Optimizing the Well-Being of the Client-Agency Relationship

How can agencies and clients build a mutually beneficial partnership?

Agencies and clients can instantly reduce turnover and project burnout by shifting their structural mindset from "us and them" to a unified team. By collaboratively establishing crystal-clear guidelines surrounding meeting cadences and core working hours, both parties foster a highly productive, long-term relationship

The pandemic has helped humanize all relationships in our industry, including the one between agency and client. As someone who has led more than a dozen account teams throughout my career, I know first-hand the importance of having perspective on the blending of personal and professional lives our clients are going through. I also know the challenges that agency leaders and their teams have daily.

Shared challenges of working from crowded homes, sharing constrained resources with partners and spouses, taking care of children and parents, and adopting pets have helped bring together clients and agencies like never before.

Heading into 2022, a new set of client and agency relationships will form. Contracts will be signed, and both parties will be excited about how the new partnership.

As a part of those new partnerships and strengthening existing partnerships, I strongly encourage my corporate- and agency-side friends to have a transparent discussion on day-to-day work expectations. Having a practical and actionable dialogue will help reduce stress, anxiety, and turnover.

Four ways the senior client lead and the senior account lead can drive a discussion on this topic include:

- Shifting the mindset of “us and them” to “we.” My most successful client relationships were those that the clients honestly thought of our teams as a true collective. The onus is on both the client and agency leaders to set a standard that this is a single unit.

- Sharing the realities of the client and agency team members’ schedules. Due to several people leaving their companies and joining new ones, this is an opportunity for clarity around core work hours across the collective team. Do the client and agency have similar approaches to remote and hybrid work expectations. If not, how can adjustments be made?

- Establishing clear guidelines on why meetings need to be scheduled. Is there a clear purpose? Is a pre-read sent ahead of the meeting? Is it a 60-minute meeting when a 25-minute meeting will do? Do all members of the client and agency team need to participate? Can they otherwise be working on projects? Are there expectations around having cameras on during meetings, which, while essential to establish rapport, can be draining if used too often?

- Determining the primary channel(s) to which the client and agency teams will communicate. Will the agency use the client’s standard tools (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.), or is the client looking to the agency to establish norms for the business?

Building a healthy relationship between client and agency is essential to establishing a consistent, productive, and mutually beneficial partnership. Setting expectations in place that can positively impact the well-being of the collective team members will significantly impact the relationship in the years to come.

Eradicating the Burnout Epidemic Among School PR Leaders

Why do communications professionals struggle with taking vacation?

Communications professionals frequently suffer from "vacation guilt," falsely believing they must always remain accessible during a crisis. To eradicate burnout, leadership teams must relentlessly protect sleep hygiene, refuse to work through lunch, and proactively schedule paid time off six to twelve months in advance.

My school public relations friends, you have played a significant role in keeping us alert, aware, and safe throughout COVID-19. Despite all the challenges we’ve faced, I’ve never been prouder to be part of this family of professionals. Thank you for all you’ve done. That said, we must ensure we are prioritizing our well-being heading into 2022. Earlier this year, I surveyed 100 public relations professionals on the state of their well-being. Some of you may have taken the survey, and I want to share a few key points and recommendations. We are not taking our earned vacation: Fifty-one percent of respondents said they only took 0-3 uninterrupted vacation days, while 29 percent said 3-7 days were uninterrupted by work. Some of us “have too much work to do,” “feel bad to leave work for others,” or “have nowhere to go, so I might as well work.” I’ve heard all these excuses; I want you to get selfish with the time you’ve earned! - Recommendation: Take your vacation! Your employee benefits are there for a reason. My twist: consider scheduling your paid time off 6-12 months in advance. It might seem a little strange, but this approach will help you later by ensuring you take vacations. Of course, unexpected things may arise that require you to reschedule your time off, but I’ve found it’s the exception, not the norm. We’re not sleeping well: Seventeen percent of the respondents said that thinking about work impacts their sleep daily, while 46 percent said at least once per week that work affects their sleep. - Recommendation: One of the first things we recommend to people who aren’t sleeping well is to drink their water. The systems in our bodies are working while we’re sleeping and need water to process! Try to give yourself a 1–2-hour gap from your last drink of water before you go to bed, and limit alcohol and caffeine in the evenings. The lack of wellness resources is still high. Fifty-six percent said they do not participate in any program dedicated to improving mental and physical well-being. Related, people want to make time to exercise as most respondents said they would spend an extra hour out of their day to exercise. - Recommendation: Get with the program! Give yourself one month to challenge yourself to do the same exercise every day. Whether it’s walking for 30 minutes, doing pushups, dusting off your bicycle, or taking a swim at the local pool, find something that you can do every day for a month. Record your measurements and how you feel before and after your challenge. You’ll be surprised how much a simple change can have a positive impact. We are working through lunch. Thirty-one percent of the respondents said that they take uninterrupted lunch breaks away from their place of work. However, 20 percent said they never take lunch breaks. Because we are working through lunch, we often don’t focus on how quickly we’re eating. We need to slow down to eat our meals; we should give ourselves at least 15 minutes so our bodies have time to digest our food correctly. Eating too quickly can be hard on our stomach, PLUS our brain hasn’t caught up, which might cause us to overeat. The opposite issue can happen as well; we forget to eat. Forgetting to eat or skipping meals has its own mental and physical challenges. - Recommendation: Start with identifying 2-3 days per week that you can block off 30 minutes over lunch to focus on nothing but taking your time to enjoy your lunch, listen to a podcast or audiobook, and prepare mentally for the rest of the afternoon. Focusing on just these four things is a step toward improving your well-being and preparing your mind and body to tackle 2022. Finally, thank you, School PR leaders, for all you’re doing! I’ve never been prouder to work with this collective of trusted advisors. You are indeed my heroes. Most of all, you have done so with a level of empathy and humility that is truly inspiring.

Essential Soft Skills for the Modern PR Professional

How can new public relations professionals accelerate their careers?

To accelerate their careers, new public relations professionals must proactively offer solutions to leadership, maintain a real-time ledger of quantitative results, and explicitly prioritize their mental and physical well-being by proactively scheduling paid time off.

At ICON, I had the opportunity to lead a discussion on the “New PR Professional Soft Skills Guide.” It’s a presentation I recently developed after spending the last two years reflecting on my career journey before launching Chasing the Sun. Here are a few quick takeaways from the session.

- Keep an active resume of accomplishments. It’s easier to update your resume and LinkedIn profile in real-time, not just when you’re looking for a new job.

- How? Schedule one hour every month to write down all your accomplishments. Focus on writing your accomplishments using a Situation, Action, Result approach that shows quantitative impact (when applicable).

- You’re hired to help solve problems. Lean in and offer solutions proactively by showing your critical thinking skills.

- How? Instead of saying to your manager, “I need your help. I don’t know what to do,” say, “I’d love your thoughts before I go forward with solving this problem. I think we need to solve it by doing XYZ. Do you agree?”

- Volunteer on a board of directors for a non-profit, allowing you to gain insights into running businesses.

- How? Start with a topic you’re passionate about, and identify local organizations that align with those values. Reach out and ask how you can get involved!

- Prioritize your well-being.

- How? One quick way to do so is to schedule your time off proactively. I encourage my clients and workshop participants to take at least one week off every six months, an extended weekend every quarter, and a day or half-day off every month.

My final piece of advice: one of the endless benefits of joining PRSA is the opportunity to learn from each other. Ask any member for advice for starting your career, and you will hear endless examples of valuable thoughts to take with you on your journey!

Strategic Career Well-Being: A Leader's Guide to Retention

How can leaders proactively protect their team's career well-being?

Most corporate hiring surges happen early in the year, leaving unprepared teams with massive talent gaps. To protect team well-being and retain top performers, executives must conduct dedicated, bi-annual 1:1 career mapping sessions and learn to celebrate departing employees with grace rather than resentment.

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s the season for football, pumpkin spice lattes, and…team planning!

As business leaders, we take pride in the people and teams we manage. Their success is our success and gives us the confidence to continue to evolve.

And after the holidays wrap up, a lot of decisions will be made by members of your team as they’ll be designing their personal and professional plans for the year. According to Indeed, “Companies tend to hire most in January and February.” Your team members might already be thinking about a move away from your company, leaving you with gaps to immediately fill.

Therefore, as you prepare for a busy holiday season, this is an opportunity to make sure you’re thinking about the career wellbeing of your team members.

Here’s how.

Talk with your team members about their role. When I ran agency account teams, I made time to talk to my teams often about their current role, what they are interested in doing, and how that mapped to the goals of the agency. Based on their feedback we did what we could to make sure their career trajectory was a fit for the client and the firm. As a result, that meant shuffling around responsibilities, creating brand-new roles, or finding opportunities for team members to work on other account teams. More than anything, the team members appreciated that their careers were being thought about first.

Recommendation: host 30-60 minute conversations with your team members every six months specifically focused on their role and how it ladders up to their career ambitions. Listen to what they are saying.

Be proactive about the future work environment. We know the evolving landscape of the work environment in this new era will continue to be a challenge. This can cause stress and anxiety for your team. Recently, I led a workshop for a public relations firm that wants to ensure its employees can work in person safely as part of a hybrid solution. We had a positive and transparent discussion with all agency employees centered around the specific benefits of working at home and in the office for both the employee, the client, and the organization.

Recommendation: if you haven’t already, discuss your expectations with your team. This is a topic I covered back in the March issue on designing your team charter.

Learn to let it go with grace; it’s essential for your wellbeing. A lot of us take our employees’ leaving very personally. We can question ourselves, which can cause an impact on our confidence. I want us always to take a step back, evaluate the situation, and examine our role. Often, we forget the positive impact we had on our team to set them up for success to secure that new role. The other thing we always need to keep in mind is that the employee you used to manage could become a future partner, client, or boss! Your employees will remember how you respond to them leaving.

Recommendation: when a team member is moving on, make sure to end this chapter of your professional relationship on a high note. Celebrate them and thank them for their partnership.

Designing Corporate Wellness Challenges with Long-Term ROI

How can corporate wellness challenges drive long-term business impact?

Traditional, short-term corporate wellness challenges fail because they lack executive participation and long-term strategic vision. To generate lasting ROI, leaders must actively participate alongside junior staff, ensure absolute inclusivity for all physical abilities, and directly tie the challenge to the utilization of underused mental health and PTO benefits.

The premise behind corporate wellness challenges offers good intentions. Challenges promote a sense of mental and physical wellbeing that can solicit a sense of community across a team or organization. From a strategic standpoint, challenges help employees feel healthier, making them more productive and ultimately helping businesses achieve their business objectives. Tactics include inviting yoga instructors to host sessions, downloading mobile fitness applications, ticking off boxes on bingo cards, and taking cues from giant colorful wall posters.

Beyond health benefits, incentives to participate include everything from money and gift cards to time off to praise and support from employees.

However, the problem with short-term wellness challenges is that while intentions are good, they are typically incomplete and don’t address long-term impact.

If you’re creating a wellness challenge or working to communicate one to your employees, here is what to consider to extend its value.

Leaders: lean in. Junior- and mid-level employees look at every move that senior leaders make in companies. That includes how much they participate in what some might consider auxiliary or non-essential activities like wellness challenges. Challenges require participation and support from all levels in an organization. As an agency executive, I took it upon myself to participate in wellness activities. I wanted to show junior staff that executives are making their mental and physical wellbeing a priority.

Recently, I had the opportunity to lead an agency-wide wellness program. It was a six-week course, which included workshops and weekly videos. The agency even created a specific Chasing the Sun Slack channel. This agency has reported less employee turnover, and business revenue has increased. But it all happened in large part because the entire agency leadership participated, and the agency owner committed to her entire staff that they were making impactful changes to meeting frequency and work on Fridays.

Recommendation: ensure you have the backing, support, and commitment of senior leadership participation before starting a new challenge.

Are you inclusive? Despite their potential benefits, “wellness” doesn’t always mean eating healthy snacks and doing planks. Being inclusive of all employees is essential to hosting a successful challenge. Design challenges in a way that enables all employees to participate no matter their condition or circumstances. One example: are you creating bingo cards for employees? If so, consider including mental wellbeing tasks, including sending someone a thank you card or volunteering your time for a local charity. Giving time and appreciating others not only helps others but ultimately makes us feel better ourselves.

Recommendation: include your diversity and inclusion team in the discussion to ensure all perspectives are represented in the challenges.

Use challenges as a springboard for long-term change. By themselves, wellness challenges will have minimal impact. However, partnering with your Human Resources (HR) team can be a powerful opportunity to ensure a positive long-term business impact. HR leaders in your company are always looking for ways to effectively promote the existing benefits already offered by your company.

One example is to address paid time off. Recently, I spoke at a conference for School PR leaders. I asked attendees if they had scheduled time off for the upcoming year. More than 2/3 of the respondents said they did not have time scheduled! This allowed me to help empower them to identify time to prepare for their next vacation. In addition, challenges are the perfect opportunity to remind employees of how to use paid time off appropriately and sick time in your organization.

Recommendation: connect with your HR leaders on informing your teams of the benefits that your company provides.

Bonus tip: what’s happening on day 32? Wellness challenges, by design, are time-driven. Then what? Like any good public relations professional, plan for what’s on day eight or 32 of your challenge? Have the next steps in mind before you launch your challenge. Is this a beta test? Meet with decision-makers right away to determine the following steps to evolve your program.

Should you continue to host wellness challenges? Yes, however, keep in mind the opportunities to make that plank competition contribute to something even more important than healthy abs!