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Employee initiative readies ranks for global, interactive business push
Much of the healthcare agency world spent 2006 attempting to answer the question of where they would find the staffers to fuel continued growth. Harrison and Star, on the other hand, spent it trying to answer the question "Why should people come work for us?"
To hear chairman and CEO Larry Star tell it, only through a little soul-searching can an agency distinguish itself from its peers. As a member of the Omnicom network, H&S is required to conduct a culture survey once every two years; believing that its results are telling, the agency decided instead to conduct it on an annual basis.
When the 2006 survey revealed some employee grumbling about the training and learning opportunities, the company created an initiative that has since been dubbed Harrison and Star University. "I think the surveys make everybody here feel that they're empowered and appreciated," Star says, adding that he removes himself from the process. "I only get aggregate results, so people feel free to speak their minds."
While the firm didn't fill every vacancy, H&S upped...