Talent War - Inside TBWA's in-house fresh fries program

Ashley Regan
By Ashley Regan | 22 November 2022
 
TBWA 2023 fresh fries program ad

International advertising agency TBWA has an in-house training program with a 100% success rate for placing permanent positions. 

The secret? Small hiring pools. 

Talent shortages have made agencies scramble to develop new recruitment streams with almost every agency today having an in-house training program.

However, attempting to train and fill dozens of positions at one time can result in poor-quality juniors.

Now in its fifth year, TBWA’s fresh fries program is an entry-level full-time paid internship that sees successful applicants work across each of the agency’s departments.

Unlike most in-house agency training programs, which often take 20 or so applicants for a short time such as three months, fresh fries takes one interns on for a year. 

TBWA\Melbourne managing director Ricci Meldrum told AdNews: “To be honest we've had at least a couple hundred applicants every year. 

“We saw the numbers drop a little last year during COVID but the way it's tracking at the moment it looks like it's going back up again. 

“But even that's more than we can ever shortlist, as we only shortlist about 20. 

“We then get those 20 in and do a whole day of interviews and group tasks to get down to one hopefully. Sometimes we need to do another round after because it's such a tricky decision.”

Originally starting in the Melbourne office the holding group has taken the program to Adelaide for the first time due to its success.

Adelaide too will only take one intern, as marketing newbies deserve personalised and attentive care.

“We think three months of training is not going to give people enough exposure or depth to any department realistically,” Meldrum said.

“We like to have a minimum of six weeks to eight weeks in any one department, and even with that time, we don't get a perfect view of them either.

“We've had awesome success for the past four years, there's not been a single fresh fry that's gone through that we haven't offered a full-time role to at the end of the program.

“Past fresh fries have gone into diverse areas, not such creative but strategy, account management, project management etc.

“After all the program’s content depends on who the successful candidates are.

“Depending on who we select each year we take into account their interests and their predispositions as to how we develop the program for them.”

Ensuring trust as an employer from the get-go is another motivation for the smaller-pool recruitment strategy. 

“We also don't want to get to a point where at the end of the year we may not have a role for the trainees, which is always a possibility,” Meldrum said.

“We can't say we're gonna have 10 roles free at the end of the year. 

“So we've been very intentional in keeping it a smaller pool which has been really successful for us.”

Even though the onboarding for the training program is small, doesn't mean TBWA takes advantage of the other few hundred individuals who apply.

“We've also often gone back to that shortlisting pool when we’ve had holes,” Meldrum said.

“For example, at times we’ve seen candidates who are clearly account managers and we know putting them through this program is probably a waste of their time because they kind of know what they want to do.

“So we keep them on a list for recruitment later when that role comes available.

“We also go back to the shortlist of candidates a year later to let them know the program is starting again.

“That’s been successful too - one of our fresh fries from last year had applied the year before and didn't get through, but got through the second time they applied.”

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