It’s not uncommon for teams across the country to connect on projects, pitches and pro-bono work, bringing together unique perspectives and experiences from their respective markets to impact the work we create for clients. We host mini “hackathons” which serve as marathon brainstorm-through-conception sessions, open to all – not just creatives – which give our people a chance to stretch beyond their day-to-day work. On a more personal level, we often hold fireside chat and untownhall spaces, during which folks can open up and share/collaborate on a variety of topics – from work-related conversations, to discussions surrounding our social, cultural and political climate.
From a business perspective, RAPP continues to grow steadily year over year – meaning we’ve got the opportunity to expand our disciplines and hire best-in-class talent. From a people perspective, RAPP fully leans in to supporting the elevation of our talent, creating opportunities for them grow including conference attendance, bespoke courses, coaching, sponsorship and mentorship and, most recently, mapping career pathways that may take them outside of RAPP, within the Omnicom family, if there’s an opening that’s most aligned with their future vision. We’re transparent about our gaps and progress on both fronts, and report on this information on bi-monthly basis.
We pride ourselves on ensuring that everyone feels safe and comfortable in showing up authentically – because that’s how we create the best work and impact the most change for the brands we serve – and, at our core, we understand the importance of continuing to listen to our employees. We conduct transparent annual engagement surveys, enabling HR to have deep-dive conversations with talent, so that we can action against specific feedback. RAPP’s culture is centered around frequent feedback and coaching – leaders are required to have ongoing conversations with their employees and provide individually-focused development plans. Beyond surveying, we amplify the voices of our talent through events like bi-weekly town halls focused on bringing community together to share business and culture updates, creating space for a wide variety of people to present and be recognized by their colleagues.
We train our managers to have regular discussions with employees about their goals and have implemented systems to support this process. This is in addition to a formal tuition reimbursement program, company sponsored trainings, Omnicom University access, and opportunity to attend industry specific events, such as CES, AdColor, and 3% Conference. RAPP also provides a quarterly newsletter, RAPP Learn, that showcases various learning opportunities that are available to employees.
We celebrate and honor the individual in everything we do – which is reflected both internally, through the ways in which we support our people and evolve our culture, as well as externally, through the ways in which we create meaningful experiences for clients and through the organizations with which we partner. We understand that both of these facets of our business are inextricably linked – the success of one directly impacts the success of the other. We’re passionate about nurturing our people and helping them grow into their best professional selves, and accept nothing less than an open, welcoming, inclusive environment.
We truly believe that balance goes a long way in keeping our talent happy. We enable breathing room by instituting restrictions around meetings, such as specific days with meeting breaks. We support a “work where you work best” philosophy, helping employees navigate working how and where is best for them. RAPP gives time off for activism and Election Day and, last year, piloted a “lite August,” where we asked team leads to cut internal meetings and limit emails, to help address overscheduling and burnout. We carefully watch employees’ utilization levels and re-balance work when teams are too high or low. And leadership has an open-door policy, so folks know they can reach out when something isn’t working or needs to be tweaked.
Marco Scognamiglio, our CEO is an open, transparent, authentic people leader. He acknowledges when he’s mis-stepped, always asks questions, and connects with everyone – at every level – so that he can learn more and lean into the culture of the business. He leads from the top but doesn’t sit at the top. He makes everyone feel welcomed, heard and appreciated and genuinely cares about the well-being of RAPP’s people. He’s fiercely individual because he cares at the individual level.
We believe in celebrating our people regularly – highlighting not only major milestones but also everyday employee touchpoints. They’re all a unique part of the journey with equal importance. Over the last year, we’ve implemented a new reward and recognition program which allows for spot bonuses whereby team members are able to nominate other members of their team on successes every month and we send them a gift card to reward their success. This has created an even greater sense of community and shown our team that good work doesn’t go unnoticed. And, as a longstanding practice, employees receive a wellness-related or monetary gift to acknowledge birthdays and milestone company anniversaries.
RAPP is a global, data-driven creative community that builds direct, meaningful and high-value relationships between brands and people. At RAPP, with our unrivaled depth of expertise in first-party data, we’ve been observing and cataloguing real people’s lives for 50 years. In today’s world the balance of power has shifted, and customers are in control, which is why we put people and their preferences at the heart of the brand experience. With a talent base of more than 1,600 fierce individuals in 17 global offices, we help brands grow the value of real people by standing up for individuality, understanding what really matters and creating experiences that are right for real people, with real needs, in real time, creating marketing that matters. Our expertise in data and marketing sciences allows us to deliver our clients actionable human insight – an incredible understanding of genuine motivations, observed transactions and actual interactions. RAPP is proud to actively foster an inclusive workplace where diversity and individual differences are valued and leveraged to achieve our vision.
220 East 42nd Street
New York, NY
Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations
Marco Scognamiglio
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Pride TV Summit_RAPP Award Reel.mp4 from RAPP Worldwide on Vimeo.
