Before I made RPR’s first full-time hire, I thought a lot about culture and what truly makes a great workplace. Not just a good workplace, where people are semi-happy and get the job done, but a great workplace with fiercely loyal and passionate employees.
This is a topic that is near and dear to me, because, quite frankly, my business depends on it. At an agency, where you sell your time and knowledge, your people are your most valuable commodity. It’s extra important that I get this right.
I knew that if RPR could be a destination workplace and attract best-in-class marketing professionals, it would shine in our work and ultimately benefit our clients.
If you know me, you know that Google is my friend. I will research a topic to death, only to ignore it all and go with my gut. It’s sort of like when I had a kid. It took me a few weeks of parenting – and lots of unsolicited advice – before I realized that I know my child best, not some author or baby expert or girl on Teen Mom (guilty pleasure) – and to do what feels right.
So here’s what I finally realized. Don’t overthink it. Hire people who live by your core values. Show them respect. Give them room to do their work. Celebrate successes.
And I think we’ve done this. Am I biased because I hired these people? Yeah, probably, so I asked our clients to describe our team. Warning – shameless plugs ahead.
Working with RPR for the second year in a row, we’ve come to view them as an extension of the O’Charley’s Marketing Team. They know our industry, brand and culture allowing us to have full confidence in their efforts on our behalf. A partnership with RPR guarantees the development and execution of smart strategic communication that demands public awareness while supporting our key business goals. – Rickey Bryant, O’Charley’s
Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked with Lauren and her team on both short-term and long-term campaigns. They bring the same expertise, personal integrity and tireless focus to protracted efforts as they do to the quick hard pushes of short-term campaigns. Reed Public Relations gives it their all every day and they make every client their most important client. – Wendy Norton, Norton Consulting Group
How do we do this? For starters, RPR has a results-only work environment (ROWE). We don’t have set office hours or require that you be in our physical office except for regular team meetings. People have asked if this hinders productivity. It hasn’t in the least.
First, it makes you take the hiring process very seriously. You know you are putting an immense amount of trust in each hire so you don’t make impulse hires to simply fill an open position. You hire the best.
Second, two of our core values are measurable results and passion for excellence. When someone is evaluated based solely on his or her results, not the amount of time they spend sitting in an office, something crazy happens. They get really, really efficient. It’s one thing to throw some core values on your website or in a new business proposal. With this culture, we live them. You have to, or to be quite frank, you won’t last. There’s only room for top performers in a ROWE.
Every member of our team has worked in a traditional 9-5 office environments and we all agree that we’ve never been on as team as functional, close-knit and productive as ours. This comes from the trust and mutual respect we place in each other. We communicate constantly and have yet to have an issue where someone is unreachable because they aren’t sitting at their office desk.
Does this sound like a place where you can thrive? If so, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected] and tell me what makes you so awesome. Seriously. We’re always looking for our next rock star. *
*Since we are in Nashville, I feel compelled to clarify that by rock star I mean stellar communicator with a passion for clever marketing and a killer sense of humor, not an actual rock star.