Virginia Scully, formerly managing partner at Hatched, has launched Human Kind Collective, a people and culture consultancy for media agencies.
“The world of work has dramatically changed and, in many respects, isn’t actually ‘working’,” Scully said.
“We need to leave the practices of treating humans as resources in the past. To do that, a collective of HR revolutionaries is required. So we created one.”
Human Kind Collective aims to support media agencies of all sizes, particularly independents. It encompasses a wide range of people and culture services, including salary benchmarking, policy development and implementation, and psychosocial safety and mental health support.
“Indies are adaptable to rapid change and open to experimenting with new ideas,” Scully said.
“They can embrace innovation more readily with fewer layers of decision-making, giving them an enviable competitive advantage.
“Often, they have the biggest care factor but the least time and resources. Being independent, there’s no global HR support, which could result in reputational, legal, financial, and human risk. They don’t know what they don’t know.”
Human Kind Collective aims to fill that HR gap for media agencies with “large hearts” and limited resources.
“Agencies are facing several challenges, from women over 30 leaving the industry in droves to managing multigenerational workforces and a concerning level of mentally unhealthy employees. And that’s on top of an ambitious legislative agenda with the compliance and governance bar rising. This is not a time to go it alone.”
As a starting point, Scully has created a culture health check for agencies that points them in the direction of easy-to-apply services that will see positive social and cultural impact. Agencies requiring more assistance can engage Human Kind Collective to develop and action programs, systems, and training.
The Collective has already joined forces with its first agency partner, Media Republic.
Steve Fagan, Media Republic founder, said: “Unlike our hold co counterparts, many independent agencies don’t have the headcount to justify in-housing a full suite of P&C functions. But without them, we’re flying by the seat of our pants. We’ve been waiting for something like Human Kind Collective to come along. Virginia has hugely impressive creds and working with her simply makes sense.”
Human Kind Collective will be partnering with select agencies and offering members of the Independent Media Agencies Association (IMAA) complimentary access to the culture health check in addition to receiving a discount on a range of Human Kind Collective services.
“Our mission is to simplify complex challenges and build a foundation of kindness to drive positive change,” Scully added. “Together we can fuel industry economic growth through supporting gender equity, mentally healthy workplaces and organisations.”
The industry’s annual Mentally Healthy Survey is currently open, run by the Mentally Healthy Change Group.
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Top image: Virginia Scully