A Blended Approach: Stephanie Marks, Havas Media

von India Fizer , AdForum

Havas Media Group
Media-Einkauf/Planung
New York, Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika
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Stephanie Marks
Managing Director Havas Media UK
  

We spoke with Havas Media Managing Director, Stephanie Marks, about experimenting with hybrid work models and giving teams autonomy to establish their own way of working.


Over the past year, work environments have had to change drastically. How has your agency taken employee feedback, coupled with what’s appropriate for the company to create a work plan going forward?

The return to the office has been unprecedented for us all and by no means did we (or do we) have a fixed plan, so we have chosen to call it an experiment: a way to figure out what the new hybrid model would look like, together. This way of working has worked for the business and our clients, but also for our people. One thing we did know was that this wasn’t an either / or approach - the hybrid model is right for us. It’s just a case of figuring out how to make that work to be the best it can be. In terms of how we’ve approached this, we have done the following things:

  • Taken learnings from lockdown on board – looking at what worked well (for our clients and our people), and what didn’t. We’ve identified the things that we want to keep hold of and the things that we need to try and make work better.
  • Worked with department and team leads – looking at what they need as a team, how the teams could best interact together, what are the things that matter to the people in those teams and the work they do for our clients.
  • Agreed that it wasn’t about the number of days in the office, but what you were doing in the office. So, we set some guidelines about how to make the most of your time in the office and how to use the space, whether that’s to collaborate, to work on a pitch, to galvanize around a client’s challenge, or to have 1:1 meetings with your team. If you just need to write a thought piece on your own or churn through some data, then maybe that’s a task that could be done better at home. We want people to think about how we use the office to be together – this is a more effective way to determine when we need to come in.
  • Thought about how the office would need to change. Did we need more collaboration spaces or more space for the teams to work together? How many desks with dual screens did we really need if people were going to be working at home, too?
  • Conducted ongoing assessment, checking in our findings. This is after all an experiment, so we currently have the latest feedback survey in field now and based on that, we will continue to test and learn new and different approaches.

 

How has the changing work landscape affected the way pitches and campaign briefs are approached and conceptualized?

This was the biggest challenge for our industry – “how will we pitch?” But we found a way. For some opportunities, pitching remotely worked really well – for example, in global pitches with lots of people in different time zones, we could show up as a team virtually and we didn’t have the added challenges of travel, time and expense. But it was definitely harder in some ways, as building rapport and chemistry is hard from behind a screen. We couldn’t rely on the bits around the edges that can make you a bit more memorable – anything from the way the room represents your culture or the way you visualize ideas. It’s harder to be unique and show your personality this way. Today, we’re finding more pitches are happening face-to-face, and it’s such a joy to meet your prospective new clients in person. Yes, there are a raft of global pitches that remain virtual but that’s great too. Whether this way of doing things works in the long term remains to be seen, but I suspect we may need the option to have hybrid pitches (with some people in the room and some people joining virtually) whist Covid still looks set to stay. 

For existing clients and their campaign briefs, the same thing applied– everything was done virtually. However, what we observed over time is that the screen inevitably made these sessions feel more like we were presenting “at” our clients than working with them collaboratively. The screen certainly created a barrier. Luckily, we and our clients tend to like each other so as soon as were able to do more face-to-face there was definitely a desire to make this happen, on both sides. It really helps with the collaboration across our creative agency partners too and it shifts the conversation. From the little chat in the coffee break to the big strategic debate in the room, these things are all the important conversations that form the bigger picture.  It’s also nice to just see our clients as people we want to hang out with and spend time with. A few meetings outside of the office have also been welcomed by everyone.

 

In what ways has this impacted the work-life balance of your employees and what steps have been taken to mitigate that?

I think on the whole, most of us would agree that the work-life blend has been improved by the ability to work from home, but as we said earlier, there is a balance to all of these things. Some people have loved being at home and would love to spend every day there, while others have found it lonely and long for interaction and conversation. Ultimately, we need a blended approach that gives a bit of both. Since March 2020, our initiatives have evolved, flexing to the needs at the time and the current mood, whether that was kids’ activities laid on via Zoom at the height of the winter lockdown when many parents were home schooling, or an increased focus on mindfulness and coping mechanisms, or bringing in core hours to enable people to avoid rush hour now that they are commuting into the office. We have an industry-leading wellbeing program at Havas called Equalise. The team are superb at keeping their fingers on the pulse of what matters, identifying what our people need, and flexing what we provide to help support that at all times. During the last two years, they have absolutely excelled at this.

 

Given that each work environment can look a bit differently, what has helped in creating a cohesive working relationship with clients?

I think ultimately this just comes down to respect for one another. Having open and honest conversations around what our respective organisations are doing, how comfortable individuals are and mutually finding a way that works for everyone. Whilst we put the framework in place it is actually down to individual teams to establish their own way of working, both internally with our own teams, and externally with our clients and other agency partners. We have let the teams lead the way on this and I think co creating this with our clients has worked really well so far.

 

What changes that have been made over the past year do you see sticking around for years to come?

This is a great question. I’m not sure I can actually answer this given I never anticipated in a million years we’d be locked down in our homes. However, having had a taste of some return to normality it’s interesting to see where the center of gravity is now, and what people want. The things that are here to stay are either changes we’ve made that will stick around, or some of our good old behaviors that have stood the test of time (and the test of Covid!).

The hybrid model is definitely here to stay. It works so well in so many ways. I think the hybrid model will continue to flex but I don’t ever envisage being anchored to one place five days a week again.

I think these things are positive and will stick around:

  • The ability to attend more industry events – cutting out the travel time and the physical need to be there has meant it’s easier to do more of this.
  • Good coffee.
  • The need to print out your pitch story and stick it on a wall.
  • Seeing our clients face-to-face whenever we can.
  • Learning face-to-face – nothing can replace this I’m afraid.
  • Bar night – not just for the free drinks but as an opportunity to see more of the people from the agency, not just your team.
  • Summer parties.