Marketers often voice their frustration to me about the rate of turnover at their agencies.  It is hard to lose a great team member, but it’s more difficult to be left holding the bag for bringing someone new up to speed on the business. 

And this happens frequently. Agencies compete with each other, tech companies, startups and brands to attract and retain the best employees. Many use culture as a differentiator in the talent wars.  In fact, 77% of agencies we surveyed listed culture as a way to engage and retain employees.  Even with these efforts, agencies suffer from low employee morale and rising employee turnover. 

For this reason, it’s critical for marketers to pay attention to an agency’s efforts towards building and nurturing its culture.  Marketers that build this evaluation into the agency vetting process and look for a cultural fit will experience less turnover on accounts, higher quality work and a better relationship with their agency.

And agencies that connect leadership behavior, hiring efforts, employee engagement and new business efforts to culture will build working environments that attract and retain talent, while delivering superior client experience.

Read Ignore Your Agency's Culture At Your Own Risk to learn more and reach out to me if you’d like to learn more about how to integrate a culture assessment into your agency search or relationship.