Like most marketing services groups that are growing, our agencies have an influx of new starters this month as well as multiple vacancies which they’re desperate to fill.

It’s an exciting time to join Selbey Anderson. As a relatively young and entrepreneurial agency group, we are always looking for ways to develop the business and create value – for the people, agencies, and brands we serve.

To enable this, our culture must be open and transparent. It must embrace ideas, challenge the norm, and champion progress.

So whilst we are putting in motion the platforms needed to enable this, we also need you – both existing and new recruits - to come forward, be heard, and be part of our journey.

Allow me to elaborate.

Challenge us

Selbey Anderson is still only three years old and so the systems we have in place are too. That means some could be improved. If you’ve had exposure to a system elsewhere that is an improvement on ours, tell us and if we can, we’ll improve it.

That experience could have been gained with another employer, or it could be an interaction you’ve had with a company as a customer or consumer. If you’ve found the experience enjoyable or exceptional then tell us.

Teach us

We’re hoping one of the reasons you’re considering joining a Selbey Anderson agency is to learn. You may be surprised to hear therefore that we view this learning process as two-way, ie, we can learn from you too.

If you’re a Millennial, you’ll form 45% of the global workforce (so including ours) in the next three years. That means we need to understand what your ambitions and motivations are; what aspects of work appeal to you and what we need to do to motivate and keep you.

You’ll also likely be buying brands that our agencies are designing marketing campaigns for. So, understanding what media you consume, what cultural trends you’re influenced by, and what your buying motivations are will help those agencies deliver better-performing campaigns. So, tell them.

(It’s a sad fact that many marketing campaigns are still devised by university-educated, middle-aged urbanites. It’s no wonder so many fail as they are increasingly out of touch with the audiences they’re trying to reach.)

Make us accountable

Hopefully, you’re about to spend several years of your working life with us. Which means you’ve entrusted your career to our safekeeping. It’s now up to us to deliver, or your time with us will be considered wasted. Hold us to account and make sure we deliver what we say we’ll deliver.

Back yourself

It’s a tragedy that so much is written about millennials suffering from a loss of confidence or worse, self-esteem. Gen Z would appear to be even more pessimistic if you believe everything you read. According to a survey by Deloitte, ‘less than 40% of Gen Z are positive about the future’.

I don’t know how we’ve got to this point, but educators are failing in their duty by attempting to shield their charges from failure. Cock ups, mistakes, and errors are an essential part of any learning process and if you don’t make them, you’re not learning.

Please back yourself, whenever and however you can. Have a go. Give it a crack. And hang the consequences. You won’t always get it right, but you will always earn our respect for trying.

Don’t take no for an answer

Unfortunately, it is sometimes easier just to say no. But don’t accept it. Why can’t you attend a client meeting as an observer or be part of a pitch? (someone’s got to make the coffee).

An agency in our group builds into its production schedules longer lead times so the less experienced staff can have a go at the brief before the more senior. That way, there’s still time to recover the job if it's off brief or doesn’t meet the standard expected by the client. It’s such an enlightened and visionary policy.

(How much of my right arm would I have chopped off to work for such an agency when I was setting out in my career? All the way to the shoulder).

Bring your whole self to the job

The most recent recruit to join our IT Help desk in Skopje, North Macedonia is studying for a master’s degree and speaks six languages. An Account Manager who’s just joined one of our agencies is a qualified counsellor in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and spent time doing charitable work in Brazil before joining us.

I suspect neither of them mentioned these attributes during the interview, believing they were not relevant to the role. Nothing could be further from the truth. These attributes make these staff members more rounded individuals and are infinitely more valuable to us as a result.

Have fun at work

Fortunately, the marketing industry doesn’t take itself too seriously. Nor should it. We’re not saving lives, more likely we’re devising campaigns to help persuade customers to buy our clients’ brand of car parts, to visit places like Skegness, or to place an order for a takeaway taco.

All these campaigns need a high degree of creativity, sometimes the quirkier the better. If everyone is taking the above into account, we should be creating an environment that enables great things to happen.

My hope is that for anyone joining, or looking to join, is that you see it not only as an opportunity to make a difference for yourself, but also your agency, the group, and your clients.