It’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Call it the Great Resignation or the Great Reshuffle, there’s no doubt the pandemic has motivated many to take a good look at their work life and ask if there is something better/different out there.

A recent Environics survey noted that the majority of Canadian executives (81%) are having difficulty finding people with the right skillset to fill positions and 78% agree there is a skills gap in their respective industry.

So for the latest edition of the CARD newsletter, we spoke with some of Canada’s leading media agency leaders about how they’re responding to the situation. Today, we are starting with the philosophies they have adopted; tomorrow, we’ll dive in to the strategies they have implemented and the ways they are keeping their teams connected.

How are you navigating retention and recruitment amid the Great Resignation?

Shelley Smit, CEO, UM: For the past three years, our turnover has been less than 10%, which is significantly lower than the industry average of 30%+.

We recruit and develop our talent based on our core values of Curiosity, Candor, Courage, Caring, Community and Commitment, and these values drive how we work and who we work with. We believe in full transparency in all that we do, internally and externally. We communicate openly and often with all levels of the organization. There are no boundaries of hierarchy, and all members of our UM family have complete access to each other, including the leadership team.

The second key piece is recognizing the contributions of our team members. We believe in meritocracy and have created structures that allow for movement within teams and growth at all levels. We constantly evaluate progress and believe in promoting often. In addition, we ensure our salaries are benchmarked across the industry, make adjustments whenever necessary and consistently provide merit increases to reward our people for their contributions.

Kevin Johnson, CEO, GroupM: A key issue that the talent crisis has highlighted is the need to broaden and diversify the talent pool. We’re thrilled to launch our bulk cohort program Launch Pad, which focuses on black, indigenous, and racialized community recruitment. These cohorts will run through a 12-week intensive media program with hands-on training from our domain experts across key media disciplines and come out with a Media Foundations certification and a job if they want it.

From a retention standpoint, our mission was to get through the pandemic without having to do any layoffs as we were seeing them across the industry, and we succeeded. We have focused on giving our people what they need to help them get through this pandemic. We have consistently communicated with and listened to our people through town halls, surveys, and open Q&As to understand what they need. Whether that’s support, resources, flexibility, or just stable employment.

The next frontier that we are actively working on mastering is ensuring that we are helping our people see their career path and growth plan through our organization. The last few years have given us all a great sense of instability, and I want to ensure that we are providing stability in the short- and long-term to our people by helping them see their future with us.

Sarah Thompson, CSO, Theo: Theo was born in the pandemic to serve Rogers, one of the largest brands in Canada. It was a joining of three agencies, and three different cultures. And in that time we have learned a great deal about our people and what it takes to have people be a part of an integrated agency.

First, it is about learning – we want people to see this as the greatest learning opportunity possible and are striving every day to be the best in learning and development, access to WPP network and sharing intelligence and insight beyond titles.

Second, our culture is always a reason to stay and that isn’t shaped by the leadership, it is shaped by the shared vision and joy that we have working together. And finally, we want people to have great careers and that is where we are most dedicated to our people, to have the discussion with candor about where you want to go and be in your career path and ambition.

Noah Vardon, president, Havas Media: I’m excited about the evolution of our labour market and how it’s driving positive change for our media industry. Media professionals have more choice than ever and they can choose to stay in the profession of media while working client side, partner side or agency side.

With more people considering change this past year, I’ve been able have conversations with some of the best talent in the market. This shift has led to fantastic hires and a diversity of talent that are bringing new perspectives from the financial and gaming sectors, helping us work with our clients on a much deeper level. For us, it’s important when you’re recruiting to find people who are looking to make positive change for the industry.

Devon MacDonald, president, Cairns Oneil: As we build new teams and recruit for roles we’re definitely noticing that there are a number of highly skilled people leaving roles where they have only been working remotely. Remote working has been safe and convenient for the majority of people, but it offers no fixed connection to culture. These weaker ties need to be addressed to support people.

With work and personal lives interconnected physically, we need to create separation to give people a chance to disconnect but also have the support for work when needed. Staff have had the option to come into the office on a voluntary basis, depending on provincial health guidelines. We’ve created a number of new initiatives to support hybrid working, extended vacations to visit families overseas and supports in mental health for our staff. Staff are free to work remotely but do need to adjust to Eastern Standard Time and they plan to come into the office a couple of times a month. We are also getting ahead of the Right to Disconnect legislation and introducing new guardrails based on employee input. It’s important to us that a proper balance is struck in servicing clients and having guardrails against personal space and time.

At its core, the evolving discussion over the past two years has been about personal priorities and values. As individuals what do we want out of life and how much of that do we want to come from our careers? Is everyone represented at the table, and does everyone at the table get the opportunity to speak and be heard? Basically life is short, and people want to live their best lives. For some that means moving on to a different industry/career entirely, but for everyone else it means we all need to reimagine what it means to work in media.

Ishma Alexander-Huet, VP, client advice & management, head of learning & culture: At Initiative, our approach to both retention and recruitment is iterative, because needs are diverse and constantly evolving, so we have a number of efforts ranging from strongly established to new concepts we’re exploring.

1. Focus on Wellness: People are working harder than ever during the pandemic, but work life balance is critical for retention. We need to truly disconnect, but that’s easier said than done. That’s why we implemented wellness days and increased base vacation for everyone. Wellness Days are unique because everyone gets 12, to take one day per month just to themselves. Managers are responsible for ensuring their teams take the days, and a special out of office message was created to support talent unplugging.

2. Diversifying recruitment: There simply aren’t as many media practitioners in the market as there were a couple of years ago, which has accelerated a more diverse approach to recruitment. This includes looking at adjacent industries for people with transferable hard skills, but also building pipelines by reaching out to a broader list of college/uni programs for interns and working with high schools to build awareness of our industry with under-represented communities. Of course we continue to look beyond the Canadian borders as well, contributing to volume growth of in-market talent and place a heavy focus on inclusion as people won’t want to stay if they don’t feel included.

3. Career Advancement: People want to climb faster, and in this environment we’re unfortunately seeing people leave for titles they aren’t ready for. We won’t compromise on our standards and required skills for each role but we can look for ways to accelerate growth, which will be a focus in 2022. This is additive to our existing Success Paths, a curated list of courses for people to take by role and discipline to help enable personalized growth.