In his book, “Disruption Brought Order”, Jean-Marie Dru (2007, pp. 44-45) suggests that talent is not enough when thirty second commercials are made. Advertising people need to perfect their techniques by immersing themselves into cinema culture and constantly watching advertising commercials and movies. Also, Patricia Smith (1998, "Instructional Design", p. 4) argues that instructional designers become more creative in their work by voraciously consuming examples of instructional materials.
So, creators must acquire deep knowledge in order to be "creative". The more they study, read, and build up their knowledge, the more they can create something new. The argument is that you can not think outside the box unless you have seen a lot of boxes! Thus, creativity is a function of knowledge. And the best ideas are often the simplest.
For HR pros, all of this means that they need to study best practices and be on the lookout for original HR practices, HR function approaches, and benefits.
A few simple HR examples in practice in China include:
• The Innovation Company: New staff is introduced with an A4 profile page (pictures and 10 things about the newbie) placed in places where people take a short break such as pantries and washrooms.
• Saatchi & Saatchi: Pictures of staff are displayed in the lobby area.
• JWT: A fruit platter is given to staff after lunch everyday to refresh them.
• DDB: A theatrical "What's on Today" sign with the names of new employees welcomes newbies on their onboarding day at the Company's entrance.
Lastly, a few ideas that are not in practice include:
• Offer education leave.
• Convert untaken sick leave into planned annual leave.
• Provide medical insurance for parents, spouses, and children.
• Give employees a choice of perks and benefits, i.e. for every item you offer have at least two choices.
• Design a gratuity scheme (extra cash upon completion of the contract so as to ensure a stability of the team).
• Sponsor a “Guest Book” in the waiting area for Job Candidates to share their impressions, expectations, and thoughts.
• In Shanghai or Beijing, provide free accommodations for staff living far away from the Company to reduce long daily commutes in these enormous cities.
Do you have any more examples and ideas? Please feel free to share.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Newbies in an Advertising Agency
Interview in Guang Gao Ren, June 2009
1. What selection processes do you have in place?
Each week, we receive around 100 CVs from 8 recruitment channels. About 20% of all applicants successfully pass the first screening. We screen out "job hoppers" with 4 or more jobs within the last three years.
A well-written, engaging, and creatively formatted CV in English always attracts our attention. It proves a candidate’s attention to detail, standards of excellence, self-promotion skills, organizational and preparation proficiency, and writing ability.
Shortlisted candidates are then invited to participate in our rigorous selection process that involves 3 interviews, a practical assignment, and a psychometric assessment that allows us to determine in what way the candidate can complement the existing team.
The interview portion is an opportunity for the candidates to talk about their background, previous successes, and ambitions. We ask relevant behavioral questions to explore each person’s personality, motivations, and natural talents. We are highly interested in candidates that are able to hold a conversation and maintain the interviewers’ attention, demonstrate creativity and curiosity with a questioning mind, and have a passionate and team oriented approach to work and life. We also pay close attention to whether the candidate has prepared diligently for this interview; what and how much they know about us, what sort of questions they have asked and prepared, etc.
For the practical assignment, we typically give each candidate a mock client brief and ask them to come back a week later to present their ideas to a team.
For positions in the Creative Department, we always review carefully the portfolios of the candidate's creative works collected over time.
2. What are your selection criteria for Newbies with no advertising experience?
We define "creativity" very broadly and believe that true creative talent comes from an inquisitive and critical mind, a passion for life, broad life and work experience, and a natural ability for connecting different ideas together. We welcome "out-of-the-box" thinkers and doers from various fields of expertise and career paths such as architects, designers, engineers, project managers, and more.
We are on the lookout for open-minded and ambitious talent with high integrity. We strongly prefer people with high English proficiency and transferable skills and aptitudes (e.g. time management skills, communication skills, organizational skills, teamwork spirit, initiative, etc.). Successful candidates also demonstrate a “can-do” spirit, an internal confidence rooted in a track record of past achievements, a positive attitude, commitment towards continuous learning, a strong work ethic, and a client orientation.
In addition to ensuring cultural fit, we base our hiring decisions on specific job and Agency-related criteria. As an example, for TBWA\, our Advertising and Strategy division that deals with large-scale project and retainer clients, we prefer talent who likes to cultivate a long-term relationship with one single client. However, in Agency.com, our Digital Marketing division that works on short-term projects, we need people who enjoy variety, are at ease with maintaining multiple client relationships, and thrive on exposure to various brands and individuals.
For these reasons, self-awareness is another important element for candidate’s to have in order to help both of us make better decisions.
3. What must Newbies learn at the beginning of their work in an Advertising Agency?
People interested in this industry should strongly consider joining an Advertisement Agency relatively early in their career life. It usually takes many years of on-the-job training and client exposure for one to get acquainted with the advertising craft and to later become an expert.
Newcomers to the industry need to quickly grasp an understanding of our Agency's processes, internal project management principles, and establish strong relationships with colleagues and clients. They also should become comfortable with our matrix structure, multidisciplinary nature of our projects, and working in large teams. The capability to adapt to and thrive in our fast paced, demanding, and sometimes ambiguous environment is also essential.
During the first few months at work, Newbies should concentrate on enhancing their professional skills (e.g. account management, design, research, etc.), learn to manage time, resource, and projects challenges effectively and efficiently, demonstrate high quality standards over and over again, and strive to understand the "essence" of the brands that they are working on.
All Newbies at TBWA\Group\China are required to learn and understand our language, our cultural glue, and our planning methodology - Disruption; and then be able to apply it to their work and way of working.
4. What kind of training do you provide to Newbies?
Training and development are strong pillars of our culture. All new hires at our Agency join our Orientation Program which aims to equip them with knowledge of all Agencies, Departments, and policies and procedures. During this program, new hires can also obtain a good grasp of our organizational history, mission, and values while meeting others. In addition, Line Managers are responsible for introducing newcomers to their team, reviewing our Agency manuals, going over performance expectation, and giving a briefing for the initial job assignment.
During the first three months, Newbies are trained on-the-job in all facets of daily project work; they may also attend all in-house training sessions and have access to our local and global training decks and self-study tools. After they successfully pass their probationary period, they become eligible for training programs organized together with TBWA\Asia Pacific and the Omnicom Group. For example, the Tiger Academy is our two-year training program geared to nurture leadership skills of our stars in the Account Service Department.
Last but not least, our multi-cultural and multi-national DNA provides employees a continuous flow of opportunities to enrich themselves creatively and intellectually and work with people from a wide range of cultural, educational, and geographic backgrounds.
1. What selection processes do you have in place?
Each week, we receive around 100 CVs from 8 recruitment channels. About 20% of all applicants successfully pass the first screening. We screen out "job hoppers" with 4 or more jobs within the last three years.
A well-written, engaging, and creatively formatted CV in English always attracts our attention. It proves a candidate’s attention to detail, standards of excellence, self-promotion skills, organizational and preparation proficiency, and writing ability.
Shortlisted candidates are then invited to participate in our rigorous selection process that involves 3 interviews, a practical assignment, and a psychometric assessment that allows us to determine in what way the candidate can complement the existing team.
The interview portion is an opportunity for the candidates to talk about their background, previous successes, and ambitions. We ask relevant behavioral questions to explore each person’s personality, motivations, and natural talents. We are highly interested in candidates that are able to hold a conversation and maintain the interviewers’ attention, demonstrate creativity and curiosity with a questioning mind, and have a passionate and team oriented approach to work and life. We also pay close attention to whether the candidate has prepared diligently for this interview; what and how much they know about us, what sort of questions they have asked and prepared, etc.
For the practical assignment, we typically give each candidate a mock client brief and ask them to come back a week later to present their ideas to a team.
For positions in the Creative Department, we always review carefully the portfolios of the candidate's creative works collected over time.
2. What are your selection criteria for Newbies with no advertising experience?
We define "creativity" very broadly and believe that true creative talent comes from an inquisitive and critical mind, a passion for life, broad life and work experience, and a natural ability for connecting different ideas together. We welcome "out-of-the-box" thinkers and doers from various fields of expertise and career paths such as architects, designers, engineers, project managers, and more.
We are on the lookout for open-minded and ambitious talent with high integrity. We strongly prefer people with high English proficiency and transferable skills and aptitudes (e.g. time management skills, communication skills, organizational skills, teamwork spirit, initiative, etc.). Successful candidates also demonstrate a “can-do” spirit, an internal confidence rooted in a track record of past achievements, a positive attitude, commitment towards continuous learning, a strong work ethic, and a client orientation.
In addition to ensuring cultural fit, we base our hiring decisions on specific job and Agency-related criteria. As an example, for TBWA\, our Advertising and Strategy division that deals with large-scale project and retainer clients, we prefer talent who likes to cultivate a long-term relationship with one single client. However, in Agency.com, our Digital Marketing division that works on short-term projects, we need people who enjoy variety, are at ease with maintaining multiple client relationships, and thrive on exposure to various brands and individuals.
For these reasons, self-awareness is another important element for candidate’s to have in order to help both of us make better decisions.
3. What must Newbies learn at the beginning of their work in an Advertising Agency?
People interested in this industry should strongly consider joining an Advertisement Agency relatively early in their career life. It usually takes many years of on-the-job training and client exposure for one to get acquainted with the advertising craft and to later become an expert.
Newcomers to the industry need to quickly grasp an understanding of our Agency's processes, internal project management principles, and establish strong relationships with colleagues and clients. They also should become comfortable with our matrix structure, multidisciplinary nature of our projects, and working in large teams. The capability to adapt to and thrive in our fast paced, demanding, and sometimes ambiguous environment is also essential.
During the first few months at work, Newbies should concentrate on enhancing their professional skills (e.g. account management, design, research, etc.), learn to manage time, resource, and projects challenges effectively and efficiently, demonstrate high quality standards over and over again, and strive to understand the "essence" of the brands that they are working on.
All Newbies at TBWA\Group\China are required to learn and understand our language, our cultural glue, and our planning methodology - Disruption; and then be able to apply it to their work and way of working.
4. What kind of training do you provide to Newbies?
Training and development are strong pillars of our culture. All new hires at our Agency join our Orientation Program which aims to equip them with knowledge of all Agencies, Departments, and policies and procedures. During this program, new hires can also obtain a good grasp of our organizational history, mission, and values while meeting others. In addition, Line Managers are responsible for introducing newcomers to their team, reviewing our Agency manuals, going over performance expectation, and giving a briefing for the initial job assignment.
During the first three months, Newbies are trained on-the-job in all facets of daily project work; they may also attend all in-house training sessions and have access to our local and global training decks and self-study tools. After they successfully pass their probationary period, they become eligible for training programs organized together with TBWA\Asia Pacific and the Omnicom Group. For example, the Tiger Academy is our two-year training program geared to nurture leadership skills of our stars in the Account Service Department.
Last but not least, our multi-cultural and multi-national DNA provides employees a continuous flow of opportunities to enrich themselves creatively and intellectually and work with people from a wide range of cultural, educational, and geographic backgrounds.
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