A Necessary Pivot: Najla Barance, Ely Kim, + Alexis de Seve, Stink Studios
Pictured left to right: Najla Barance, Ely Kim, Alexis de Seve
We spoke with Stink Studios team, Najla Barance, Head of People, Ely Kim, Group Creative Director, and Alexis de Seve, Director of Client Services, on the future of work: inclusive leadership, employee engagement and feedback, and setting aside dedicated time away from meetings.
Over the past year, work environments have had to change drastically. How has your agency taken employee feedback, coupled with what’s appropriate for the company to create a work plan going forward?
NB: Stink Studios cares deeply about its employees, and we believe our people are at the center of everything we do. Therefore, when employees share feedback, we react quickly and aim to integrate their feedback in the most impactful way possible. There is a multitude of things we have done to incorporate employee feedback into our day-to-day.
Our top measures include hiring a new layer of diverse leadership into Stink Studios, hosting our annual offsite, followed by opportunities to meet together during non-working hours, no meetings Friday policy, a commitment to a hybrid work model, and launching our first-ever robust engagement survey. By introducing a new layer of leaders from various backgrounds, we have leaned into an alternative approach to how we work. By committing to our annual offsite and continued moments together, we understand the value of in-person interactions and how staff needs to be together now and then. In pushing a no meetings Friday policy, we want to create a dedicated block of time in the week where staff can genuinely get in the zone; Fridays have been a great moment to focus or engage in casual conversation with colleagues. We trust our people, and in the hybrid model, we continue to promote the optionality of working in person, working from your home base, or elsewhere.
Lastly, our annual engagement survey responses are crucial to how we iterate our operations successfully going forward. We are proud of how we have navigated employee feedback thus far, and we are excited to continue to create an environment where staff feels they can be the best versions of themselves.
How has the changing work landscape affected the way pitches and campaign briefs are approached and conceptualized?
EK: A challenge that has emerged through remote working is the lack of a physical “mission control” to work on a pitch. That creative space with all the research, strategy and inspiration pinned around you, where you might run into another teammate and have an unscheduled discussion. It is important to keep remote teams engaged and inspired, and most of all open to unexpected moments of collaboration.
In what ways has this impacted the work-life balance of your employees and what steps have been taken to mitigate that?
NB: By creating moments for staff to meet together every so often, implementing initiatives to gauge how the team is feeling, or implementing a no meetings Friday policy, we directly positively impact work-life balance. The various initiatives and policy revisions we introduced are in light of a response from our people needing something to change. We want our people to share their experiences and voice what we can continue to do differently to support them. That will always be a core aspect of our business as we manage and mitigate work-life balance at Stink Studios.
Given that each work environment can look a bit differently, what has helped in creating a cohesive working relationship with clients?
AS: The key to any client relationship is ensuring you have the face time to really get to know your partners beyond formal creative presentations or meetings. It's being able to see and talk to them to get to know their personality, communications style and make space to learn new things you may not get out of an email. Taking the time for video chats and calls in this remote work environment have been helpful to create a cohesive working relationship beyond the influx of slacks and emails we're all inundated with.
What changes that have been made over the past year do you see sticking around for years to come?
AS: I think, and hope, the prioritization of face-to-face conversations (whether virtual or live) will stick around knowing how important it is to make those interpersonal connections. Over the past year we've all sent countless emails, texts, slacks and messages, so carving out time for live conversations are more meaningful.