Independent creative company The Royals has been named the best place to work in the media and marketing space.
The AFR BOSS Best Places to Work list for 2024 saw Equality Media, which was number one last year, fall to second.
The Royals, in part for its Unnatural Fridays initiative that sees the 45-member team at the agency stop whatever other work they're doing at the end of the week to work on a single creative pitch, took the top spot.
King Kong, Tracksuit and PMG rounded out the top five, with Hatched, Half Dome and iProspect also in the top 10.
Equality founder and MD Marilla Akkermans said she is passionate about making change in an industry that has traditionally worked its people to the bone and that by implementing flexible working practices, it’s her way of trying to contribute to a better industry," she said.
"Being awarded Most Outstanding Practice for Employee Flexibility across all categories is a huge honour and something the whole team is really proud of," she said.
"We’ve also placed first and second respectively in the years that we’ve entered the award thanks to our four-day work week and additional leave policy, which we call Equality Care. I think by knowing your people intimately and looking into what they really need is the way that policy should be made, not what’s in trend for right now."
Half Dome MD Tom Frazer said it’s an honour to be recognised for a fourth year in a row.
"In an industry that is continually facing skills shortages and difficulty securing talent, we’re incredibly proud of our track record for not only attracting but retaining our talented people," he said.
iProspect MD Marcelle Gomez said she is so proud of what iProspect have achieved as a team, but most proud of the culture that has been created.
"How happy our people are coming to work, sharing their knowledge and doing their best every day to live up to the iProspect ethos of where the ambitious accelerate the possible," she said.
The awards, published annually by The Australian Financial Review (AFR) and BOSS Magazine, are based on an assessment process managed by behavioural science consultancy Inventium, including a written submission and a staff survey examining policies, practices and programs.
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