The worst thing you can have in an agency is a digital division
Julian Douglas, vice chairman, VCCP
Digital is a catch-all term, relating to so much. Hardware, software, interface, social, data and so on – the sheer volume of stuff out there and the rate of change can be overwhelming. It can scare clients and agencies, too. We try to help our people, not just to cope but thrive. I really like this quote from William Gibson: “The future’s already here but it’s not evenly distributed.” There are a lot of individuals in our agency who have deep knowledge, so we’ve tried to find a way to more evenly distribute that expertise.
We do it in two ways. The first thing is something we call “sheep dips” – short, snappy training sessions where you learn the basics, open to anyone in the agency. The idea is that you can go in as a total laggard but come out knowing the fundamentals on a topic. The second is called “dog-fooding”, which is a phrase that Microsoft coined in the late 1980s. It means you should use your own products. The way it works at our agency is that our digital specialists run deep-dive workshops, imparting their knowledge and encouraging participation so everyone is able to see and harness the opportunities offered by digital technology.
We have syllabuses, so individuals can choose what they want to learn about from authorities on the subject. Digital becomes core to what we all do. My one overall tip would be to get people talking and practicing more; the worst thing you can have is a separate digital division because then it becomes “their” problem. Everyone needs to be digitally fluent. Fostering a culture where it’s okay to ask the daft questions and experiment is key.
Develop people who can collaborate across disciplines
Paul Frampton, chief executive officer, Havas Media UK and group managing director, Havas Media Group UK
It’s imperative that our teams are aware of the importance that digital skills play within the workplace and that strong digital leadership is essential in today’s hyper-competitive and tech-enabled world. Where consistent customer experience across multi-platforms is critical to winning in digital, our focus is firmly on creating more “t-shaped” talent – people who can collaborate across disciplines and share their expertise.
We’re investing in learning and development to ensure that our talent can talk across all digital channels and connect old and new, not only through newly created roles, but through new learning opportunities; access to connections with startups and exposure to agile environments through Havas Labs; learnings from the likes of Shivy Jervis and Unruly’s Sarah Wood via talks; and most importantly, our soon-to-be-launched mobility programme, which will allow talent to grow their skill sets across our various teams and agencies.
Champion reverse mentoring
James Whatley, digital director, Ogilvy & Mather
Recently we ran a highly successful reverse-mentoring programme for digital and social skills and intelligence. The programme paired up young social specialists with c-suite level heads of offices and, by following a bespoke set of Ogilvy-designed modules, shared social media skill sets upwards into senior management. The data back on this initiative has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are already preparing our next reverse mentoring plan.
Not only did it equip – or in many cases simply refresh – the ever-changing skills in the digital landscape, it also offered junior members of the agency an opportunity to mix with and learn from a level to which they hitherto had zero to little access.
Invest in training
Stephen Morgan, co-founder of Squiz on behalf of the Women’s Institute
Set up training sessions to develop confidence in digital as well as ensure consistency in how it is used across the organisation. The Women’s Institute gave their members access to a hub of video content and step-by-step documents as well as ongoing general support so that they could all get to grips with a new online communications platform in the same way, but at a speed that was right for them individually. Remember that you can’t make your organisation digital in just five minutes; investing time in upskilling is the only way to bring everyone up to speed.
Digital starts at the top
Heidi Myers, marketing and comms director, EMEA, Meltwater
Fostering a digital approach starts in the boardroom. Senior team members need to be up to speed on current technological developments as often a lack of understanding at leadership level can mean media and marketing agencies are less agile and able to react.
We believe it’s important that all of our employees foster a digital approach; it most certainly cannot be contained within the silo of one department. With more than 50 offices based across the world, to ensure that all of our employees receive the same level of digital training and development, senior execs and training departments regularly hold webinars as a way to ensure that our employees can respond to technological changes and provide a better digital experience to customers. Management teams also hold weekly workshops, allowing their teams to transfer and share skills.
Mix it up, and have fun
Natalie Gross, chief executive officer, Amaze
As a digital agency it’s imperative our teams are digitally fluent, or, more specifically, integrally digital. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to ensuring competency and a culture of learning.
To foster a learning culture around digital skills it is important to run a mixture of formal and informal initiatives. This can be made up of formal external and internal training plus graduate/apprenticeship schemes, which are particularly important, as it’s essential to develop new talent alongside honing the skills of established industry practitioners.
Initiatives that are attached to a specific brand/business objective with a definitive commercial outcome should also be within this mix.
It’s also important to leverage the assets and capabilities within your organisation. Whether these skills are being used on the job or not, make sure you leverage your network of peer companies or companies within your parent organisation. Things like brown bag breakfast or lunch meetings are a great way to harness these capabilities and for practitioners across the company to share skills, learnings and experiences in an informal training environment.
Finally, it’s important to introduce incentives and fun into the overall learning process, for example via award programmes, which will encourage new ideas and innovation to be brought to the workplace.
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