The Future of Work: In Conversation with Athletics
by Alexa Aron & Jameson Proctor, Athletics
“Hi, I’m Jameson Proctor, partner at Athletics, and I’m joined today by my good friend and colleague, Alexa Aron, our Head of People, to talk about the future of work (or, as we like to call it, work), some of the challenges that we’re seeing from the perspective of our agency, and how we’re meeting them head on. We’ve prepared a few questions for one another to get the conversation going, so without further ado, I’m going to hand it off to Alexa.”
“Thanks, Jameson! We are now entering year three of this pandemic. Jameson — what would you say are some agency priorities for 2022, and how have the long-term effects of dealing with the pandemic impacted our vision for this year and beyond?”
JTP: Third year? Wow. Who would've thought, back in 2020, that we'd be saying that today!
When I think about our priorities for this year, it's important to think about how those priorities have evolved since 2020. That year, we were faced with unprecedented uncertainty. We had really no idea what was happening or what was next. Very early on, we decided our top priority was keeping our team together. Looking back, I'm really proud to say that we were able to do so—we didn’t lose a single person. It was equal parts good luck and sheer determination, and it set the stage for the years to come.
In 2021, our top priority shifted to really examining the ways in which we were working, then adapting and evolving as needed to rise to the challenge of this Brave New World of Hybrid Work. We had previously been a 100% in-person agency, and so we really had to learn a lot of new tricks to bring the same experience, and really the same level of quality, to the table for our clients.
All of this has gotten us to a point in 2022 where we're starting to focus more than ever on the types of work we're doing. As an agency, one of our core values is optimism, and we often express that by saying that we're optimistic for our clients and for our world. We want that optimism to create brands and experiences that change the way people live and work for the better, and, by design, help keep our team happy and engaged.
While our priorities have evolved year over year, one thing has stayed the same—the belief that team and client experience is the cornerstone of what we do. If we can get the experience right, the other pieces—the quality, the innovation, the types of work, the health of the agency—all fall into place more easily.
As everybody in our business knows, a good experience involves so many interrelated pieces. At Athletics, we’ve been focusing more and more on our culture and the health and well-being of our team—both of which can be challenging to sustain when we’re hybrid or remote. This is really your domain, Alexa, so maybe you’ll touch on this in more detail as we continue to chat.
A piece of experience that is more squarely in my domain is doing hybrid well. Again, being an agency that was 100% in-person before the pandemic, a lot of our “magic” happened face to face, in a room with our team and our clients.
So, we’ve been focusing more and more on adopting and innovating with new tools that keep our team and our clients engaged, that facilitate collaboration, and that lead to great outcomes.
AA: What are some tools on your hit list of hybrid work? The ones that take you from doing hybrid work, to doing hybrid “well”, as you said?
JTP: My current favorites, which will come as no surprise, are FigJam and Miro. Like most everyone else, we started using these sorts of tools as digital whiteboards. Lately, we’ve been going all in, using voice and video chat in both to present and collaborate in real time. The result has been higher levels of engagement and interaction.
Like anything, though, tools alone are not enough. We have to ensure the team has adequate time. Hybrid work is more time consuming, and, as a result people are stretched, compared to where they would've been pre-pandemic. It takes time to write out a question, problem, or proposal, rather than just walking up to someone’s desk and having a quick chat. You need to be an excellent communicator, especially when it comes to written communication, in order to really do hybrid well, and we’ve found we need to build in time for our team for that.
So rewinding to 2020 for a minute, Alexa. As you well know from firsthand experience, we went from fully in-studio to fully remote at a moment's notice. And we haven't really returned since. We had a little stint where we opened the studio in the fall of 2021, but then Omicron came along.
Being our Head of People, how do you think this has changed your view of our culture?
AA: It's a really good question. And I'll just start by saying, I'll never forget that moment in the “war room” in March of 2020, making the call to send everybody home with their computers. I think it was a Thursday at lunchtime. And looking back now, knowing what we now know lay ahead of us, it’s pretty wild!
But to answer your question, in some ways I think culture has been completely turned on its head. And in other ways, those things that always mattered most, still do. Take team bonding, for example. That's something I realize now, in 2022, that I took for granted prior to the pandemic. Bonding happened organically at the studio, over lunch, or grabbing drinks with coworkers after work. We were denied that for a long period of time because of the pandemic, but when we were finally able to gather in person again over the fall of 2021 (being together at our annual offsite in the Catskills comes to mind), it was really like a shot to the vein for culture. Everyone was just immediately rejuvenated. The bonds were re-solidified. The stress melted away. We remembered how much we love hanging out together!
So nowadays, making time and space for team bonding requires more forethought and planning than it did before, but the moments that we do have together are that much more meaningful and really do boost morale. And conversely, I feel if we go too long without it, there's a palpable effect on the team. You can feel it. So a lesson I've learned is that we always have to make team togetherness a top priority if we want to keep the culture flame burning. Those team bonding moments are not something to be taken for granted, they're not optional. They're the glue that holds everything together.
And on the flip side, I would say that culture is no longer defined by a physical space, which I think is a huge shift. Pre-Covid, the idea of work culture might conjure up images of things like foosball tables, free snacks, open plan offices, or maybe cubicles, depending on where you worked. If you had asked me to describe our culture back then, much of my answer would probably have revolved around the studio itself — the sights, the sounds of being there, what music was playing, the contagious hum of productivity around you, maybe the smell of Palo Santo wafting through the air. Now, the studio itself is just one small piece of a much larger, and more intangible idea of our culture.
Culture has also become much less quantity and more quality. I often refer to a 360 degree employee experience, which is something I'm really passionate about. By 360 I mean the full, holistic, experience of what it means to be an employee of our company. We've always put a lot of emphasis on making sure we look at that experience from all angles, but now that the lines between work and home are so blurred, it's become that much more important to make sure employees are happy, healthy, and that their experience of “work” not only enriches their lives from 9 to 5, but also outside of the confines of their jobs. Things like parental leave, wellness benefits, EAPs—these are benefits that have been working overtime during the pandemic, and I think they have meant a lot to our employees during this challenging time.
JTP: That leads me to something that’s been on all our minds—”The Great Resignation”. Building off what you were just saying, what do you think has changed about attracting and retaining team members since we made the move to remote and hybrid?
AA: Wow, so much has changed since we went remote! I think the biggest thing that's changed is the desire, and really the demand, from candidates and employees for flexibility in their work environments. It’s changed dramatically from both the employee and employer perspective, and I don't really see any sign of it going back to the way it was before.
People want to be able to work from home, at least part of the time. We're seeing more and more people, especially young people, who want the option to be nomadic and work from anywhere. And across the board, no one wants to be glued to an office chair for eight hours a day.
And it makes sense. Teams have really proven themselves to be highly productive and resilient despite not being in an office full time anymore. I know our team has certainly proven itself in that regard, and I'm super proud of how well they have adapted through these incredible challenges. As an employer, it's much harder to make that in-person argument convincingly now, mandating people to come back into an office. It just holds a lot less water than it did previously.
And on another note, I think the civil unrest that we all witnessed in our country in 2020, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Me Too movement before that, and the subsequent reckoning that companies are having to do around racism and sexism in the workplace, that has had a lasting and really positive impact on attraction and retention of employees. I know personally, I'm really thrilled to see how much more emphasis candidates and employees are putting on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. They're challenging us, they're questioning the status quo, and that shows a level of engagement that, as a People Ops professional, I find really heartening.
It's not easy to be challenged in those moments, but we always come out better for it. And while we’re still a small company, I think Athletics is doing some good work to move our needle in the right direction.
Obviously there's still an enormous amount of work to be done in our country around DEI, but I do see this as a sort of “get with the times” moment for businesses, a “the times they are a-changin” moment. Those companies who are choosing not to look inward at their own practices, structures, and cultures—those are the companies that are ultimately not going to be able to survive or be successful. At least that's my take on it.
It's really interesting to think about all of these changes from the business perspective.
Jameson—I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about how the move to hybrid and remote work has changed the competitive landscape, and if you think that there might be new capabilities that enable agencies to make themselves stand out or further, or differentiate themselves, in the current environment?
JTP: Not to be a broken record, but, in the hybrid world of work, you have to be just as effective in-person as you are online. This extends to every aspect of the agency—business development. marketing, people, the work itself. The interpersonal skills that were critical pre-pandemic are still just as important, but, now, digital skills are equally so. In your world, Alexa, conveying a sense of career growth by leveraging a platform like Lattice is now just as important as being able to have an effective face to face conversation with a team member.
As we all predicted, the world became that much more digital as a result of the pandemic. Companies look to leaders now more than ever to understand how they too can lead—or, at least, catch up—in digital. So, working with those leaders to help change the way we live and work can enable an agency to stand out. In some ways, that’s nothing new. But, as I mentioned earlier, it has made us think more than ever about who we work with and the types of work we do.
AA: Have you seen any new opportunities arise for our agency as a result of the changes brought about by the pandemic? For example, businesses or spaces where the value proposition or product has evolved due to remote work?
JTP: The hybrid bug seems to have bitten more than the world of work. We’re seeing a rising trend in brands that leverage humanity and technology to great effect. On one hand, technology does an amazing job collecting data and recognizing patterns. On the other, humans do an amazing job interpreting that data into actionable insights for other humans. Personal finance, health and wellness, sport—to name a few categories—these are spaces where we’re seeing this trend.
The lessons we’re learning by doing hybrid well in our own business help us be effective partners for businesses such as these.
AA: That’s really compelling, and makes me excited for the future, whatever it looks like!
Well, this has been a fascinating conversation, Jameson. I want to thank you for your time and insights today. I always love to chat about culture and work with you.
JTP: Likewise, let's do it again soon! How’s tomorrow sound?
Jameson Proctor, Athletics
Jameson Proctor is Partner & Digital Strategy Director at Athletics based in Brooklyn, New York.
Alexa Aron, Athletics