As businesses begin to bounce back following the coronavirus pandemic, it is more important than ever to start looking towards the future. And for us, there’s no better place to begin than with how we run our agency.
We're fortunate to be in a position of optimism - we’ve got a great team and our industry and skills are in demand as companies need great digital marketing campaigns and websites. But as any business owner knows, adaptation is the key to success and this has got us thinking… How do we build the best agency of tomorrow, what does the best look like and what do we change? Below are three important changes we’ve made to help position us for the future, foster collaboration and deliver better work for our clients.
At first, it may seem counterintuitive to think that working less can actually produce better results. But after taking a long, hard look at how we work, we have come to the conclusion that having more flexibility is key to unlocking better results. By working from home and having a flexitime policy in place, we’ve seen an increase in employee engagement. And to explore this idea even further, we’re now trialling a 4.5 day work week at full pay and benefits. We’re excited to see how this new approach improves the agency and how much it will benefit our clients. We know that face to face meetings are important, but we have also been very successful incorporating online meetings into our work and in many ways we are more integrated with our clients than ever before. By retaining office facilities in Bournemouth and Bristol, we’re also able to provide the perfect balance of in person and online interactions. This allows us to stay connected with our clients and employees whilst also being efficient, cost effective and environmentally conscious. We believe that this is the perfect way to operate in today's business world.
B-Corp certification is awarded to companies that meet very high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. This program will help us positively impact all our stakeholders – our employees, consultants and partners, the communities in which we live and work, our customers, and of course the world we live in. We’ve always done our best to be an environmentally friendly and socially responsible agency and we love working with and supporting charities. In fact they often teach us a lot in the process. Our work with Friends of the Earth introduced us to the notion of carbon budgets, our work for The Centre for Ageing Better reminds us that Gen Z and Millenials are only two of the age demographics that we need to cater for in the workforce and our work with Amnesty International… Well that makes us feel proud that we are helping to improve human rights. Becoming a B-Corp feels very natural progression for us.
Although it may seem like a relatively minor task, working from home has actually given us the opportunity to step back and analyse how things have changed since we entered lockdown. We've had the chance to reflect on all of the unwritten rules and expectations we've developed during this time, as well as take stock of where we currently are in terms of our employee benefits. This project has led to introducing or enhancing some great benefits for our employees. Examples include a quarterly Work From Home bonus designed to help with increased cost of utilities and living costs in general (yes we actually pay people more to work from home!), enhanced holiday packages (length of service, buy / sell holiday, volunteer days etc) and enhanced maternity and paternity packages. We take pride in our ability to deliver great work, and we've been doing so for over 20 years. Our agency planning process and methodology has always been at the heart of our success, ensuring that we deliver stable, reliable results for all of our clients. Our top priority is always giving our clients exactly what they need—and with careful planning and thoughtfulness at every stage, that's exactly what we deliver. After two years of ups and downs caused by Covid, it's great to be back on track and focused on growth plans again. We want to attract clients who are looking for more than just basic digital performance. We want clients who want much better performance and are committed to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in terms of digital marketing. So if you're not feeling the commitment from your existing agency, or your internal team needs some extra help, or perhaps you'd like an informal chat to explore working together then please do get in touch. You can email paul.honey@strangecorp.com / call 01202 203160 for more info. If you'd like to see the sort of results we generate for our clients please view our case studies. And in order to reach these clients, we need to have the best team supporting us every step of the way. That's why we're always on the lookout for talented individuals who can help us achieve our goals and unlock new opportunities for our clients. Please do get in touch if you think we could be the right agency for you or check out our careers page for current vacancies.
If you prefer to speak with someone, call 01202 203160 or if you'd like to book a 30 min meeting to see if we can help just let us know and we'll arrange a call with one of our Directors.