The Future of Work is a hot topic within Australia and around the world. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a radical shift in not only how we approach work but also our views on what is truly important.
In this blog series, we talk about the Future of Work in a creative agency and what that looks like for Coast as we enter 2022 and look beyond the pandemic. As creative visionaries in our space, we hope you’ll find these points useful for your own approaches to the workplace.
This first blog discusses Talent, with upcoming blogs covering Task Design, Technology and The Workplace.
So, what is The Future of Work?
It’s more than just the tasks we perform, or the place in where we do them, it’s the people who behind them and the skills that they have. How to find, keep and grow these people to secure the on-going future of your business is our core focus at Coast.
We know that people do business with people. How many times have you interacted with a brand solely as a result of a word-of-mouth recommendation or the customer service you received?
Plus, we know it’s not always possible to foresee what the future holds, but having a highly skilled, flexible, and happy workforce is your most valuable asset.
Creating a Highly Skilled and Adaptable Workforce
As a thriving boutique creative agency, we highly value the soft skills of our employees from design thinking and creativity, management and leadership, & communication through to critical thinking, problem solving & innovation and disruption.
We actively encourage the growth of soft skills through participation and welcoming of new ideas, opportunities to lead projects, peer reviews and client accountability, not to mention our recent team events that have ranged from camping and special meals out to lawn bowls and trivia quizzes.
Hard skills such as Branding, Design, Development and Digital Marketing are also important to our business and can be taught and built upon through learning. Coast supports employees to upskill and keep abreast of the newest trends in their specialist areas with dedicated time for learning and development.
Finding the right people for Coast is our biggest strength, affectionately known as ‘Coasties’ we are a friendly, adaptable bunch of skilled creatives who when we come together deliver powerful results.
Crafting your Employee Value Proposition
What is it that attracts the right talent to your business? Just as all brands should have a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) that attracts customers by setting themselves apart from the competition, each business should have an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that helps attract and retain the right people for your business.
The days of in-office perks such as free coffee or catered lunches are not going to be enough to drive employee retention in 2022 and beyond (Forbes). Having a strong EVP will energise your existing employees, creating a cohesive workplace culture and desirable place to work, in turn attracting future hires.
Our EVP is built on a blend of creating mutual trust + deeper connections with employees, offering radical flexibility to those who wish to complete work outside of the normal 9-5, promoting personal growth + skill development via ‘learning by doing’ and where leadership is deeply committed to holistic wellbeing and acting on our shared purpose.
Team Coast
The Experience of Work
You may have heard the phrases ‘the great talent reshuffle’ or ‘the great resignation’, with a recent global report citing that up to 41% of the workforce is considering switching roles this year (Australian Financial Review).
Employees are now looking at the long-term values that their job offers between compensation and thoughtful benefits and are actively seeking out employers who offer the full package. Now is the time to move away from a rigid 9am-5pm Monday to Friday for all employees and offer a flexible solution that can be moved to suit the needs of the business, it’s customers and the individual.
We are all individuals after all, that come together for a common purpose through our shared work. Creating an enjoyable experience of work is part of your company culture, how you do this will need to be adapted to your employees.
In summary,
If there is one key takeaway from this blog, it’s this. Uncover the soft skills of your employees, understand what drives them and then adapt and mould roles and opportunities to match these talents. In our next blog, we will focus on task design and technology and what this means for the workplace. You may have heard the phrases – hybrid; flexible or remote working – or in fact be doing some of these yourselves already. Look out for our next blog to learn about how we have approached this at Coast and tips for forward thinking brands to adapt these themselves.
