Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020

Best Places to Work 2020 By Bradley Johnson. Illustrations by Yiffy Gu.Published on January 13, 2020 Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020 honors 50 companies that have figured out what works. The winning workplaces—25 companies with 200 or fewer employees and 25 companies with more than 200 employees—reflect the highest overall numerical scores based on an analysis of questionnaires submitted by employers and survey responses from thousands of their employees. Ad Age’s scoring system includes six key satisfaction areas: employee benefits, company culture, company environment, employee perks, employee development and employee engagement. The scoring system factors in the importance of those six key satisfaction areas, an aggregate of each company’s ratings in those key areas and a collective workplace rating to arrive at an overall score. For the second year, we produced Ad Age Best Places to Work in partnership with Latitude Research, a market research firm. Ad agencies and digital agencies accounted for a majority of entries in this year’s survey, with other agency disciplines, ad tech and media ventures accounting for most of the remaining entries. Among key takeaways... Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020 honors 50 companies that have figured out what works. The winning workplaces—25 companies with 200 or fewer employees and 25 companies with more than 200 employees—reflect the highest overall numerical scores based on an analysis of questionnaires submitted by employers and survey responses from thousands of their employees. Ad Age’s scoring system includes six key satisfaction areas: employee benefits, company culture, company environment, employee perks, employee development and employee engagement. The scoring system factors in the importance of those six key satisfaction areas, an aggregate of each company’s ratings in those key areas and a collective workplace rating to arrive at an overall score. For the second year, we produced Ad Age Best Places to Work in partnership with Latitude Research, a market research firm. Ad agencies and digital agencies accounted for a majority of entries in this year’s survey, with other agency disciplines, ad tech and media ventures accounting for most of the remaining entries. Among key takeaways: What’s most important to employees: Unsurprisingly, core employee benefits (fair pay, health insurance, paid time off) are must-haves. What most affects the workplace ratings: Employee benefits alone don’t translate to a high workplace rating. Instead, company culture and a supportive environment are most likely to be associated with high marks. Don’t overplay perks: Many employers offer a host of perks, such as providing free food or allocating space in the office for games and relaxation. But relative to other areas like employee development and engagement, perks matter less to employees. What distinguishes top performers: Companies that invest in their employees both at work and beyond the office yield big dividends. Offering unique extras will improve workplace scores—from family leave and learning stipends to mentorship programs and time off to give back to the community. The good news for employers is that most of the surveyed employees perceive their workplace positively and give their company high marks. Company size matters. Companies with more than 200 employees are slightly less likely to earn a top rating across key areas, but especially when it comes to company culture, environment and employee engagement. Employees at large companies are just as likely to enjoy their colleagues and feel their individual performance is strong. But they feel less valued and less excited about their career compared to employees at medium and smaller companies. Best practices In-depth interviews conducted by Latitude with top-ranked companies show how much thought, planning and work goes into building the foundation for a top ranking in Ad Age Best Places to Work. Top-ranked companies invest significant time and effort in creating, writing and sharing company culture and visions to foster an atmosphere of support and caring for their employees. The factors that most relate to high workplace ratings encompass feelings of support, encouragement, empowerment and purpose—areas where top-performing companies exceed expectations. Leaders of top-ranked companies make a conscious effort to provide support and benefits to empower their employees—both as workers and as human beings who have a life. Investments in employee empowerment and supportive services result in happier, more productive employees. Employees’ experiences at a top-rated company tend to be better across the board. Employees at top-performing companies feel differently about their relationships with their co-workers and management. They respect and have fun with their colleagues and feel there is opportunity for advancement. Core benefits matter, but are only part of the equation. Employees value basics—fair pay, health coverage and time off. These factors drive a high employee benefits rating, but alone they don’t necessarily drive a high workplace rating. Perks can add value but are not game changers. Companies tend to overdeliver on free food and happy hours but fall short on some other desirable extras, such as technology stipends. When all is said and done, employee perks have minimal impact on workplace ratings. Policies and benefits are essential tools for communicating caring and demonstrating supportive management and leadership. However, top-ranked organizations don’t focus on benefits and perks themselves, but on how the company can use benefits and perks to take care of employees and remove barriers that hinder growth and success both professionally and personally. Whether it’s parental leave, the ability to work remotely, unlimited vacation time, company retreats, free lunches or game rooms, everything is about signaling to the individual that the company wants the employee to succeed in work and out of work. In this case, there is a clear quid quo pro: We expect a lot from you. And you can expect a lot from us in return. That’s how the best places work. See what works: Check out Ad Age’s 2020 Best Places to Work Industry Report. To learn more and purchase that report, visit AdAge.com/bptwreports. Read More 201+ Employees No. 1: Tinuiti No. 2: Crossmedia No. 3: 3Q Digital No. 4: Healthline No. 5: Samsung Ads Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020: Top 25, 201+ employees Rank Company Business Top executive % senior leadership % employees Female Minority/ multicultural Female Minority/ multicultural Female Minority/ multicultural 1 Tinuiti Digital agency No No 47% 21% 60% 25% 2 Crossmedia Media agency No Yes 47 5 60 40 3 3Q Digital Digital agency No No 42 23 55 25 4 Healthline Media No No 50 3 64 28 5 Samsung Ads Ad tech No Yes 15 40 30 51 6 Klick Ad agency Yes No 38 10 52 38 7 Kepler Group Digital agency No No 37 5 50 32 8 Digitas Health Ad agency No No 57 7 61 11 9 Wpromote Digital agency No No 54 61 61 50 10 Bounteous Digital agency No No 38 10 36 20 11 Critical Mass Digital agency Yes No 47 23 48 30 12 Carmichael Lynch Ad agency No No 42 14 63 12 13 Firewood Marketing Digital agency Yes Yes 43 8 64 40 14 Horizon Media Media agency No No 60 12 65 22 15 PwC Digital Services Digital agency No No NA NA NA NA 16 Publicis Health Media Media agency Yes No 69 12 67 20 17 UM Media agency Yes No 51 43 65 31 18 Havas Health & You Ad agency Yes No 48 17 57 28 19 W2O Marketing and PR agency No No 71 36 73 43 20 Code and Theory Digital agency No No 46 0 49 32 21 Foursquare Ad tech No Yes 34 20 38 39 22 4C Ad tech No No 35 25 40 35 23 Wavemaker Media agency Yes No 59 30 63 42 24 VaynerMedia Ad agency No No 46 15 50 28 25 FCB Ad agency No No 59 24 60 30 Source: Ad Age and Latitude Research. Numbers rounded. Minority/multicultural: Hispanic or Latino, black or African-American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, two or more races, LGBTQ, persons with disabilities. Up to 200 employees No. 1: Artisan Media Group No. 2: Bakery No. 3: Jump 450 Media No. 4: LinkedIn Creative Studio No. 5: InfoTrust Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020: Top 25, up to 200 employees Rank Company Business Top executive % senior leadership % employees Female Minority/ multicultural Female Minority/ multicultural Female Minority/ multicultural 1 Artisan Media Group Ad agency No Yes 20% 100% 40% 100% 2 Bakery Ad agency No Yes 42 80 45 75 3 Jump 450 Media Ad agency No Yes 20 20 33 33 4 LinkedIn Creative Studio In-house agency No No 33 0 54 23 5 InfoTrust Ad tech No No 30 10 42 13 6 RocketBrand Ad agency No No 33 17 50 30 7 PulsePoint Ad tech No No 33 11 30 30 8 Tatari Ad tech No No 13 25 25 33 9 Elicit Marketing agency No No 42 25 48 15 10 Happy Cog Digital agency No No 10 25 34 22 11 PMG Digital agency No No 46 24 56 31 12 J Public Relations PR agency Yes No 100 10 75 30 13 Night After Night Ad agency No No 55 15 67 22 14 Marcus Thomas Ad agency No No 36 15 53 9 15 Good Apple Media agency No No 65 18 81 19 16 Stirista Ad tech No Yes 30 40 35 45 17 NinjaCat Ad tech No No 14 50 25 50 18 Digital Remedy Ad tech No No 25 0 42 29 19 Closed Loop Digital agency No No 25 0 56 24 20 Cogent Entertainment Marketing Event/experiential marketing agency No Yes 40 50 47 44 21 Hanapin Marketing Digital agency No No 35 8 60 16 22 MGH Marketing and PR agency No No 46 1 72 15 23 Scrum50 Digital agency No No 60 0 61 19 24 Path Interactive Digital agency No No 50 25 42 37 25 The Via Agency Ad agency Yes No 25 25 49 11 Source: Ad Age and Latitude Research. Numbers rounded. Minority/multicultural: Hispanic or Latino, black or African-American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, two or more races, LGBTQ, persons with disabilities. Show sidebar About Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020 Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020 is a ranking of workplaces that lead the pack in benefits, culture and other key factors. Winners reflect the highest overall numerical scores based on an analysis of questionnaires submitted by employers and survey responses from thousands of their employees. Companies wishing to participate submitted entries from June through September 2019. For the second year, we produced Ad Age Best Places to Work in partnership with Latitude Research, a market research firm. A summary of Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020 appears here and in the Jan. 13 print edition. Reprints are available through Laura Picariello at lpicariello@crain.com. Want to dig deeper? Check out Ad Age’s 2020 Best Places to Work Industry Report, which synthesizes key learnings from the DNA of top company leaders and their employees. To learn more and purchase that report, visit AdAge.com/bptwreports. Methodology Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020 rankings are based on results from two surveys—a company survey and an employee survey. Ad Age broke the rankings into two groups: top 25 companies with 200 or fewer employees, and top 25 companies with more than 200 employees. Employee size is based on what companies listed on the company survey for full-time employees in 2018. The company survey was designed to help Ad Age collect basic information about a company as well as additional detail to help us analyze what factors set apart those which rank highly as a best place to work. The employee survey was designed to get at what matters to employees in the workplace and how a company rates on the topics that staffers care about. Ad Age’s scoring system factors in the importance of six key satisfaction areas, an aggregate of each company’s ratings in those key areas and a collective workplace rating to arrive at an overall score. The six key satisfaction areas are employee benefits, company culture, company environment, employee perks, employee development and employee engagement. To be eligible for Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020, a company must have operated in the marketing, media, advertising or ad tech industry for more than one year; have its headquarters in North America or have a North America headquarters or main office if its world headquarters is outside of North America; and have a minimum of 15 full-time employees. Want your company to participate in Ad Age Best Places to Work 2021? Email aaentryquestions@adage.com to be notified as soon as entries are open. Web Production by Corey Holmes.

Ad Age Best Places to Work 2020

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