I’ve never been prouder to be independent, but we need the support of ‘big business’

I’ve been running an independent agency for over twenty years, and I’ve never felt so fortunate to be in charge of my own destiny and the people that work for me. Rather than shareholders telling me what I have to do, I know in these unprecedented times, I can do what’s right. I’m attune to my social and corporate responsibilities and I’ve already seen numerous other independent agency owners across all disciplines from PR to creative doing the same.

I hope by talking about some of our initiatives we can all share ideas to protect the people of this country. But when we’re doing all we can without big behemoths behind us surely, we should command and see the same behaviour from the brands we work with?

As a sector, industry and business which is all about its people, the commercial focus for us is ’not for profit’ and any revenue we are able to generate is for the sole purpose of keeping staff employed, paid and proud to call us their employer. From large and small independent agencies across the UK I’m hearing similar and heart felt messages to employees ‘we’re in this together’.

It’s our responsibility to help our team to readjust to new working conditions and as an example, we have twice daily email communications to all 250+ staff. One formal email that gives health and safety guidelines, helps staff understanding the operational constraints of the business and details what’s available to them to personally support them including our counselling hot lines.

And then there’s an informal email communication that adopts a light hearted approach to keep morale and spirits up. This includes for example physical exercise tutorials from Pod Fitness London, which I’d highly recommend as it’s designed for all ages and can be done in any space, practical guides about what produce you can freeze and store, to virtual museum tours available on line so you can visit to help broaden your cultural outlook while sat in the same chair.

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