BEST PLACES TO WORK

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

"We like work to be personalised, developmental and in perspective."

Please describe your current office location and facilities.

Just::’s main office is at Riverpoint, on the banks of the Thames next to Wandsworth Park. We are a 15 minute walk from East Putney, Putney BR and Wandsworth Town stations, and also conveniently located for Clapham Junction. Our offices have been professionally designed as an open plan workspace that fosters communication and creativity – we have glass walled meeting rooms, a communal kitchen/diner ‘hub’ area, a ‘bean bag zone’ breakout area and everyone has Apple IT hardware and iPhones.

Recent additions include ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ themed bathrooms (hell is honestly much nicer than it sounds!) and original interactive artwork.

We are currently expanding into the office next door to accommodate our growth. The new design will include three meeting rooms (including a ‘slidey wall’ to create a space flexible enough to accommodate our training sessions), plug-n-play hotdesks to accommodate visitors and those Justees who typically work remotely, a blackboard wall, a magnetic wall and a ‘dressing-up closet’ for our props, to facilitate creative invention sessions.

Please give details of your staff training programme.

We have developed a partnership with a theatre company, using Just::Drama School to continue building PR skills and professional confidence. We expanded the approach to include fostering internal coaching capability, communication and teamwork skills using the Myers Briggs personality tool, and bespoke account team development sessions for key challenges.

Each Justee is allocated five hours external, individualised coaching per year. All Justees participate in Just::Invent where our managing directors support the team in using our novel roadmap for campaign development. Justees are also encouraged to participate in HCA and CIPR accredited training and supported to develop skills beyond client management by taking on responsibilities for different aspects of running the agency, such as marketing.

Please give details of your staff appraisal programme.

We foster a culture of coaching and continuous feedback, supported with specific annual training on key skills, and in an ongoing way through our Just:: 1-2-1 external coaching programme.

Our approach is complemented by more formal review meetings incorporating 360° feedback, to articulate positive and constructive learning points and ensure learning needs are being effectively addressed, after 3 months (to coincide with the end of the probation period), 6 months, and every 6 months after that.

Every review meeting is followed up with a bespoke review memo, co-drafted by the meeting facilitators to reflect the detail of the discussions in an individual and memorable way. This includes a range of developmental and outcome-led objectives.

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

Just:: offers a range of options that are open to all Justees, to support them in balancing their professional and personal lives:

• 30 days’ annual leave plus 8 paid bank holidays per year
• A flexitime system based around a working week of 35 hours, core hours of 10am-4pm, and the option to take ‘short Fridays’, leaving at 2pm
• Individual packages of flexible working incorporating one or more of regular work from a home-based office, occasional work from home, part-time working, term-time working
• All Justees have Apple iPhones and computers enabled for Skype to facilitate flexible working

The Just:: maternity package offers a significant improvement on the first four months of statutory maternity pay, including two months at full pay followed by two months at half pay.

Describe any industry or networking events held at your offices.

We have been excited to host events for the HCA, including an Executive Committee Meeting and the ‘Molecule to Marketing’ training programme, both involving around 20 participants.

How do you reward staff at Christmas?

Our two Managing Directors personally buy each Justee an individual Christmas present.

We award bonuses. This year we allocated some of our Just:: 5% pro bono budget to give each Justee £50 to buy presents for the Kids Company charity to distribute. We took the presents along to their HQ and helped them with all of their wrapping...and, obviously, we have a party! In 2009 we went to the Hind’s Head at Bray (Heston Blumenthal’s pub), with entertainment on the journey in the form of a quiz, a sing-along and some comedy elves...!

What staff say.

I love working at Just:: because I feel like the contributions we make as individuals are reflected in the way Just:: invests in our development. My favourite thing is the time I get to spend with my coach, Emma. We now have 5 hours of dedicated one-to-one coaching and I really value the protected time I get to concentrate on areas like team development, vocal projection and presence. Just:: feels like a very safe place to practise these new skills, helping me to feel energised, prepared and confident in my client work and resulting in my promotion to Senior Consultant!

Laura Dobell