‘It gets really tricky’: With vaccine mandates, incentives now legal, here’s what it means for employers
Published 6/4/2021, Digiday.com
Last week the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission confirmed that U.S. employers can legally mandate vaccines for returning workers if they choose to, and vaccine incentives have also been rubber stamped, with a couple of caveats.
While some businesses, like Amazon and Walmart, have already offered cash incentives to encourage workers to get vaccinated, most haven’t followed suit for fear of entering dodgy legal territory.
But while the update has cleared up that particular gray area, it doesn’t render return-to-work policies any easier for employers. Unless you’re a legal expert or have a penchant for nosing through dense legal documents, across not just the EEOC but other relevant regulatory bodies, things can start to get easily tangled. Here’s a break down of key things to know.
Brian Dolan, CEO of tech platform WorkReduce, said it’s a very difficult situation for employers, who have to try and balance the health risks for their staff, with respecting people’s personal choices. His own cousin caught the coronavirus from a woman in his office who flouted mask guidelines, and so was off work for three weeks while he recovered. “That’s a terrible outcome for both him and his employer,” he said. “In general, employers are best served by staying out of their employees’ personal lives as much as possible, but this is one area where it gets really tricky.”
If you employ, for example, transplant recipients for whom the vaccine doesn’t seem to work well, the last thing you want to do is create further risk for them by exposing them to COVID-19, said Dolan. “Those might be employees you’d like to have in the office,” he added.……(read full article)
‘We’ve Gone Through A Global Trauma’: Digiday Research Shows Feelings Toward Returning To The Office Remain Mixed
Published 5/26/2021, Digiday.com
People have returned to the office in dribs and drabs over the last few weeks, on a voluntary basis, as pandemic restrictions have lifted and companies have begun phased returns. But the trials of the last year have left a deep imprint on many, and as such feelings toward returning vary wildly.
Digiday surveyed 329 people from across publishers, brand marketers, agencies and platforms, with the majority of respondents coming from publishers and agencies. When asked how they felt about their forthcoming return to the office, 24% said they felt happy at the prospect, 31% said excited and 19% relieved. But 43% said they felt anxious, 9% said they were scared and 27% said they felt stressed by the prospect….
“You’d be crazy not to build in flexibility now,” said Brian Dolan, CEO of talent management firm WorkReduce, which has opted to go remote-first. “If you’re mandating a 100% return to the office you’re really out of touch. The horse is out of the barn — you will limit who you can attract. And you will compete with people who are offering it, so it will make you look old-school, old fashioned and unappealing.”……(read full article)
Brian Dolan at WorkReduce: Remote work is here to stay.
Published 5/29/2021, eMarketingAssociation.com
The pandemic forced many agencies and brands (and many other knowledge-worker businesses) moved to WFH.
According to Brian Dolan, CEO/Founder at WorkReduce, remote work is here to stay.
In today’s podcast interview, Brian didn’t just discuss WFH and remote work, we also discussed the broader trends, including how technology has nearly erased geographical borders.
In my opinion, cities where high-end talent live and work, and in-person offices will remain important for the agencies and brands, particularly for training new graduates, and for maximizing productivity in the creative and strategy roles to allow for in-person meetings.
However, there is no denying the seismic shift towards remote work, particularly for the operational and grunt-work that supports any great marketing and media plan.
(watch full podcast)
Agencies Are Resuming Travel As Clients Request More Face-to-Face Time
Published 5/27/2021, BusinessInsider.com
Marketers are seeking facetime with their agencies again, but some ad execs are resistant to going back to crazy pre-pandemic travel schedules
- Agencies are traveling again
- Ad agencies say they are traveling for clients again. Mongkol Chuewong /Getty Images
- Ad execs are starting to travel again as clients seek facetime with their agencies.
- Agencies want to balance hybrid work with client expectations for in-person meetings.
- Some said they’re prepared to push back if asked to resume hectic pre-pandemic travel schedules.
Ad agencies aren’t fully reopened, but they’re gradually resuming travel as more people get vaccinated and clients request in-person meetings, new business pitches, and on-site commercial productions.
A new study by advertising staffing company WorkReduce showed 55% of ad execs said they were traveling again for business. Meanwhile, only 13% said they were returning to the office full-time, 40% said they were returning sometimes, and 46% said they were still working from home.
WorkReduce CEO and Founder Brian Dolan said most agencies want to maintain a hybrid work model and are trying to balance client demands for more facetime without resuming weekly flights and daily in-person meetings that were common pre-pandemic.
“There’s this real tension right now of people wanting to see their clients and wanting to see their colleagues but wanting to maintain some of the benefits of remote work,” Dolan said. “Everyone is really hoping to return to something that is hybrid.”……(read full article)
These Advertising Companies Hard-hit by the Pandemic Are Already Hiring Again for Hundreds of Roles
Published 5/24/2021, BusinessInsider.com
After a terrible 2020 when ad agencies shed 49,000 jobs, firms are growing again — and hiring.
“2021 indeed remains a difficult year in some parts of the world. But we have been recruiting again,” said Mark Read, CEO of ad giant WPP.
The holding companies say they’re hiring across the board as marketers ramp up spending. WPP’s GroupM expects worldwide advertising revenue to grow 10.2% to $651 billion in 2021 after a 4.1% decline in 2020. Ad revenue ticked up 1.8% in the first quarter at WPP while Omnicom Group grew 0.6%………
Brian Dolan, CEO and founder of advertising staffing company WorkReduce, which works with all the major holding companies, said the ad holding companies are trying to get back to pre-pandemic levels or higher.
“People I’m talking to are hiring very aggressively,” he said. “One division at a holding company has 130 open roles. People are coming to us with 10, 20, 30 openings at a time. They’re bringing people back who were laid off. There’s a sense advertising is back and it’s going to stay back.”
Are In-house Agencies Choking the Talent Pipeline?
Published 4/12/2021, MarketingDive.com
The advertising industry is experiencing a talent crisis of immense proportions that’s likely to continue unless changes are made now.
Amid the growing migration from agency to in-house advertising teams, the market has ignored the essential role that agencies have traditionally filled. Agencies have typically been the talent “farms” for our industry. They’ve owned the fundamental role of finding, nurturing and growing entry-level talent across all aspects of the advertising business.
The shift of these responsibilities to in-house brand teams is choking the pool of top advertising talent, making it difficult for both in-house and agency teams to fill open roles with candidates who have the right skill sets.
Leading by example
In-house ad agencies have been on the rise for more than a decade. Procter & Gamble led the charge by in-housing media to minimize its number of vendor relations and create greater cost efficiencies, with the goal of wresting more control over its brands. It’s a strategy that’s proved successful: Since then, P&G has expanded its in-housing ambitions to other aspects of its advertising operations, and inspired many large brands to follow suit…
Why Advertisers Shouldn’t Stop Using Those ‘Annoying’ Ads That Follow Consumers Around
Published 3/30/2021, Forbes.com
Bad news, folks. I just bought a shirt that’s been following me around the internet for a few weeks. And that’s just going to make the problem of ads that follow me around worse. Why?
Well, in spite of widespread consumer dislike and well-reasoned complaints from advertising insiders about their efficiency and implementation, these ads work extraordinarily well. And I just proved the case, which will spawn thousands more. How could this be?
Let’s start with my shirt. After a long, quarantined winter, I was thinking about short sleeves, spring colors and an end to Covid-19. When I saw this shirt pop up in a Facebook carousel ad from a retailer I had shopped with before, I clicked on it and liked what I saw. But a Zoom call loomed, and I closed the tab. That’s when the shirt started following me around.
My browsing triggered a Rube Goldberg machine of identifier synchronization among browser cookies, application identifiers and a range of ad vendors. A spiderweb of IDs representing me and my devices suddenly matched a set of rules entered by a marketer in multiple ad buying platforms. Settings for how long to follow me, how often to show the ad, and most importantly, how much money to spend buying ads targeted to get me jumping into action…
The Pandemic Is Pushing Brands Back to Hiring Advertising Agencies Again
Published 3/05/2021, BusinessInsider.com
The pandemic is putting huge pressure on brands, and it’s causing them to fall back in love with traditional ad agencies
In the summer, Splenda hired a social-media agency for the first time, Max Connect Marketing. Splenda had always handled its social-media marketing internally. But the pandemic increased the need for companies to communicate with their customers on social channels, and the sweetener wanted to keep tabs on what other consumer brands like Taco Bell and Kraft Heinz were doing, said Matt Thompson, the senior manager of social media for Splenda’s parent company, Heartland Food Products Group.
“Splenda wanted an external partner to help keep an eye on what is trending on social, see what others are doing, look for creative opportunities, and keep a finger on the pulse of pop culture,” Thompson said. Now Splenda’s team is sticking to social-media posts on recipes and internal company messaging, while Max Connect Marketing, in Utah, focuses on reaching larger audiences.
Splenda is not the only marketer seeing the value of agencies these days…
WorkReduce Partners with Donors Choose to Launch WorkReduce Gives Back
PRESS RELEASE
Published 2/17/2021, PRWire.com
Employee-centric program funding educational projects in local community classrooms
WorkReduce Inc, a data-driven platform for staffing specialist media talent, has partnered with education nonprofit Donors Choose to launch a philanthropic program, WorkReduce Gives Back. The program will help educate the next generation of Americans by providing financial support to exceptional teachers and teaching projects.
“At WorkReduce, we believe that the value of education cannot be overstated,” said WorkReduce CEO Brian Dolan. “WorkReduce Gives Back aligns with our commitment to training and education as well as to our employees, more than half of whom are working parents.”
An employee-centric program, WorkReduce Gives Back enables WorkReduce employees to select the projects they want the company to fund. WorkReduce Gives Back donates a portion of their client billings each quarter to fund these projects advocated by Donors Choose.
How Agencies Can Define A New Norm In 2021 After The Chaos of 2020
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 1/12/2021, AdExchanger.com
If 2020 prepared us for anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. And with 2021 already throwing us curveballs, it’s not crazy to think there are more in store. But what does that mean for agencies? If there’s more insanity on the horizon, what can we do to create stability?
Get ahead of client needs
For starters, now is the time to build relationships. It’s become easier to get in touch with senior executives. The noise of the office is gone, we know who has cats, dogs and/or kids and the opportunity exists to make new and lasting interpersonal connections that can go a long way toward humanizing and personalizing our working relationships.
3 Ways Agencies Can Innovate to Stop Talent Churn
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 12/20/2020, ANA.com
There’s an alarming long-term issue in the ad industry. Agency staff of all levels of seniority are leaving their jobs. I’ve seen it personally as my company’s business model helps backfill these gaps. My inbox is filled daily with requests from big agency brands to help keep their teams on track during this wave of people-churn.
Is anyone really surprised? There’s been a negative undercurrent of talent dissatisfaction in the ad industry that has grown louder in recent months fueled by the uncertainty and pivoting going on through the pandemic and economic challenges.
It’s something that we need to pay attention to if we want to attract, retain and nurture the top talent that will be the future of this industry.
The Path Forward for Ad Industry Diversity
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 12/02/2020, MediaAudit.com
The agency bias has traditionally started early. The agency model has been largely driven by low-cost, recent college grads and concentrated in expensive metro areas like New York. That creates an implicit filter against socio-economic groups who can’t or don’t want to manage student debt on a low salary in a high cost of living area. The industry is therefore more attractive to people who come out of school without debt. Both of those factors correlate strongly with multiple dimensions of diversity.
Contrast that with another service industry like consulting, known for higher entry-level pay, and the results aren’t surprising. Add to that the natural bias that people prefer to hire people who are like themselves, and you have a talent funnel that’s been squeezed at the top resulting in a lack of diversity at the executive level.
Traumatized by your COVID Job Search? I know the feeling.
By Sarah Calkin-Ward, Head of Marketing, WorkReduce
Published 11/30/2020, Recruiter.com
I was recently unemployed for nine months. Feeling jaded by my job loss, I took the first two months on unemployment insurance as a relaxing family sabbatical, during which I completed a little in-house DIY and updated a bunch of my expired certifications so I could get back in touch with what I loved about marketing. By the time I started circulating my resume in March, the coronavirus pandemic had hit and the market was flooded with thousands of furloughed workers from my industry. The jobs dramatically dried up as businesses put recruitment on hold until after lockdown.
During this time, I applied for at least 200 positions for which my practical experience was a perfect match — including some that were way below my experience level, which I was willing to take to get back in the game. I received almost nothing but white noise in return.
Brands Increasingly Seek Indie Shops and their ‘nimble’ models in the pandemic
Published 11/17/2020, AdAge
Small agencies are holding their own against holding companies, but will it last or is this just a blip?
Brian Dolan, CEO of WorkReduce—which works across indie agencies, all five holding companies as well as marketers’ in-house operations to help them staff up and execute certain internal and external projects—says his non-holding company agency clientele “exploded in Q2 and Q3” in terms of new business growth. “These guys raced to the
forefront,” Dolan says. “I wasn’t sure what to attribute this to.”
Companies Settle Into New Normal With Focus on Working Parents
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 11/6/2020, Recruiter.com
What do you do when you’re on a Zoom meeting and someone’s child suddenly pops up on the screen?
It’s bound to happen in this new reality, where parents are forced to run day cares and remote classrooms while keeping up with professional duties. And these aren’t the only employees with caregiving responsibilities; many are also caring for parents or spouses. This new normal is something we need to plan for if we’re going to support our teams so that they can work to their full potential despite the challenges facing us all.
How Companies are Preparing as Remote Work Increasingly Becomes a Norm
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 9/28/2020, Toolbox.com
Although agencies have historically been reluctant to embrace remote work, many are now entirely rethinking their approach. In this piece, Brian Dolan, CEO and founder, WorkReduce speaks about how some agency execs have been approaching remote work and what is next.
Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy Partners with WorkReduce on Visitor Engagement Initiative
Published 9/23/2020, PRWeb
What’s even better than data and analytics? Beautiful data visualizations! When our friends at Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy told us they were sitting on a mountain of data that they wanted to share with the public, we jumped into help build an interactive map. Now when you’re visiting the Greenway, or planning a trip, you can learn about which plants species are in bloom across the 17 acre park property. Hit us up to learn more about the process of building this tool, from data cleansing through accessible and mobile-friendly front end design.
WorkReduce launches Service Desk for Media Buyers with Flexible, On-Demand Support for Trafficking, Analytics and Creative
Published 9/10/2020, Techrseries.com
WorkReduce Inc, a data-driven platform for media buying talent, announced the launch of Service Desk, which offers a new way for media buying teams to support operational efficiency, in addition to creative resources for campaign creation.
John Durham Joins WorkReduce as Advisory Board Member
Published 8/13/2020, PRWeb
WorkReduce Inc, a data-driven platform for media buying talent, today announced that John Durham, chief executive officer and managing general partner of San Francisco-based marketing consulting firm Catalyst S+F, is joining the company’s board of advisors. Durham’s dynamic career spans over 23 years, in the marketing and advertising space.
How to Retool Remote Work For the Long Haul
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 7/13/2020, Quartz
As the Global Covid-19 pandemic forced companies to disperse their workforce into their individual homes, many have been surprised to find how well it works. Even companies that adamantly opposed work from home options are finding that production has kept up with, and sometimes exceeded the pace of, their traditional model.
New Agency Layoff List Launches
Published 5/12/2020, MediaPost
WorkReduce is a platform that helps large agencies outsource media buying jobs. It’s run by CEO Brian Dolan. The firm works with the major holding companies and just started publishing what it’s calling a “minimum viable” list. It teamed with creative shop Said Differently to create the online site.
Agency Life: COVID-19 Will Cause 4 Permanent Changes
Published 5/26/2020, AdExchanger
The remote work experiment caused by COVID-19 will transform agencies.
Automation will become even more integral to agency workflows as consumer media habits shift, changing the nature of talent and services.
Working From Home: Getting Past that First Friday
by Anna Binder, VP of Product and Operations, WorkReduce
Published 3/30/2020, Aithority.com
It takes time to get used to working from “not an office” and being able to finish and deliver on all the things you still have to complete. There are some things that you must do to keep up productivity and protect your sanity.
Is the Current Crisis the Perfect Time to Adopt a 20-Hour Workweek?
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 4/16/2020, Recruiter.com
Across the globe, everyone who can work from home is being urged to do so. This unexpected and unprecedented push into remote work is forcing businesses to rethink what work is and reimagine what it could be.
Tips For Working From Home Alongside Your Partner
by Anna Binder, VP of Product and Operations, WorkReduce
Published 4/9/2020, HR.com
Handling the ups and downs of work-life under one roof
Pitch Deck Shows How One Shop Has Pivoted Its Business Approach During Pandemic
Published 4/1/2020, AdAge
What impact will Covid-19 have on Advertising? We discuss this in a new article from AdAge.
The One Skill That Workers Of The Future Must Have
By Anna Binder, VP of Product and Operations, WorkReduce
Published 2/18/2020, HR.com
Hustle is the new soft skill requirement.
Silicon Valley May Have More Startups — But We Do Start-Ups Better
By Brian Dolan, Founder and CEO, WorkReduce
Published 2/28/2020, BostonGlobe.com
Our entrepreneurs aren’t as flashy — but they’re building more sustainable businesses.
Taking Media In-House Is not a Case of One Size Fits All
Published 12/27/2020, AdWeek
As experience shows, the realities are not so black and white.
The Agency Outsourcing Opportunity: Why Media Buying Outfits Need to Expand Their Talent Options
Published 11/26/2020, Recruiter.com
In my experience, large ad agencies have been uniquely resistant to the outsourcing trend, particularly in their cash-cow media buying divisions, even when their creative and public relations agencies have embraced outsourcing wholeheartedly. What gives?
