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Social

Within social impacts, we consider our policies and outputs in respect of our employees and our community relations.

Employee engagement
As a group, we aim to foster a culture of wellbeing and passion for improvement among every one of our employees. To develop our policies and practice in this area we conducted the first employee opinion surveys at Aegis Media and among head office staff and the fifth annual survey at Synovate in 2007 to measure overall engagement and views in a wide variety of employee and business-related areas. Participation was 5,036 at Aegis Media and 4,490 at Synovate, an average response rate of 64% and 82% respectively.

The results of the surveys show a relatively high level of employee engagement in each of the groups with an overall engagement index of 72% at Aegis Media and 63% at Synovate. Within this, 91% of Aegis Media and 86% of Synovate respondents said they would be “willing to go the extra mile to delight a client”: a reflection of a very strong commitment to client service throughout Aegis. At Aegis Media, 80% of respondents also told us that it is important to them that we “behave in an environmentally responsible manner”, and 75% “in a socially responsible manner”.

A key area of focus resulting from the surveys is attraction and retention of our employees. Employee satisfaction, and reducing employee turnover over the medium term, is a high priority for us. A number of the initiatives described below are designed with this in mind and we are actively working on others. We consider the scores that our employees give us on attraction and retention to be a good measure of our success in this area and we will look to improve our rating in this area by five percentage points by the end of 2009.

Succession planning
Succession planning remains a focus across the Group. In 2007 our annual succession planning exercise covered 180 key roles, for which we detailed a total of 238 individuals, including personal career development. This was reviewed in its entirety by the Board. Since then we have put in place a number of succession planning initiatives, including talent pipeline evaluation and tailored personal development plans. In 2008 we will extend this exercise to 200 business leaders, and the population covered will be expanded accordingly.

Training and development
We require a high level of skills from many of our people, against a backdrop of considerable change and innovation in our business. In 2007 we developed a new Aegis-wide leadership programme as a three-level robust leadership development programme, covering strategy and behaviours, to be run globally across both Aegis Media and Synovate in 2008. The new model draws on the findings of 100 interviews across the Group to identify current behavioural values.

At Aegis Media, many of our people initiatives run at a local and regional level. These include the Farfar academy, launched in 2007 by our Swedish digital agency of the same name in partnership with the Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm. The academy, aimed at finding, retaining and training the future stars of the agency world, runs a two-year course in digital media, creative and planning with much of the tuition provided by Farfar. All second-year students have at least two different paid placements across the Isobar network globally, with the aim of placing each in a permanent role at the end of the year.

In Aegis Media Germany, over 1,300 participants passed through the doors of its Aegis Media Academy, which ran more than 135 specially designed training programmes for employees using both external coaches and 50 internal specialists as trainers.

In the US we have initiated reciprocal talent share partnerships with Harvard University and MIT. At Velocity, we have launched a programme of ‘Gen Y training’, helping ‘Generation X’ managers to manage to the demands of ‘Generation Y’ employees and the potential generational clash of digital natives with digital immigrants. We are also participating in the World Economic Forum’s female reverse monitoring programme, in which a relatively junior female employee mentors a CEO-level male employee on issues facing women in the workplace.

In Synovate we launched a number of business-wide initiatives. These include a new performance management process: simplifying performance ratings and linking company, team and individual goals directly to remuneration. In 2008 we will support this with a Synovate-wide e-learning management platform. We published the first dedicated guide to all Synovate training programmes and introduced a new personal attributes yardstick – a practical tool to help managers improve the performance of their direct reports. We completed a Synovate-wide career mapping exercise, giving clear responsibility, knowledge and experience benchmarks for each role, with a series of tools to help employees plan their career direction.

2007 also saw the European pilot of the first integrated year-long Synovate graduate training scheme, accredited by the Market Research Association. The first intake participated in an intensive introduction to market research, held in Bulgaria, and followed by three ‘schools’: on qualitative and quantitative methodologies, specialisms in market research and client skills. In 2008, the scheme will be rolled out in Asia-Pacific and North America.

HR policies
In 2007 we developed a new HR policy for the group, endorsed by the Board. This is one of a series of governance policies implemented by Aegis to ensure our employees act responsibly at all times as part of our published group Principles and Policies. Our HR policy includes policies on human rights, diversity, disability and wellbeing.

We are committed to treating each employee and applicant fairly and equitably. We base employment decisions on merit, experience and potential, without regard to race, colour, national origin, sex, marital status, age, religion, disability or sexual orientiation. We are committed to following the applicable labour and employment laws wherever we operate.

We believe that disabled people have the same rights as non-disabled to become and continue as our employees. Wherever possible we provide the same opportunities for disabled people as for others. If employees become disabled we make every effort to keep them in our employment, with appropriate training where necessary.

Our work-life balance and wellbeing policies offer practical help, recognising that commitments outside of work, including domestic, family and other commitments, need to be fairly balanced with the fulfilment of professional responsibilities. We were proud that Vizeum UK and Feather Brooksbank were both included in The Sunday Times’ ‘Best 100 Small Companies to Work For’ in both 2007 and 2008, and that we renewed our Investors in People accreditation at Posterscope UK in 2007.

Employee consultation
We have appropriate employee consultation processes throughout our business, in accordance with local laws. In addition, we update all our employees on a regular basis with Group developments and progress, through newsletters, internal publications, senior management notes and face-to-face meetings.

People metrics
We have appropriate employee consultation processes throughout our business, in accordance with local laws. In addition, we update all our employees on a regular basis with Group developments and progress, through newsletters, internal publications, senior management notes and face-to-face meetings.

People metrics
Underpinning our people initiatives is the installation of a Group-wide HR management information system which will bring improvements in data quality and speed. In 2007 we selected a technology partner and built the technical infrastructure ahead of first installation this year: a significant project, involving a software roll-out and training. This will be completed in 26 geographies in 2008, including the majority of our largest businesses, with Group-wide completion in 2009. This will provide the future data backbone for our succession planning, performance management and talent management, as well as reliable people metrics across the Group.

Our aim is to better optimise our return on human capital while being a good employer and giving our people the opportunities they deserve. We are currently developing a series of people metrics in the areas of strategic competencies, talent development and deployment, training, leadership, performance focus and behaviours and competencies. In the course of 2008 we will develop a series of externally benchmarked KPIs to assist with delivering our people strategy.

Community relations
We have always actively encouraged community engagement, and where appropriate we support employees in their charitable activities. In 2007 we made significant progress in community relations, particularly at Synovate. The CARES programme, established in the US in 2003 and initially run on a local basis, is now actively managed through a global committee. Formed at the end of 2006, this is sponsored by Synovate’s global HR director, who also sits on Synovate’s executive committee.

CARES is an employee-run initiative, aimed at encouraging work to support children’s charities, through fund-raising, donating time and in-kind support. During 2007, the global CARES committee has built local committees to support the activities in the individual Synovate offices, developed measures for assessing outcomes of activities and driven an increase in charitable activity within Synovate, resulting in a year-on-year increase of approximately 60% in the number of charities supported.

A total of 32 Synovate offices and over 2,600 people took part in about 70 CARES projects during the year. Through CARES we raised a further £0.1 million, and made donations in kind worth £0.1 million in 2007. In 2008 we intend to take the learnings from CARES and expand to the activities of Aegis Media.

The majority of community initiatives at Aegis Media were operated on a local basis in the year and are too numerous to detail individually. They included Vizeum France’s support for Solidarités – a charity committed to fighting waterborne diseases – with over €305;600,000 of free advertising space in broadcast and out-of-home media. Aegis Media Germany supported eight godchildren, both financially and through mentoring, through its Carat Kinder und Jugendhilfe programme, established in 1999. In the US, Carat Cares achieved record fundraising results in 2007. In the UK, Carat remains the only media agency to be a member of Business in the Community, with 2007 charitable projects including pro bono strategy consultancy and media planning for the Breast Cancer Campaign. Aegis Media UK‘s programmes also include a reading scheme for the Gateway School and payroll and time giving for Time & Talents Westminster.

Excluding all fund-raising by employees, we made charitable donations as a Group of a further £0.2 million (2006: £0.3 million) in 2007. As a Group, we do not make political donations.

Our targets

  • Employee engagement: action plans to address issues raised at both Aegis Media and Synovate; development of employee turnover reduction plan for 2010 during 2008; five percentage point improvement in attraction and retention scores by end 2009;
  • Training and development: inclusion of CSR principles and workshops in leadership training programme; development of CSR initiatives and knowledge sharing tools across key regions in both Aegis Media and Synovate by end of 2008, to allow for best practice sharing;
  • Succession planning: expansion of senior succession planning population to 200 key roles in 2008;
  • HR policies: further refinement of HR objectives and policies during 2008 at local level, incorporating principles defined in central HR guidelines;
  • People metrics: installation of HR MIS in most major markets by end of 2008; development of Group-wide KPIs by end of 2008;
  • Community relations: continuation of progress with CARES in Synovate, with a further increase of charitable activities; expansion of CARES into Aegis Media’s key markets by end of 2008; capture of impact of initiatives and key measurements consistently across the Group.