How One of the World's Fastest Growing Ad Agencies Nurtures Talent

With the Great Resignation wreaking havoc on the ad industry world, most agencies are struggling to maintain the level of staffing needed to properly service their clients (and keep them happy). For agencies that are rapidly growing, like California-based digital marketing agency Wpromote, obtaining and retaining talent is critical to the agency's continued success. The agency has grown revenue some 1,500 percent over the past three years, placing it second on Adweek's 2021 Fastest Growing Agencies list only behind creative shop Movers+Shakers. As a result, the agency has needed to staff up dramatically, entering the fall of 2021 at 700 employees and reaching almost 750 by the end of the year, with ambitions of hitting 1,000 employees by the end of 2022. The agency's plan centers around creating clear goals for its employees, giving employees the autonomy to establish a strong work-life balance and proprietary tech that keep employees from getting bogged down in busy work. Wpromote counts Samsung, Instacart, Mack Weldon and Adobe as clients, and has recently added work with Pennymac and Spindrift. Overall, the agency, which Glassdoor named one of the top 50 places to work, has added another $200 million of managed media spend in the past 60 days. "I believe that my job is to ensure client success, employee success and the inextricable link between the two," said Mike Block, chief operating officer, Wpromote, who is at the center of the agency's talent strategy. Providing employees a road map Wpromote focuses on understanding how employees want to grow. Block uses a chart to break their desires up into four quadrants, explaining employees fall into a mixture of these quadrants: Rising through the ranks in search of better pay and title.Receiving consistent feedback, but systematizing it so they can get better at the day-to-day responsibilities.Leveling up a wide-range of skills so that can have mobility through the organization.Gaining new responsibilities, but provide responsibilities that are measurable in order to show the value of the new tasks. The transition from individual contributor to manager is one of the toughest transitions that someone can make in their career. So we really invest heavily in that moment.Mike Block, Wpromote COO "Once we have an understanding of what growth means to an employee, then we can really get to work on executing," Block said, equating it to how they approach solving challenges for clients. As employees become supervisors for the first time, Wpromote provides training to ensure they're ready to help their direct reports continue their professional growth. The agency relies heavily on a number of metrics to understand employee happiness, including its own surveys, feedback and ratings on Glassdoor. During the pandemic, these surveys have increased in their importance as they allow the agency's leaders to better understand employees' needs. In the most recent survey, the agency scored above 90% in a number of categories, including whether employees have seen changes based on the survey and satisfaction with their supervisor. Culture, not perks Wpromote invests in benefits that create culture instead of small perks, including a 4.5-day work week. Block said the agency is able to stick to that schedule because the agency is up front about it with potential clients. "The four-and-a-half-day work week is something that's helping us attract and retain amazing talent, which is the reason clients are choosing to work with us," Block said. Wpromote gives employees the autonomy to work from anywhere and build flexible schedules to meet their personal needs. The agency provides a number of other benefits and initiatives like unlimited PTO, an in-house mentorship program and an array of ERGs for DEI initiatives. New parents receive up to 12 weeks of paid time off to bond with their child, while the birth parent receives an additional six to eight weeks of fully paid short-term disability. "There is a very prevalent conflation of culture and perks," Block said. "But the four-and-a-half day work week has an impact on culture. It ensures there's a shared expectation for a lack of availability on Friday afternoons and weekends." Tools to succeed Wpromote's not-so-secret weapon is its Polaris operating system, which allows employees to spend significantly more time on more rewarding work, like strategy, than on crunching numbers and monitoring campaigns. The shop's engineers built the tool completely in-house, and continue to add new functionalities thanks to the couple dozen employees the agency dedicates to its upkeep. Block said it's one of the most important retention tools the agency has. Any employee can pitch new functionalities. The product team evaluates each proposal, and prioritizes them based on the greatest impact internally or externally for clients. While Polaris executes programs to automate data analysis, deploy campaigns and detect anomalies in campaign performance, it also streamlines agency operations. Client teams can tap into Polaris to easily determine availabilities to staff up accounts with employees who have the right documented skills, track record and client feedback to do the job. "Polaris is a pretty tough one to compete with. It drives you to tinker and innovate and let curiosity guide you to the solution to a challenging problem," Block said. "And then potentially have it impact the entire organization. That's a pretty cool differentiator." The 75 Fastest Growing Agencies in the US and Around the World