I can’t say that I’m surprised by these findings.  With the continuing squeeze on salaries, it is to be expected that top performers are vulnerable to alternative offers of employment.  Equally, counter offers are often perceived as “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted”.  Much better to ensure that you are engaged with your employees ensuring they remain satisfied with their role, remuneration and  career development.

Roger

It’s amazing what can come out of a Friday afternoon get together by a few industry types.

Matt Alder Recruiting Futurologist of MetaShift, Jamie Leonard of Reconverse.com, Graeme Holiday and myself from 360 Degrees Advertising were pulling the industry apart as you do, when we got on to the state of the economy and employment in general. Raising the spectre of youth unemployment and the truly obscene figure of one million people between 18-24 being unemployed in the UK, apart from the general unemployment figure, the conversation took a turn towards the apparent or perceived disconnect between employers and young people.

On one hand employers are saying they can’t attract good candidates, others, particularly SME’s either don’t have the confidence in the economy to hire or don’t have confidence in the commitment of young people. On the other hand we have young people, Graduate and not, who say there are no jobs.

Into our conversation came the idea of getting some traction behind the idea of giving a job for Christmas. Not a job just for Christmas but as a Christmas present to a young person. Giveajobforchristmas. Between 1st and 31st December let’s encourage employers to offer at least one young unemployed person a job for next year. It could be just one job or a hundred. But anything that will make a dent in the UK’s unemployed young people figures is a step in the right direction.

I realize that someone somewhere (scrooge) may say this is a discriminating act on age grounds, however provided other age groups are not precluded from applying, let’s just say it’s the season of good cheer.

So we are now going into the twittersphere to promote www.Giveajobforchristmas.com, where you can post a job for free. (Note to employers. Please put some jobs on the site to get us going!). We will be live on 1st December. You can just email us with a job and we will post it for you prior to the 1st.

You can follow us on Twitter @giveajob4xmas or join our community at facebook.com/giveajobforchristmas to show your support.

Have a good one.

Roger Juniper Chairman 360 Degrees Advertising.

@360advertising

NB. Thanks to James Moffat and the gang at Organic Development for donating time and expertise to build the website.

Tanya and Moley raised just over £400

Moley here,

As you know, I ran 10k on Sunday 19^th June for Macmillan.

Cloudy start, sunny spells and a light shower towards the end,

Moving around the course with 750 people.

I started slow (my little legs can’t carry me far),

Laughing at the runners with bright green wigs and silly hats!

Lots of cheering, family and friends around to help me to the finish line.

A big thank you to everyone for their support.

Now for my next adventure…

Moley poses with Tanya’s medal.

TJ

Moley gets in the mood.

Moley sang along to the great Fuzzy and Mockingbirds hits and an attempt at crowd surfing was quickly halted by a less than impressed security woman.

Once the gig finished, Moley dragged us off to Gordon’s Wine bar which is an underground cavern of a place below the Embankment where old social Moley made some new friends, much to their amusement.

Moley makes some new friends

Unfortunately, pictures of Moley are a bit thin on the ground because he went AWOL halfway through the weekend. We think he had too many lagers and then vodkas – we counted five empty vodka bottles in the gazebo on Saturday morning!

Anyway – we finally found him under all the blankets, blind drunk!

Molecatcher

My journey began when TJ took me to Brazil,
I don’t recommed the food, it will make you ill,
We relaxed on the beach and swam in the sea,
Wore my Havaianas and went to Brazilian parties.

There isn’t much evidence, the trip was a blur,
Spent most of my days cleaning my fur,
A great first trip, not for the faint-hearted,
I knew it would be wild from the minute we departed.

It’s two weeks later and back in the UK,
And eager for my next adventure day,
Who knows where i’m off next, you’ll have to wait and see,
So until next time, it’s adios from me.

Moley

Introducing Moley, 360ºs furry mascot.

Currently on a break from writing the agency’s in-house exposé magazine, Moley is using his time traveling around with members of the team either on business or pleasure.

So the story goes, Moley got a bit fed up with spending most of his time in the dark. It has to said that a few members of the agency thought this was normal and can’t see what all the fuss is about.

After a bit of mudslinging, Moley dug deep into his resolve and persuaded the senior management that a global sabbatical was what he needed to clean his act up. After all, no-one wanted him to make a mountain out of a….no, sorry, I can’t write that, it’s lame.

Watch this space to read about what he gets up to and where he goes.

Molecatcher

Naturally, we wanted to ease them in gently but as with many great plans, things took on a life of their own. It seems personalities can overpower procedures.

Since their arrival, the fortunes of the agency have improved. Now this might well be a coincidence after all, this industry usually splutters its way to Christmas and then catches a second wind going into January and February. But, the industry has changed.

More and more of our day-to-day work is made up of long-term project work, and we had just embarked on a significant piece of employer branding work for one client. The difference however was more apparent with the success rate of our new business success.

From brand projects to education projects, we have worked with a new purpose and vigor because, I believe, there is a new energy emanating from 360º. We are now winning business not just through smart business strategies but because we want it and we go that extra distance to achieve it. This makes people proud and happy and of course, the cycle continues. It’s a good place to be.

Positive attitudes and a willingness to go beyond the call of duty have made their home in the agency again. People are smiling and people are keen to help regardless of the task. Thing is, nothing has fundamentally changed apart from having a couple of enthusiastic and energised people joining the ranks.

But is there a correlation between having an agency with an injection of bright new blood that smile a lot and this knack of winning business and the sudden awakening of existing business?

Who knows? Maybe it’s just that people are pulling together better than ever and even in moments of mad panic there’s still room for a joke or two. Maybe the communication within the agency is improving; we have daily status meetings – well nearly every day and everyone has something to say. Maybe there’s a better understanding of our products from clients and now they want them.

All I know is that this transformation can go almost as quickly as it came and I for one won’t let that happen.

Mark