BEST PLACES TO WORK

Sum up your agency’s approach to staff welfare and wellbeing in less than 10 words.

"Priority, work/life balance, flexibility, fitness-focussed, nurturing, trust, reward."

Please describe your current office location and facilities.

Cirkle London – vintage chic offices based in Marylebone train station, next to M&S! We are located in the refurbished British Rail HQ and the offices have an eclectic/vintage train station feel with breakout train carriage booths, vintage luggage racks and we are opposite the Landmark Hotel – ideal for client and media entertaining.

Cirkle Beaconsfield – based in urban hotspot Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire (half an hour drive to London Heathrow airport and 30 minute train journey to Cirkle London, Marylebone). Facilities include: parking; open plan offices; office exercise Powerplate equipment and use of CEO’s private gym; meeting room with plasma screen and break-out areas; in-house design studio; digital manager.

Please give details of your staff training programme.

Our innovative ‘Raising The Bar’ training programme, complete with its own logo, relies on a mix of external and internal trainers. It incorporates a bespoke matrix based on SMART objectives for a timetabled system of clear career progression. Sessions include negotiation skills, selling to the media, social media, brainstorming, presentation skills and time management. Staff complete detailed feedback forms following each event to capture key learnings.

Raising The Bar feeds into our rigorous 360degree appraisal system which establishes killer objectives and bonus-led KPI’s which are reviewed on a monthly basis. Staff also undergo external ‘Insights Colour’ training to analyse personality types, garnering strong self-awareness and optimal team dynamics. Colour profiles are one of the agencies most ‘bonding’ initiatives and have become one of the biggest talking points amongst staff, particularly when they meet new clients/business prospects.

We have been accredited with 97 per cent best practice (PRCA CMS) for people development.

Please give details of your staff appraisal programme including: how often staff are appraised both formally and informally; how goals are set; and how performance is measured.

Staff development is at the heart of Cirkle’s employee engagement programme. We run a highly sophisticated, formal appraisal system in keeping with the PRCA’s CMS and HR best practice.

All staff are appraised bi-annually and year 1 staff are subjected to regular appraisals at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months.

The appraisals take a 360° degree approach, garnering input from colleagues and line managers as well as clients.

‘Killer objective’ KPI’s are set at the end of the appraisal process which are linked to bonus-led rewards and reviewed by line managers on a monthly basis.

We also run an independent bi-annual staff audit with immediate response to relevant outcomes.

Please give details of your flexible working policy. Include details of maternity and paternity packages

Our flexible working ethos sets us apart and has led to our potent culture based on trust, respect and reward, ensuring 100 per cent retention amongst our staff and the accolade of a Top 10 Communications Consultancy to Work For (Holmes Report 2009).

Account Managers and above work from home on Fridays (90% of staff).

We have “banned holidays” for Senior staff. What does this mean? They no longer have to fill in any holiday forms but have complete freedom over their diary so they can operate as if they were mini company owners. Trusting people to deliver is the bedrock of the agency’s philosophy.

We pay for home broadband and set up for access to Cirkle server and staff are given a laptop for home use.

Maternity and paternity policies exceed the statutory package and increase with length of service.

Describe any industry or networking events held at your offices such as thought leadership sessions, breakfast/drinks events etc

We enhance our reputation and profile with a dedicated budget to cover e.g. networking, thought leadership seminars, external reputational audits etc.

Staff are encouraged to take an entrepreneurial approach to the industry and to attend and present at relevant industry networking events (PR industry and client stakeholder events)

Junior staff are encouraged to subscribe to PRCA’s Frontline training seminars and networking events.

We also work with National Enterprise Academy, Bucks Education Learning Partnership (BELP), Bucks/Beds University partnerships.

We hold a number of thought leadership and trend seminars headed up by keynote influencers to appeal to clients, new business prospects and key industry stakeholders. Cirkle’s CEO now lectures on best practice PRCA CMS to other PR agencies (presented to c15 agencies to date)

How do you reward staff at Christmas?

Via annual themed party in stylish location with a meal and party, as well as staff gifts and Secret Santa. Our offices are decorated to get into the Christmas spirit and staff benefit from 3 days additional holiday when the offices close during Christmas.

What staff say.

“To me, Cirkle represents ‘big agency’ mentality with ‘small agency’ flexibility’ In my 20 years of agency PR I’ve never experienced so much flexibility, you just can’t put a price on that - it breeds trust, respect, devotion and ultimately optimizes performance. Staff are treated like mini entrepreneurs with permission for a life outside work and we’ve proven this to be conducive to a highly engaged workforce which leads to a great working atmosphere and importantly, consistency across client accounts - vital for client satisfaction.”

Rikki Weir, Board Director