Through a powerful alchemy of creativity and technology, Publicis Groupe drives business transformation across the entire value chain and is a valuable marketing and communications group based on market capitalisation. Publicis Group delivers end-to-end marketing solutions for clients in Australia and New Zealand through its ‘Connected Platform’ of companies and capabilities. These include industry-leading agencies and brands such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Digitas, Zenith, Starcom, Epsilon, Spark Foundry, Publicis Sapient, Balance Internet, CitrusAd, Herd MSL, Prodigious and Razorfish, as well as its newly launched sustainability consultancy, Salterbaxter.

The success of this Connected Platform model is made possible by the company’s unique commercial structure of having a single country P&L and Groupe CEO. The Connected Platform is a competitive advantage for the business as it removes all agency brand silos, ensuring collaboration to unlock exponential client growth. The unique model has translated to tangible successes for the company, with Publicis ANZ welcoming several significant new clients, including Microsoft, NBN, Lexus and Adobe, while maintaining a high retention rate of existing clients in 2022.

The company’s business strategy works in concert with its people strategy and is focused on three key areas: ‘Growth, Magic, and Connection’. This ethos is embedded into its operations through competitive paid leave policies, its flexible working framework – Publicis Liberté – launched before the pandemic, and policies around internal mobility and mental and physical wellbeing.

Publicis also strives to ensure it creates a supportive and inclusive work environment. This is evident through paid entitlements, including Gender Affirmation Leave, Domestic and Family Violence Leave, Fertility Treatment Leave, and Miscarriage Leave. Further, in recognition of people’s differing beliefs and religions, Publicis has introduced flexible working for some public holidays, permitting people to switch a public holiday day for another important date for them to celebrate. Meanwhile, its ‘Work Your World’ initiative allows employees to work from any city worldwide with a Publicis office for up to six weeks each year.

For Publicis, wellbeing is more than just about tackling mental health – focusing on prevention alongside treatment. In 2022, the company introduced Sonder, an all-in-one digital wellbeing technology platform accredited by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS). The Sonder app provides 24/7 services to support medical and safety needs and is available for employees to share with their immediate family members. Publicis has a Gold Standard Accreditation from Mental Health First Aid Australia and 105 trained Mental Health First Aiders who connect regularly to share their learnings and promote wellbeing offerings in the business. In a 2023 employee engagement survey, 81% agreed that Publicis cares about their physical and mental wellbeing. 

At the beginning of the year, Publicis globally launched its ‘Working with Cancer’ initiative, which aims to rally the world’s most influential companies to build supportive, recovery-forward workplaces. Leading by example, the initiative provides all Publicis employees up to 12 months of financial support if diagnosed with cancer or another severe illness.

Publicis Groupe’s learning and development (L&D) model is based on a 70-20-10 learning model of ‘Experience, Exposure, and Education’. The company offers its people opportunities to connect with peers across the Groupe to accelerate their learning – locally through the cross-organisational ‘Buddy Up’ mentoring program and globally through its AI-powered platform, Marcel.

Publicis also operates under a rigorous compensation framework with salary grading based on internal and external benchmarking. The company regularly reviews its reward, recognition and compensation framework to remain competitive and boost employee loyalty. This includes providing opportunities for employees to offer feedback through bi-annual global engagement surveys that benchmark against Groupe’s offices worldwide.

Employees are supported in their growth through regular goal setting and career trajectory reviews with management via the ‘Career Conversations’ digital platform. In 2022, Publicis ANZ appointed

 a Connected Careers Director, responsible for promoting employee career growth, advancing company culture and supporting the practice of connection by offering career planning and future direction sessions. This is part of Publicis’ focus on ‘creating careers, not just jobs’, including supporting employees interested in exploring internal mobility to other Publicis agencies in Australia and abroad. These programs and initiatives encourage retention across the organisation, with regrettable turnover at the company below the Australian industry average. Last year over 30 per cent of the company’s new hires were made through employee referrals.

By creating a connected culture that brings together its 22 businesses, people and clients, Publicis Groupe ANZ empowers its people for success. In January this year, 76% of surveyed employees agreed they could imagine their career growing at Publicis.

For information about Publicis Groupe, visit publicisgroupe.com