Early this year I placed an ad for an account manager, stipulating they should be London based, to work from our office there.
And then Laura C got in touch. I’ve known Laura for quite a while and have always thought very highly of her – and know that colleagues and media think the same. But she’s not based in London and has no plans to be. She’s in Edinburgh!
I thought about it and had to question as to why I wanted someone in London – and then decided it was a silly idea and hired her – and she’s fantastic.
Katherine and I have known each other for a zillion years and always loved working alongside each other so when the opportunity came to work collaboratively on projects, we both jumped at the chance. It’s not very conventional (but that is our strength!) – we both have our own agencies – so sometimes Katherine works for me, sometimes she hires SLBPR and then we also come as a package – pulling together over 30 years of retail expertise, events organisation, strategic comms, social media management and creative thinking skills and experience to deliver for a client or project.
I worked with LJ (Laura-Jane) in hair & beauty a few years ago and stayed in touch when she left. I thought she was working for another company until a random LinkedIn post highlighted her freelance status, I grabbed the chance to offer her the role of social media manager. Lucky for us she said yes! Thank you, LinkedIn!
Now Victoria has joined the team, on the days when she’s not working for Variety, the Children’s Charity, and we have a pool of creative freelancers so we can always recruit the best people for our clients’ campaigns.
I’m not going to talk about the flexibility around childcare and work because quite frankly no one ever asks a man about that and so why should my female staff have to justify that they can be both successful in their work and be a parent.
Whatever our home/life status we all need flexibility, and we all work differently. At SLBPR we tend to follow a loosely traditional working week, but we often set our own hours. I’ve never been a fan of a pen-pushing culture where people compete to be first in/last out but without producing any better results than someone who works part-time.
I often send emails/messages late at night – usually on that train back from London but don’t expect a reply until that person is next working. Katherine often sends emails at 6am – sometimes I shock her by replying immediately! We know when to be present, and we are – whatever time or day. Mr Johnson had a habit of making important announcements at 5pm on a Friday evening during the height of the pandemic – which meant those of us on the NHBF crisis comms team had to spend the weekend juggling life as we dealt with the impact of what was said. My husband had to explain to his Mum that I really did have to leave a family Zoom because it was THAT Cabinet Office (press team) who had called me – it wasn’t the name of a bar or salon!
As an employer for me the focus is the best person for the role and someone I, and everyone else, want on our team. People who inspire us, bring different skills and experience, have great ideas, who we can rely on, and support, to get the job done. Plus, the obvious great sense of humour and not being a dick.
Location is no longer as important as it once was but I would like someone in Birmingham – if you know anyone!