BEST PLACES TO WORK

Sum up your agency’s approach to staff welfare and wellbeing in less than 10 words.

"Motivating, supportive, fun, fresh and caring."

Please describe your current office location and facilities.

We all work together in one open plan office, in Worthing, West Sussex just a stone’s throw from the beach and the South Downs. Our bright, modern and colourful office is in the town centre close to shops, restaurants and banks. Following our recent expansion, it now includes three meetings rooms and a creative breakout area for brainstorming. Large plasma screens show news coverage and commercial TV all day and are separated by colourful blinds depicting countryside and beach scenes from around the world. Staff have generous work stations and the latest IT equipment.

Our approach and style is characterised by the phrase ‘fresh air, fresh thinking’. All corporate and promotional collateral from staff appointment photographs to our Company Christmas card and new website feature our seaside location.

Please give details of your staff training programme.

We have established the Pegasus Training Programme (PTP) which is a formal training schedule tailored to each staff level covering everything from writing to presenting, people management, networking etc and work with a team of two trainers who know and understand the way we work and have put together bespoke packages to suit our requirements.

We recently started a programme of sessions called ‘Meet the Professional’ where the team meets other health-related professionals to find out more about how they work eg midwives/pharmacists etc.

All new staff complete an introductory course about the Pegasus way of working and are assigned a ‘Buddy’ who looks after them for their first month at the Company, taking them to lunch every week and introducing them to the rest of the team. We also schedule a series of meetings with each team within the agency to introduce staff and their clients and to encourage a fast-track understanding of the Company.

We work very closely with Bournemouth University offering speaker sessions about working in PR and have a graduate placement programme. During their placement, graduates work in different teams within the agency so that they can experience different health disciplines (natural, OTC, public health).

As well as our own bespoke PTP, we also organise external training for all Account Managers and Account Directors which covers everything from management and supervisory skills to strategic management and developing new business.

Please give details of your staff appraisal programme.

All new members of staff are appraised after an initial three-month period. At this stage, feedback is received from various peers and managers.

Subsequently, we operate a six-monthly review system in January and June which looks at the progress of every member of the team and reviews their personal objectives for the next six months. This includes an update of their particular training needs. The appraisal process consists of a form completed by the employee and the manager, and a competency matrix designed by Pegasus, which is agreed between the interviewer and interviewee. Previous objectives are reviewed and new criteria set for the coming six months. The review process also allows the opportunity for 360˚feedback across each team from AE to AD level.

Please give details of your flexible working policy. Include details of maternity and paternity packages

All staff receive four weeks annual leave which increases by a day each year for every year of service. This leave also increases with different levels of promotion.

Pegasus will always consider and has agreed to part-time working following maternity leave.

One third of staff have their own office lap-tops/home office facilities, which enable working from home

Describe any industry or networking events held at your offices.

We recently set up a marketing team for the Company and they are looking at training sessions for local companies about how to use PR.

We also offer our staff a variety of fortnightly ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions where internal and external speakers hold a lunch-time training session to talk about everything from key pitches to presentations by a TV company and a Trade Media Masterclass.

How do you reward staff at Christmas?

The Company always closes at Christmas for a week to allow staff to fully enjoy the Christmas break. Every year, we have an extravagant fun-filled Christmas party.

In 2009, we organised an event at a cocktail bar in Brighton. All staff were challenged to create a cocktail-themed hat which was judged by our mixologist. We were also taught to make three different cocktails. We then went to a Moroccan restaurant which also had a belly dancing instructor! In 2009, all staff we given an IPod Nano.

What staff say.

There are many reasons why Pegasus is a great place to work. A tailored training programme to help you learn, progress and develop, an active social calendar that brings all members of the team together to bond and have fun, the chance to work with some of the biggest and best companies in the healthcare arena, and that’s not even mentioning the beach side location! Perhaps the best bit about working at Pegasus is that everyone’s voice is heard when it comes to how the agency is run, which makes us feel an important part of a team that is going places.

Chris Webb, Senior Account Director