M&C Saatchi’s second year iteration of Open House, a free eight-week webinar crash course into all aspects of advertising, is targeting a broader audience with aims to recruit mature ages, from regional areas and career changers from other industries.
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Sarah Palmer, M&C Saatchi director of employee experience, told AdNews Open House 2022 is on track for better results than the program’s successful inaugural year - of eight juniors and a few others hired - as the agency has invested more funding, more mentoring support and an improved training delivery aiming to get 1000 applicants.
“Strategically, we’ve focused on making sure we're providing an inclusive experience for people from all walks of life.
“Traditionally, people in advertising have done a great job of talking to university students, but now we're making a conscious effort to go broader.
“We’re going to regional places, TAFE and different kinds of career spaces, so that we're not just talking to that university set.
“University students are still important but there's a lot of roles in advertising that don’t require a degree and we want to also promote our industry as a great place where lots of different roles can be taken.”
Weeks before the program went live, the agency did ground-root promotion by visiting their tertiary partners and promoting the program through a QR code encouraging students to sign up, to build momentum.
“That's why it's called Open House, we are actually opening the doors to everyone.
“We're looking at people who might be mature age and are trying to get back into the workforce. You have people who are interested in it, but don't really know about it, maybe they're just looking for a career change. They might be studying, they might not be.
“For us, the more the merrier.”
Only 55% of people who quit in the past two years took a job in the same industry, according to McKinsey & Company.
McKinsey & Company: “Companies are more focused on hiring people for their skills rather than their industry experience, and the most talented individuals with the most sought-after skills will be able to continue to explore options to find the best fit.
“There is less of a stigma attached to job hopping or gaps in a résumé, and joining companies in other geographies without relocating has become easier than ever, making it possible for people to jump from one employer to another.
“These factors create a new playing field for hiring, since employers find themselves competing not only within their industry, as in the past, but also across industries.”
Palmer said: “Obviously our intent is to build a pipeline of juniors for the agency. But when I say junior, they don't need to be junior at all because our intent is to try and uncover original thinkers and if we find some people along the way that are mature age or not what we're expecting then all the better.
“The program is obviously great for us as a recruitment tool, but bigger than that the overarching strategy is doing good by the industry to educate the public about what we do.
“We want the public to know that many different kinds of people have the opportunity to work in our industry. And the more differences we get, the better the industry actually is.
“It’s rare for people to know about our industry, more than half the people we talk to don’t even know what production is or what's involved in it.
“M&C Saatchi is strategically after original thinkers, we know that is what makes creativity awesome. So that's what we're after, to fill open roles when it comes around to next year.”
Therefore, with a different audience this year M&C had to tweak the program’s advertising, utilising new platforms to reach the more mature and regional market.
Palmer said: “Last year we had a similar strategy of opening it up to everyone, but we went with more traditional channels to spread the word. This year we’ve broadened our communication streams into different spaces.
“We’re leaning on our partnership with Spotify and using regional radio stations to promote, hoping that through our channels we’re reaching out to people who are just interested in finding out more to jump on and learn about the industry.”
The training’s delivery has also been adjusted based on the first year’s feedback that the program was too work intensive.
Palmer said: “Similarly to an AWARD’s School framework we had students doing tasks each week which had to be submitted. We probably lost a few people throughout that process, because either they just didn't have the time, the capacity or the will to submit the work.
“So we've sort of removed that component and now there are two ways people can get involved either by just attending the webinars which are educational around the work we do.
“And then we'll get people who are actively wanting to come in and get the internship.
“We issue the students a brief in the first week, and each week as their knowledge builds around the different ways to solve problems and challenges participants who want the internship can build upon that brief. And that then becomes their application for the paid internship at the end.
“We hope that people will come to the live sessions, but we're also making the recorded sessions available online for people who are too busy. So we're trying to be as inclusive as possible with ways to access the program.”
Each week an M&C Saatchi Group speaker will provide specialist knowledge and insights. Speakers from across the business include Justin Graham, Group CEO ANZ; Melinda Lofts, head of CX strategy and Saynaree Oudomvilay, senior account director from M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment.
Again to cater to the program’s broader audience, M&C has added more industry support for participants.
Palmer said: “One of the learnings we had was that people who are from a diverse range of backgrounds, may or may not require a little bit of extra support.
“So to facilitate this we have added a lot more mentoring groups to make sure participants have contact with people within the agency to ask whatever question they need. We've had a range of amazing people at M&C who have put their hand up to volunteer for those support mentor groups."
A lot of the program's alumni students who are current employees at M&C Saatchi will be mentors using their experience to guide the participants.
Tameem Hassan, M&C Saatchi Group junior creative and Open House alumni, told AdNews: “Having come out of the AWARD school, this program didn’t just focus on creative, but it allowed us to experience other departments and the inner workings of an agency.
“The best part was towards the end of the program. I found that being a good little student enabled me the opportunity to pitch a campaign to a real client - BWS.”
Sydnie Kendall, M&C Saatchi Group junior production assistant and Open House alumni, said: “Getting the opportunity to deep dive into all the different areas of advertising was an incredible opportunity and one that I was never privy to with other internships. I still use the skills I learnt from Open House within my current role as a producer.
“Before Open House, I didn’t even know what a producer did within an agency and now I can’t see myself doing anything else. It’s a fantastic program that jump-started my career and opened up a world of opportunities and I could not recommend it enough.”
The Open House program starts October 11.
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