Our People Agenda

Our People Agenda is simple, it’s: “Help me be the best me.” 

Lots of employers will include in their People Agenda things such as attract the best talent, be an employer of choice or their engagement strategy. Silverbean is part of the N21 Group, and for us, this is about people bringing themselves to work and for us as an employer to give them the support and tools they need to be themselves. 

When we are ourselves we do our best work. We’re more productive, happier, engaged and fulfilled with life. It’s easy to see why helping our people be themselves has such a positive impact on their working life.

The Six Human Needs

As humans, research shows we have six basic needs: Connection, Contribution, Significance, Certainty, Growth and Variety. We each normally have a predominant two. When we satisfy these six needs, people generally have a happy, fulfilled life. That’s why our People Agenda focuses on these six human needs and how, what we do as a business impacts on these.

If you’re curious as to what your own two predominant needs might be, here’s some insight:

How to tell if certainty is one of your core needs:

You are trustworthy and always do what you say you’ll do. You enjoy planning, thrive on a schedule and are very organised. You might be hesitant to take risks and have new experiences.

How to tell if variety is one of your core needs:

You will generally be outgoing and like meeting new people. You’re likely always willing to do something new and have many interests. You can also potentially be unfocused and lack strong planning skills.

How to tell if significance is one of your core needs:

You’re probably highly driven to be successful and love setting and delivering outcomes. You’re committed to a cause – or several causes. Others will likely tell you that you stand out. You can be competitive and a perfectionistic.

How to tell if connection is one of your core needs:

Loyalty and generosity with those you care for will likely be top values. You will probably have strong social ties and find it hard to say “no.”

How to tell if growth is one of your core needs:

You’re probably always pushing boundaries, both your own and those set for you by others and by society. You’re likely to be independent and are not attached to material things.

How to tell if contribution is one of your core needs:

You’re probably an extremely empathetic and compassionate person. You enjoy giving back and sharing what you have. You will likely want to leave a legacy or something behind. Yet you may burn out easily or be taken advantage of by others.

Find out more about each human need and what we do to help our people meet these needs below:

Starting a role with us

From the moment an employee accepts an offer with us they are given access to our brilliant onboarding platform, where they can start to understand more about our people, our culture and our people policies. 

Everyone, on starting with the business, is given an individual onboarding plan tailored to their role and the people that they need to meet. Everyone meets our CEO and COO in person or virtually as part of their onboarding plan. Everyone also attends our We Are N21 induction, where not only do they find out about the business, they find out more about themselves and how they show up through their own individual Clarity4D profile. 

They also have access to everyone in the business’s Clarity4D profiles so they understand their colleagues and how to get the best from them.

What some of our people said about starting a role with us…

Regular Communication

We have regular company all hands meetings, where our CEO gives everyone an update on how the business is doing and what feedback our people have given as part of our quarterly Have Your Say feedback survey. Our people have the option to attend in person and have a free agency lunch with people in the office or attend virtually. 

We also make sure we send out a weekly communication to everyone, in the weekly communication everyone is given an update on what’s going on in the business, celebrating client wins and people successes.

Being Certain on Performance

Every person receives a clear job description and competencies they need to demonstrate for their role and any role they are striving for. This helps our people to be certain on what they need to do both now and in any future roles. 

Following their probationary period, every person also has a development plan to show them how to develop their role or competencies for the next role ahead. There is such a focus on having these in place that our CEO and COO make sure in their monthly meetings with the team that these are completed.

Our Performance Framework

 

Every person has a monthly one to one based on our ‘two lengths, five keys’ principle with their manager. In these sessions, they focus 20% on what they’ve achieved in the month past, and 80% on what they are going to do the following month. Where our people can realise their potential is what they are going to do next. 

Everyone has a mid year and end of year review. We also undertake salary reviews twice a year in February and August, reviewing staff salaries against our transparent salary framework.

Supporting Our People

It’s important that we create an an inclusive, welcoming environment for staff from all backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual identities and more. We’re committed to fostering an environment where all of our people can be themselves. We’re working hard to improve our diversity stats including:

• Volunteering in our local communities
• Diversity/inclusivity group representing employees of different genders, races, disabilities, sexualities, religion
• Wellbeing group
• Silverbean Foundation

The marketing industry has not been diverse, which we know we’ve been party to. It’s time to change that. These are the actions we’re committing to taking to ensure Silverbean, Ortus and North support all our staff and represent the communities and cultures around us.

Making a Mark

#100 Days to Make a Difference

Our mission is to be world famous for making a difference. As part of our commitment, our people use their time and expertise to support and further causes outside of our agency world. To achieve this, we give 100 agency days each year for employees to support any charitable organisation. We’ve worked with charities such as Family Gateway, Classrooms for Malawi, the Girls Network and many other charities.

Creating Learning Experiences

We partner with local schools, colleges and universities, bringing students into our workplace to understand more about what we do, build the student skills and help them into the world of work.

Going Eco Friendly

To date, we have planted 4701 trees in Mozambique, Madagascar and Bosawas. We’ve offset 344.4 tonnes of Co2e, which we’ve done through projects such as protecting rainforests in Peru, offshore wind factories in India, cleaner cookstoves in Zambia and Ghana as well as many other projects.