A few years ago, would you have predicted that your daily commute would shift from a morning drive to the office to shuffling in your slippers from the kitchen to the dining room for your next virtual meeting? The world of business is constantly evolving and one repeated theme, over the last two years in particular, has been how we successfully adapt to that change. 

Now the slipper shuffle may seem trivial, but in a recent survey of 28,000 full time Cisco employees, 78% of respondents said that remote and hybrid work improved their overall well-being. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 60% of remote-capable workers want a long-term hybrid arrangement. This is a big shift, with big results because this change is ultimately about the quality of life for employees. 

A People-First Approach for Agency Survival Starts with These Steps

Acknowledging this growing trend and quality of life shift is especially important  for agencies, according to Rob Beeler’s latest AdExchanger column “If Agencies Want To Survive, They Need To Adapt – And Look Inward”.  This article dives into the evolving landscape and notes the three action areas necessary for businesses to move forward: 

1. Take proactive steps to retain your top talent
2. Evaluate your true core competencies
3. Accept that companies want more ownership in your relationship

Retain Top Talent

Change for some over the last two years was about more than shifting to virtual meetings; for some, it meant leaving their current positions. The Quit Rate in America nearly doubled from around 1.6% in early 2020 to about 3% by late 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. 

SEBPO talked about this movement, dubbed The Great Resignation, in a recent Admonsters Q&A article. Some key takeaways included:

“These problems existed before the pandemic, but COVID has raised awareness of a new level of employee needs based on looking at people’s lives holistically. There were opportunities that presented themselves for individuals to go to another company – it could be money, it could be hybrid work from home, those are some obvious reasons. And one of the things we landed on during this panel discussion was that for unhappy employees, band-aids didn’t work.”

For SEBPO, the keys to employee retention can be boiled down to: 

• Strong Foundations
• Flexibility
• Belonging
• Experience
• Futureproofing

Core Competencies

This is what you do best. A company’s capabilities, knowledge, skills, and resources are distinct, and they are your strength.

We’ll take on the rest. Focus on your company’s core competencies with your top talent, while allowing behind-the-scenes partners to handle the other work that boggs your team down. SEBPO expertly handles a lot of this work in the areas of Ad Operations, Creative Services, Data Solutions, Media Planning, and Quality Assurance.

Brand Ownership in Your Relationship

We know about growth and change, because it’s at the core of what we do for many of our clients. And when it comes to relationships, that’s where SEBPO truly shines. 

One example of this is a relationship we’ve had with a valued partner that has spanned 14 years. It started with one data-driven task and bloomed into a collaborative partnership comprised of a team 17 times as large as the first. Despite their tremendous in-house capabilities, they have relied on SEBPO as their integral data solutions partner since 2008. Read more about this partnership in this SEBPO case study. Adapting won’t be easy, but now is the time to look inward and make the changes needed in order to survive. The good news is, you don’t need to do it alone. If you’d like to learn more about how you can start working with a SEBPO Team, we’re here to help! Get in touch with us today.