Month: September 2021

Doing so is a way for the company to foster office culture despite a remote workforce — the company gave up its New York City office in May of 2020 — and potentially mitigate burnout for its 40 employees, according to Shane Hegde, CEO and co-founder of Air. The start-up is one of a number of companies aiming to find ways to recreate company culture amid a remote world, especially as the return to office has been delayed due to the delta variant.

“The office is dead but culture is not,” said Hegde. “Culture needs to modify, change and become more human. It has to be synchronized and customized. I can no longer plan monolithic team activities. If we’re all working in a distributed remote environment [we have employees whose] hours are dramatically different. We can’t do cocktail hour when it’s 7 a.m. for one person and 9 p.m. for another [so our plans have to evolve.]”

Hegde believes adapting for the needs of a remote team rather than trying to mimic in-person office culture is the path forward for companies, especially those grappling with team members who are burned out. “If you really want to prevent burnout, you have to build a new culture that fits for the world that we’re in, which means it has to be asynchronous, digital and customized,” said Hegde.

So far, roughly 90% of Air’s New York City-based employees have participated in a “warehouse day” and nearly 70% of employees have participated in a hangout, according to Hegde. Carmi Medoff, strategic partnerships lead at Air, helped to craft the culture strategy in her previous role running operations for Air. Medoff joined the company in September 2020 and has only met her coworkers in person twice.

“It’s great to spend time together and get the benefits of whatever the mythical office life is,” said Medoff. “However, we don’t want to push people out of their comfort zone when it’s unnecessary. Companies have to stay flexible and open, adapting [culture] to what the actual team wants.” 

That approach makes sense to human resources experts who say that finding ways to bring teams together safely while still being flexible can help keep burnout at bay for employees.

“Empowering teams to problem solve in-person for short periods of time, without losing the flexibility of working from home on a consistent basis, could have a positive impact on employee productivity and mental health (so long as it’s done in a safe manner),” said Amanda Speer, director of talent at Mekanism. 

Speer continued: “More than managing burnout it helps establish personal relationships that increase empathy and understanding for coworkers. We are all trying our best, but it’s easy to lose sight of what others are going through when you’re in a room alone talking to a computer screen and only ever about work. These meet-ups remind folks they are dealing with real humans, with real emotions on the other end.” 

So far, the approach is helping with employee retention per Hegde. “We have quadrupled the size of our team since before the pandemic (February 2020) and our six-month employee retention rate is 91%,” he said, without providing exact figures. “We believe our retention rate is this high because we have successfully adapted to the new cultural demands of a remote organization.”

Some people might not mourn its passing, while for others it will be a devastating loss considering how many people meet their partners at work. A survey by U.K. online venue booking platform VenueScanner claims that 22% of workers have met their partner this way and 78% have made lasting personal relationships from being in the office.

And the Society for Human Resource Management, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is so concerned about the future of office romances and the impact on the workplace that it has commissioned its own research.  Its study carried out in February 2021 revealed that 50% of U.S. workers have had a crush on a colleague and 34% have been involved or are involved in a workplace romance. Nearly 70% of U.S. workers who are in or have been in a workplace relationship dated their peers, 21% their subordinates and 18% their superiors.

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. workers have had someone they consider their “work spouse,” and 45% have felt romantic feelings toward this person.  

So, what do the numbers tell us about the future of romance at work?

The SHRM’s HR knowledge advisor Yvette Lee said romance tends to blossom in the office environment because people feel comfortable with workmates and get to know them so well.

“Often employees spend thousands of hours at work and this can promote the development of personal relationships,” she said. “Is it possible to generate the same crushes in a virtual world? Well, the increase in social media and online dating apps means many people are more used to finding love virtually.”

But what about the impact on the business of office romances in a hybrid world? Challenges can arise if there are arguments that impact on productivity, or if people become distracted by office gossip. Lee said the HR teams should devise a romance-in-the-workplace policy or update existing guidelines. 

One positive of romancing at work is that it can increase an employee’s confidence. Workplace wellbeing expert and psychotherapist Sophie Scott said flirting and striking up conversations gives people a boost. “Most of us recognize the giddy high we experience when sussing out someone in our environment, whether platonic or not,” she said.

Meanwhile relationship expert and founder of the online couples therapy programme The Relationship Paradigm, Neil Wilkie, said employees will just have to try harder to find love at work. “The pool will be smaller and the opportunities for those life-changing, accidental conversations will be fewer,” he said. 

His advice includes trying to synchronize your attendance with people you like so there are more chances of having that accidental and interesting conversation. 

“If not, reconnoitre and track down those prospects who might be of interest to you. Find out what you can about your shortlist on LinkedIn or social media. Then create your campaign to get that ‘accidental’ sliding door moment.”

Taking it up a notch, Katie Lasson, clinical sexologist from the online sex toys website Peaches and Screams, said employees can still find partners in a world of Teams and Zoom.

“Virtual meetings are a good way to start to understand someone’s personality,” she said. “If you are on a Teams work call you can still feel the chemistry. The next step is to connect via Messenger or WhatsApp and start a conversation. It could be about how you liked their ideas or approach to the topic being discussed.”

Lasson added that people should not be afraid to have what she calls an open-minded online office fling.

“It is always easier to start communication from a distance so you won’t have those eye-to-eye awkward moments of silence that might make you feel uncomfortable,” she said. “Based on my experience, couples share more intimate topics and talk about their preferences online. While having your office teams meeting you can exchange naughty messages personally. Also with online sex, people share fantasies that in real life they might be too shy to do.” 

Whoever said romance was dead?

3 Questions with Vicki Huff Eckert, founder of PwC’s U.S. and Global New Ventures organization

How much support is there for vaccine mandates?
When you look at vaccine mandates there’s a reality that came through in research we published last month. We found that two-thirds of the execs surveyed, as well as two-thirds of the employees, are in favor of a vaccine mandate as a condition for returning to the office. It comes down to the confidence these people get from knowing they’re returning to working environments where they knew everyone else would be vaccinated. However, vaccine mandates are just the start. If anything, they’re the first step when it comes to how companies get workers to return to the office, but it won’t solve everything. Not when there are children who haven’t been vaccinated and the reality that is the Delta variant. It’s why more companies are taking more time to define what hybrid working means and the operating model they need to put in place to support that transition.

How is the prospect of an even longer period of remote working changing how companies think about recruitment?

The ability to attract talent is key for many businesses now. Sure, there’s high turnover in sectors like technology but at the same time, there’s a lot of capital around public markets as well as around those businesses with big valuations looking to grow their way to success — growing headcount is a way to do this. To do this, companies are asking themselves how working remotely opens up operating models so that they’re able to hire new talent in different markets. I see this through the work I’m doing with a lot of Silicon Valley companies currently. The interest is there because the companies see high-value talent from the resumes they’re getting and realize these aren’t the type of candidates who would normally be in contention for roles. This changes the operating model and is a necessity. 

Beyond flexibility, what other methods are companies using to recruit the best talent?

When we looked deeper at the dynamics around recruitment there’s still work to be done on the flexibility and compensation aspects. Equity has become a big factor of recruitment in part because of the state of the equity markets. We also see that people are looking for a longer commitment to flexibility. Now that doesn’t mean all these candidates want to work from home forever, but they do want some clarity on what flexible means to prospective employers moving forward. The other point that came through the data is people wanting to connect with their managers more frequently as part of a wider point about employee engagement. That’s easier to do in an office where businesses in tech for example might have a ping pong table, a slide, or even free food. Those perks go if you’re working from home so it becomes tough for companies to translate those perks over. That said, we’re hearing more companies talk about making this a priority moving forward. — Seb Joseph.

By the numbers

• From an internal survey of 2,500 employees, 81% of Microsoft leaders have or are planning to offer employees greater flexibility, reflecting what employees want — 87% prefer to stay remote at least half of the time. 
  [Source of data: Microsoft Work Trend Index.]

• 61% of 1,000 of 2021 college graduates in the U.S. believe the pandemic and campuses shutting down/virtual learning negatively impacted their career development/maturation.
  [Source of data: Breeze’s employment survey.]
• 70% of U.K. businesses have been the victim of a successful network security attack in the last year, according to a survey that interviewed 750 IT decision makers across industries including construction, energy, retail, media and financial services.
  [Source of data: Barracuda Networks’ ‘The state of network security in 2021 report.]

What else we’ve covered

• As the pandemic drags on, some firms are addressing the shortcomings of virtual communication tools like Zoom by coworking in the metaverse. As Digiday’s gaming and esports reporter Alexander Lee reported, Most metaverse platforms, such as Roblox and Minecraft, are designed primarily for fun, not work. But many of the builders of these virtual spaces have organically realized their potential for meeting or coworking.

• As the Delta variant continues to cause a great deal of uncertainty regarding when and how to return to office-based work, many fashion brands, according to Glossy fashion reporter Danny Parisi, are extending their remote work setup to at least the end of the year. Others are planning to allow their employees to work from home on a permanent basis.

• The Times (UK) and The Sunday Times are aiming to grow their digital subscription business with further explorations into live journalism and more visually driven coverage. The teams are starting by reshaping how they commission stories, per reporting by Digiday managing editor Sara Jerde.

This email briefing is edited by Jessica Davies, managing editor, Future of Work.

“This Delta situation has humbled everyone in the live industry,” said Andrew Beranbom, founder and CEO of experiential marketing company First Tube Media. “Ultimately, we can’t go back to where we were.”

Given the pandemic has raged on for more than a year, many marketers predicted a hybrid of online and in-person events would be the future of experiential marketing. And while fall plans to return to the office remain in flux, hybrid events were expected to remain in place. 

Those plans have changed for First Tube Media, which has produced virtual live events for clients such as Grubhub, Grey Goose, Bacardi and Anheuser-Busch. “Our October, November and New Year’s programming that we are in the process of [planning] will be back to virtual because we need to be cautious about the situation,” Beranbom said. 

Others, however, have decided to forge ahead, pushing event goers to either provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. In Chicago, Lollapalooza this July hosted an estimated 400,000 people with testing and vaccination protocols. (Cases have been tracked back to the event, but health officials have not dubbed it a super spreader event, according to Billboard.) At Philadelphia’s Made in America music festival, it was a similar story, in which event organizers required proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.

At least one state has pushed back on such mandates with the Florida Department of Health pushing $5,000 fines on businesses and governments that require proof of COVID-19 vaccination from customers or members of the public, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

But as vaccine rollout continues, it poses a new problem for experiential and live event marketers: Logistics. From checking vaccination status for both staff and attendees to enforcing mask mandates that vary by location, marketers say there’s a lot up in the air and they’re careful not to alienate those for or against vaccination requirements.

“2020, we kind of knew what we were getting into. It wasn’t going to be a live [event],” said Gogi Gupta, founder of Gupta Media, a digital marketing agency with clients like the Governors Ball Music Festival. “Here it’s like, it’s going to be live, then maybe it’s live, then it’s live with these restrictions.”

According to Gupta Media account director Sara Noel, live event clients have put safety precautions in place. But depending on the location of the event, a negative test result may not be enough or event goers push back to vaccine mandates. 

“We’ve had a lot of negative sentiment towards events that have a vaccination policy,” Noel said. “Consumers say, ‘What is this vaccine requirement? Go back to L.A.’”

In response, at least one creative agency says they’ll play it safe so as to not alienate those for or against vaccination requirements, leaning on the brands’ they work with to provide safety protocols and providing masks upon entry.

“We don’t want to be responsible for any type of illnesses or spread of COVID, so we have to keep that stuff in mind,” said Desmond Attmore, co-founder of creative agency Six Degrees. “But at the same time, we also want people to have their own freedoms and rights.”

A number of brands, such as Expedia travel brands, have already launched pro-vaccination campaigns. Live event marketers expect brands in the experiential space to do the same as the Delta variant threatens a return to lockdown.  

“We’re gonna see brands do the same thing,” said Atlanta-based tour manager Christopher Patterson, who has worked with brands like Patron tequila and Miller Genuine Draft beer. “Because at this point, you have to make sure that people feel safe at your events or feel like you’re on the right side of history with this.”

“The more people see small companies like us — communications agencies, media agencies — making this step, the more people will look around and say, ‘If they can do it, we can do it,’” said Ann Powell, founder and brand/creative director of agency Powell. “Looking at media and other organizations, I think that accountability is just going to spread, and hopefully roll out and up.” 

Powell and several other agencies are among about 50 customers of a company called Green Places, which is helping small businesses develop turnkey carbon-neutral solutions. Based in North Carolina’s Research triangle, Green Places was launched by entrepreneur Alex Lassiter, who uses a formula developed by the University of California-Berkeley’s Cool Climate Project to determine the carbon footprint of a business.

Lassiter said he can do in a day what many environmental consultancies take months to figure out for clients, then charges his customers a nominal fee (mostly in the low thousands of dollars) to offset their footprint by investing in “high-impact” carbon-reducing things, like planting trees, constructing easements, carbon-removal, or supporting clean energies. Green Places’ strategies are those that are easy to implement to reduce footprints, from minimizing air travel to placing surge protectors in every wall — or connecting to a solar provider.

“The environment is part of the corporate tent of responsibilities, just like [their] responsibility to employees and shareholders,” said Lassiter, whose customers range from five-employee small businesses to 1,000-person firms in 20 states and Canada.

Michael Hubbard, CEO of independent media agency Media Two Interactive, said he was surprised at how affordable going carbon-neutral was. “I was expecting a very sizable investment,” said Hubbard. “Why is everyone not doing this? It’s so simple. Corporate America, you’re making money and no matter how small your business is, you can afford to do this.”

Lassiter said he’s encouraged that agencies are among the leaders in going carbon neutral because they can play the role of influencer on other businesses. “They’re so attuned with what customers and employees want because that’s what an agency does — understand consumer behavior,” he said. “That should be a signal to other businesses that there’s some real stuff here, this is a big issue. This is a way to speak to your customers in a way that matters to them and builds brand loyalty.”

Meanwhile, at the holding company level, goals have been set and commitments have been made, but it remains to be seen how they will follow through. Current and prospective clients are putting on the pressure by making sustainability a new topic of discussion in RFPs — including Unilever’s recent media review, which handed out assignments to most of the major holding companies just a few weeks ago. It’s been one factor in holding companies making bold pronouncements, as WPP did on Earth Day, saying it plans to be carbon-neutral by 2025 while pushing media partners to pursue similar goals.

But there’s also internal pressure at agencies to pursue environmental goals. “Not all good ideas come from the top,” said Karen van Bergen, who was named Omnicom’s chief environmental sustainability officer in July, on top of her role as dean of Omnicom University, reporting directly to Omnicom CEO John Wren. “We need to look at what individual markets and agencies have in ideas. I intend to garner all that input and create a group of passionate leaders who will have great ideas that we can implement and scale across Omnicom.”

Van Bergen also noted environmental efforts within an agency can help acquire and retain employees. “It’s a strong connector to our talent because talented people want to work in an environment that has a purpose,” she said.

It won’t just be the agency world that benefits if those purposes are met and achieved. Here’s hoping it’s not too late.

Color by numbers

Since Hispanic Heritage Month began last week, it’s worth looking at the latest stats on Latin American representation in the U.S. Claritas this week is releasing its annual Hispanic Market Report, which shows 19.2% of the current U.S. population is Hispanic, the fastest-growing ethnic segment in the country. 

• By 2026, Claritas projects 70 million Hispanics will live in the U.S., and will make up 21% of the population. 
• The fastest growth will come from millennials and Gen Z, who by 2026 will make up 24.2% and 27.2 percent of the population, respectively.   
• Finally, since Hispanic is one demographic with a range of significant cultural differences (besides a common language), the report notes that Mexicans by far make up the largest segment of Hispanics, at 42.2 million, followed by Puerto Ricans at 6 million, and Salvadoran and Dominican at just over 2 million each.

Takeoff & landing

• IPG’s UM last week promoted Jeff Marshall to chief diversity officer, from senior vp of diversity, equity and belonging. He will report directly to UM CEO Lynn Lewis.
• Horizon Media picked up 62-million-subscriber cable network INSP as a new client.
• West coast-based independent Exverus picked up convenience store chain Kum & Go as a client, handling traditional and digital media for the 400-store chain. 
• Nexstar Digital has launched Stellar, a data-driven audience platform for advertisers purchase digital and linear inventory across Nexstar’s stations, websites and apps.

Direct quote

“Many retailers will be struggling to fill their shelves for the holiday season. Hard-to-find items will include sneakers and anything coming from places like China and Malaysia. There will be some amazing deals once the shipping containers are unloaded, but that may not come until January or February or March.”

— Pat Penfield, Syracuse University professor of supply chain management, about looming supply shortages during the 2021 holiday shopping season, after container ships recorded month-long delays in unloading cargo.

Speed reading

• Digiday senior news editor Seb Joseph goes beneath Apple’s headlines as a privacy champion to look into how it really is trying to corner a larger share of the digital ad market. 
• Lockard & Wechsler Direct is one of the biggest independent performance marketing agencies, and I spoke with its co founder and head of client services about the challenges getting DTC clients reasonably priced inventory in the linear and connected TV marketplace. 
• Digiday marketing reporter Kimeko McCoy provides a valuable cheat sheet looking at the effect on email marketers of Apple’s iOS15 update.