previously considered living here. How do you know if you have a diverse workforce? We need to look at the metrics by which we measure diversity. This is something we are in constant discussion about and, in my view, will be an ongoing assessment of the background of our workforce vs the quality of the work we are delivering for our clients. I’m not sure we can ever reach the point at which we put our feet up and say ‘Job done’. What practical advice can you give agencies about embracing diversity? To regularly assess your workforce and, most importantly, your recruitment methods. There’s no point in casting your net in all the same places time and time again and then wondering why you can’t reach your diversity goals.

When I started this article I was enormously heartened to be writing about the increased levels of part time and flexible working we have recently seen for parents in the advertising industry. Anyone who has spoken to me in recent weeks - you know who you are - will have heard me waxing lyrical about how flipping open minded the agency world seems to be becoming. In fact, the last handful of placements I have made have all been working parents in management or leadership positions at London agencies. Pretty much all negotiated an element of flexible working, a good pay rise and step forward in their career. Good news! I was going to write. This is fantastic! Yes, work to do - lots and lots - but let's keep going. We're definitely on to something! So I cannot tell you my dismay to read the recent On The Campaign Couch (16/09/2016) "Will I still be taken seriously if I switch to part time?". The scenario was a man asking if he should go part time once he became a dad. The answer from The Couch was a resounding "You're having a laugh aren’t you. Surely that's career suicide". Campaign I ask you, would this article have even been published if the gender was switched, and it was a mum asking the same question? In this age of diversity are we still so far in the dark ages that men are defined only by their capacity to be the main breadwinner? Surely not. And let’s not forget that if dads can't get flexibility from their employer, we all know what this means for mums. If you are a working parent please do not be put off by such unhelpful dialogue, dressed up as humour but peddling views which are - fortunately - not shared by everyone. There’s really good stuff happening out there. Truly. Campaign was right about one thing though: it will be quite exhausting – but very, very satisfying. Here are some tips if you are job hunting and need a flexible working arrangement Apply for permanent, full time positions as well as jobs that are exclusively advertised as part-time. Job adverts may not explicitly outline part time working as an option but this does not necessarily mean it’s not up for discussion. Lead with your skills and suitability for the role you’re applying for. I’ll say that again. Lead with your skills and suitability for the role you’re applying for.Don’t open the conversation with a request for flexibility but rather show the Hiring Manager why you’d be amazing in the role. This will also help you have a good grasp of your value – which will come in handy when you’re negotiating the salary. That said, once the conversation has started, be clear and upfront about how it's going to work 3 days a week, 4 days a week, 9 day fortnight, 2 days from home, 5 days compressed into 4, late start for drop off, early leave for pick up ... whatever it might be. Don’t apologise. So you have children. It happens. I have two myself. And whilst we’re on the subject, avoid that awful word “only” as in “I’m ‘only’ part time”. If your skills and experience warrant it for the job you’re going for, go for the pay rise too. Just so you know, we’ve secured increased packages of anything up to 20% for part-time and flexi-working parents. Happy hunting! Emma How realistic is flexible working in agencies?