2. Outline Background The economic and social context
What can Gen-Y teach us about the future if work in agencies?
What can we learn from Gen –X?
The management challenge
What can agencies do now to improve the future of work?
More radical change is still needed

3. 1. Overall Objectives
This study seeks to offer up-to-date guidance on career, work and
organisation design to:
Motivate and engage our people, and our clients, to give of their best, and deliver result.
Understand better the generational and life-stage needs of our people.
Reshape agency businesses to attract and retain the best talent for the future well-being of the business.

4. Research Programme Context Consultation Jan 2010 Benchmarking
Oct Feb Desk research
Consultation
Feb New recruits (Gen Y) April/May Middle managers (Gen X) June/July Senior Directors (Gen X, Baby Boomers) Clients and other professional services

5. 2.

7. Issues from IPA Census (10 year trend)
Is it productive long-term for agencies to continue to lose their 30 and 40-year olds to other sectors? How might the agencies of the future retain this talent pool?
Is the industry failing to keep its young graduate talent? How can agencies attract the right calibre of young talent going forward?
Recently there has been an increase in the numbers of freelancers and temps beyond the creative department; though still small in absolute terms, could this point a way forward?

8. 3.

12. 4.

15. 5.

18. 6. What can agencies do now to improve the future of work?

19. 1 More proactive talent management overall
At different stages in peoples’ careers, there might
be a trade-off between these different currencies:
money
time
status
benefits
short-term versus long-term aspirations
Performance management, not flexible design
2 Locking in Gen -Y
Structured approach: feedback, a framework, a
roadmap. Rising stars needed to be identified, and
provided with a career development programme.
Going global
Lattice not ladder
Time in lieu
The majority of sabbatical requests now are from
people two to three years into their working lives.
“After six months graduates ask to go to New York! Why should we be surprised? NY have similar requests for London. We could do it.”
“We need to signal that we know that we don’t expect you to be the same person for your entire career with us…and that’s okay.”
“Young people expect career re-invention every three years. Perhaps we should open to swapping talent between different agencies. Could the IPA act as a transfer agent? We are a very siloed industry. The IPA could help break down the silos.”
“I want to take four months out and reframe things and see whether it’s really for me.”

20. 3 Being more flexible with working
“We need to trust people more, treat them like grown-ups. The more there are stringent controls, the less it works.”
4 Articulating the value of a motivated
workforce
Clients should be encouraged to ask agencies for data on employee engagement scores or turnover/churn scores, in order to make it into an acknowledged competitive point of difference.
5 Different ways of working
“There are multiple models within one model tailored to the client.”

21. More radical change is still needed7.
More radical change is still needed

22. 6 Work as an activity, not a destination
7 Proactive 24/7 service
8 The re-emergence of the senior suit

23. 9 The rise of opportunity networks
“The cultures and behaviours of young people will have influences the whole agency.”
10 Redesign of the client/agency contract
More flexible contracts with employees in order to reflect more closely the ebb and flow of the requirement for particular people within the agreed scope of work.
Clients were keen to explore the possibility of creating a work contract with multiple agencies, specific to their business as some of the big agency groups have done in cherry-picking from their various operating companies, and providing a dedicated ‘agency’ for the client.
“Can lawyers help us create contracts that price and allocate time according to need?”