PwC, a top place for creatives, too? Yes, really

To borrow a line from the Talking Heads, you may ask yourself, how did PwC get here--to the seventh spot on Ad Age’s top places to work list?  

PwC certainly sticks out on a list of more familiar creative names. But, it doesn’t surprise me to see our team there at Number 7 on the list. The steps we’ve taken offer a glimpse into how to take any workplace (let alone a 164-year-old company) and turn it into a place people find exciting, meaningful and fulfilling--group by group across the firm, be it in audit, consulting, assurance or in our Experience Centers where years ago we were presented with an opportunity: attract the best creative talent and build an organization that allowed them to thrive… inside a Big Four firm. They said it couldn’t be done--that everyone would be worse off, no matter what we did. “They” were wrong.

So how’d we do it? Many companies have good benefits and as a company PwC lives its be well, work well values . We’ve got flexibility and some really thoughtful perks. But we know that isn’t enough to attract and retain the best talent.

It’s all about culture (shocking, right?)

Ad Age measured employee satisfaction in six key areas: employee benefits, company culture, employee development, company environment, employee engagement and employee perks. “Company culture and environment [were] most likely to be associated with high workplace ratings,” they found.

PwC has been working across the firm to create a culture where all kinds of talent can thrive. Last year, we brought together all our U.S. staff and reflected on what got us here and what mattered most to our talent and leadership. We realized it wasn’t just that we sell experience services, but our core was the experience of everything. How we partner, how we treat each other, how we deliver, … was the basis for our happiness and it was time for a reset by making our #1 priority. We knew if we got our culture right, our work would be stronger and revenue will follow and we all would want to show up in the morning. And we have leaders who are 100% focused on the success of the group. These leaders also understand how to combine their best work and talents with others at the firm to address business challenges using the right business experience solutions and the right technology.

Empowering the ranks

Leading a group of people, driving business, it takes an all-in focus on that culture. Across the firm, we find ways to nurture people who might not fit a traditional mold, but who have the know how to collaborate with anyone.

Employee experience is the lifeblood of any digital organization--or any company for that matter--and leads to better outcomes for customers and clients. The Ad Age research found that “leaders of top-scoring companies make a conscious effort to empower employees to speak up, ask questions and propose ideas. Investments in employee empowerment and development pay dividends in the form of longer and better working relationships with clients.”

But, it takes constant navel-gazing. One way we do that for creative-types is through a staff council made up of associates and managers. It’s our barometer and funded has the authority to take action. The council keeps and checks the pulse of what’s going on with creatives in our 35 global creative teams--and that job is growing along with our headcount in our Experience Centers, with a new one just opening in Dallas and another launching soon in New York City.

This level of empowerment of more junior employees allows us to get deeper into the challenges we might be having so we can proactively solve them. It doesn’t end there. We bring this thinking and way of work into what we do every day, not just now and then. It doesn’t just drive innovation and keep people involved,  it is also is a way we build a sense of family and openness that avoids some of the traps of a typical workplace and creates an environment that drives to our purpose.

Operationalizing creative paths

Aspiring to be a trusted digital transformation partner isn’t enough. We threw out our agency and consulting playbooks and operationalized our future. Culture, experience, empowerment are crucial, but they’d fall flat without a plan in place to make an organization people can see themselves growing with. So, we’ve reimagined how we operated and have made significant changes to allow people to have a career path that’s in-line with their passion and where they want to go.

More than just changing our titles or our teaming models, we qualified the type of work and the way we do it, how we map talent to the right mentor, what metrics really matter and even when it does--and doesn’t--make sense to travel. We've committed to meeting the wants and needs of our people.  

We believe in and are well on our way to accomplishing what some said was an impossible mission: to unify agency and consultancy and become what’s next. Between our leadership across the firm, staff council for creatives and amazing talent, we are all keeping our eyes on what is important and continually perfecting it, to build a culture that fits the people we want to attract and retain.

So, yes, this is our story.  It is purposeful, reflective and the way we operate and work each day. Agency life in a Big Four is not the same as it ever was--not here. We know that the experience is everything and our purpose is to make a difference in PwC, with our clients and our talent.