Pros
- The branding side of the agency is great and the creative team produce great work. - Generally nice people work here and there can be a great atmosphere in the office, with lots of laughs and fun together. - Flexible working is generally good. - The agency has moved on from having a lunch/leaving bell to let you know when you can leave for lunch.
Cons
- In my opinion, lack of leadership is really at the heart of the issues with the agency. Senior leadership lack digital and agency knowledge and it impacts the rest of the workforce. For the agency to improve it would need to bring in at least one experienced digital leader to help shape the digital offering and continue to deliver results. - There is an alarmingly high level of digital staff turnover. Over the period of one year FINALLY lost around 12 members of the digital marketing team (which is normally a 4-man team). None of the team members who left lasted longer than a year. The lack of staff retention is symptomatic of the issues with the agency – especially in digital where you’re only as good as the talent you retain. - The agency has lacks tools and software – with most of the team having to share one or two logins to gain access to basic tools to complete their tasks daily. This is particularly an issue around reporting time when everyone needs to use the software at once. This results in delays in report turn around. - It seems to me as if there is an unprofessional and sometimes inappropriate pattern of behaviour that consistently occurs within internal meetings, which could be taken the wrong way or step over the line, especially for junior members of staff. Jokes at the expense of people and remarks that, in my opinion, could be considered inappropriate have no place within the meeting room, or even the office. - From my time at FINALLY, “whimsy” is probably the best way to describe decisions that are made by leadership. It feels like projects are launched into without preplanning or objectives and the direction of the agency and culture seems to sway with the wind. E.g. one week everyone will be focused on how veganism is the best diet, or hiring plans will be made on a whim depending on the day of the week. The agency has a “beg for forgiveness” attitude, rather than plan to get it right the first time. - During my time at FINALLY, none of the digital staff were client facing and all information had to be relayed via an account manager. While this may work for some agencies, to me it was a negative as I could not properly convey my strategies or pick up on client subtext. - If feels like staff treats are decided on popularity rather than merit – staff will be picked based on who will be the most fun to take out to a client dinner or to a conference, rather than the team who worked on the account. - It felt like there was no clear vision of workload or levels of work being completed by team members. Even though so many hours over capacity were being logged, it felt like leadership were obsessed with the department not meeting a high enough deliverable rate. - Pay is generally pretty low compared to competitor agencies and there aren't any publicised pay brackets.
