Brilliant place to work - Head of Paid Media Receptional Employee Review

Thank you for taking the time to share this feedback, and for the kind words about your colleagues. The connections people build here genuinely matter to us. We won't shy away from the harder points you've raised — transparency is one of our core values, and one we take seriously. We believe everyone at Receptional should understand how the business is performing and why, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because our people's insights and ideas are genuinely valuable when we're navigating challenges together. We recognise that open communication about business pressures isn't always comfortable, but we'd rather have honest conversations than leave people in the dark. The wider marketing industry has faced significant headwinds in recent years, and like many agencies we've had to make difficult decisions to protect jobs. Curiosity is another of our core values, and while we've had to reduce spending on external training courses, we've invested significantly in building our own internal training programmes, including a dedicated learning platform (5 Mins AI), because developing our people remains a genuine priority. We also encourage our team to build their professional profile on LinkedIn, not as a box-ticking exercise, but because we believe that being visible and recognised for your expertise is good for your career, regardless of where that career takes you. A stronger professional profile benefits both the individual and the business, and we see that as a positive thing. We'll reflect on how that lands in practice. We take feedback like this seriously. Not just as a response to a review, but as something we'll actively discuss and take forward. Our commitment is to address what our people raise, not paper over it. We wish you well for the future, and genuinely appreciate you taking the time to share this.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We take all feedback seriously, as it helps us to keep improving. At Receptional, we are proud of the positive culture we’ve built. This has been recognised through awards such as Best Agency to Work For (Medium) 2025, Best Culture Transformation, and 2nd place for Best Agency Culture. We’ve also been named Bedfordshire Small Business of the Year and achieved 2nd place in the National Business of the Year Awards. Protecting and nurturing that culture is always a priority for us. We place a strong focus on employee wellbeing and work-life balance. Our time-tracking systems help us monitor workloads to ensure staff are not overburdened. Every team member has weekly 1-2-1 meetings with their manager, where wellbeing is an important part of the conversation. We also offer hybrid working (three days in the office and two from home, with flexibility around start and finish times), access to a qualified Mental Health First Aider, and paid-for counselling support through our benefits package. On pay, we benchmark salaries annually against industry standards, competitor data, and recruitment insights to ensure fairness and competitiveness. As you note in your review, our pay is in line with industry standards. We are also proud to partner with some of the largest and most well-known clients in the iGaming space. These clients expect high standards, and we believe our talented team is well equipped to deliver for them - a key reason why the business continues to grow. Transparency and communication are also important to us. We share updates on the health and performance of the business through weekly team meetings and monthly business catch-ups. We actively seek employee input through quarterly anonymous feedback surveys and our “Our Business Would Be Even Better If” group, where staff present ideas directly to the leadership team. These sessions have already led to meaningful changes, such as improvements to our bonus structure and benefits package. We also maintain an open-door policy, so employees can raise questions and ideas with the senior leadership team at any time. We’re also proud that our employee retention is consistently above the national average, reflecting the supportive environment we work hard to maintain. In addition, our most recent employee survey results were the highest in our history, showing that colleagues feel more positive about working at Receptional than ever before. Finally, in relation to redundancies: these are always difficult decisions and never taken lightly. Unfortunately, factors outside of our control - such as the loss of a large client, the wider economic climate - meant this step was necessary to safeguard the long-term stability of the business and the wider team. We remain committed to our people-first approach and to creating an environment where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. The Receptional Team