PHD is a leading communications planning and media buying agency. Created in the UK in 1990 as the first planning-led media agency, PHD was established in Australia in 2009 and quickly grew to over 200 staff across offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

As the media partner for high-profile clients including Google, PepsiCo, Volkswagen Group, Unilever and ANZ Bank amongst many more, PHD’s role is to advise clients on the best strategy to invest their marketing budget across all media channels – television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, online platforms, etc. and how to execute it. As such, PHD works closely with advertising agencies, public relations agencies and media vendors to promote clients’ products and services to their target audience in the most impactful and cost-efficient manner.

The media agency landscape in Australia is fragmented, with dozens of agencies competing with little differentiation. Additionally, the industry faces several complex challenges including the speed of change of digital media (as online platforms evolve, so do advertising opportunities). This climate of complexity and competition has significant impact on talent retention. Although the sector is experiencing double-digit growth (the overall media workforce increased by 65% over the last 5 years), staff turnover is also increasing with the latest Media Federation of Australia (MFA) census reporting a record 36% turnover rate industry-wide and a vacancy rate of 9.2%. 

PHD’s vision is to be recognised as one of Australia’s Smartest Companies and they believe that attracting, growing and retaining top talent is critical to business success. As such, People is one of the five core focus areas of their business strategy. To make PHD’s vision come to life through human resources practices, the People & Development Team has over the past few years, developed talent initiatives designed to engage employees on their growth journey and positively reward staff who live out the company’s values.

To embed positive behaviours in day to day life at PHD, the PHD Values Award was created, whereby people are encouraged to live PHD’s core values of Courage, Collaboration and Curiosity and recognise each other for demonstrating them.

PHD operates in an environment where disruption is the norm and talent retention and satisfaction are plummeting across the industry. Through the crafting of a strong vision, PHD has been successful in building a recognisable employer brand which is known across the industry. The implementation of a human resources strategy aligned to the business strategy and underpinned by tailored programs that allow staff to grow with PHD has resulted in strong talent retention and employee engagement. This positive momentum allows PHD to service clients and innovate in an age of change.