The Alliance has teamed up with PRCA, Harbour Collective and Pimento to bring you a working environment survey.
We found 92% of independent agencies favour collaborative working – having either partnered with another agency on a brief during lockdown, or being happy to, should the opportunity arise.
Here some key outtakes:
Inter-agency collaboration is key
One significant trend was the number of independent agencies (81%) that had won work virtually for the first time ever.
As well as more projects being awarded over video calls instead of face-to-face meetings during the lockdown, our research also found that 92% of independent agencies have either collaborated with another agency on a brief, or would now be happy to, should the opportunity arise.
The main reasons behind marcomms companies favouring this joined-up approach, it seems, are to fill skills gaps their team doesn’t have (77%), provide the best client experience (44%), aid creativity (33%) and foster a more flexible working culture (17%).
Only 8.5% confessed to preferring to keep all projects in house.
Other revelations from the survey include almost half of agencies (44%) disagreeing that colleagues need to be in the same physical place to be creative.
But with collaboration remaining a hot topic – and 53% of respondents revealing they now have spare space in their current premises for additional bodies – this perhaps goes some way to explaining why 77% of people said they would consider sharing offices with another agency.
Post-pandemic property plans
The results also showed a shift in agency mindset when it comes to preferred working locations. 60% of respondents confessed to working mainly from the office prior to lockdown, whereas 72% admitted they will now look to split their 9-5 time between the office and home.
Only 15% of people want to continue working from the company headquarters full time, while 17% want to permanently operate remotely.
Agencies are clearly continuing to adapt the way they function, in order to remain buoyant in the marketplace, with many challenging the ‘traditional’ office concept. I believe this trend will only continue on its upward journey.
The full survey results can be found here:Agency Office Environment Survey