Over the last six years, The Influence Agency (better known as “TIA” around the office) has established itself as a leader in the digital marketing space. We provide 360° digital elevation, encompassing everything from social media to SEO.
In that time we’ve learned how employee success is integral to company growth—you can only go as far as your people will take you. Our employees working hard to improve their skills directly correlates to our ability to offer better services to our clients. As a result, this means greater success for our clients as well!
Successful companies always invest in their people. We’re going to break down these connections in more detail in this article, so keep reading!
Nurturing Employee Success: The Influence Agency’s Growth Mindset
Having a growth mindset is the belief that abilities and skills can be developed and improved through hard work, learning from failures, and seeking feedback. No one’s abilities are innate and unchangeable. It's an empowering perspective that we’re committed to instilling in the minds of everyone who works at TIA!
A growth mindset positively impacts employee success in several ways. It allows them to embrace challenges and learning opportunities head-on with an open mind. Instead of becoming complacent or just accepting the status quo, they actively seek out new opportunities.
When continuous improvement, innovation, and creativity are encouraged, work becomes a rewarding cycle that encourages professional development and ultimately brings out the best in people—and keeps them around.
“We have made a really concerted effort to make TIA a place where people can spread their wings and plant roots,” Tom Yawney, one of the TIA’s four partners and VP of Business Development, said in an interview. “This means individualized plans that give each team member a sense of momentum and progress toward the future they have envisioned. In doing so, we have a staff retention rate of over 90% year over year—unusual in the agency environment.”
Through defining career paths, investing in employee development, and empowering our team with an intrapreneurial mindset, we’re able to help our employees achieve their goals. As a result, our team has carved out new roles for themselves based on their interests and skills and we’ve been able to offer new services to our clients year after year.
The Importance of Career Paths
Defined career paths are important for employee success—people want to know where they have the potential to go if they put in the work!
When employees know there are opportunities for advancement, they’re more likely to stay loyal to the company as they’re excited about the future. From a company perspective, this allows you to organically breed and nurture leaders in-house. It’s inspiring for everyone to see someone climb the ladder and earn their promotions.
At TIA, our employees are always carving out new roles for themselves. Conversion rate optimization (CRO), user-generated content (UGC) creation, reactive content, cinemagraphs—these are all services we can offer because employees with the right skills created new opportunities for themselves.
“Every year new roles form, and over periods of time new departments form as well. We have routinely created new roles that play into the skills and desires of various staff members where it also aligns with the longer-term direction of the company. This means that each individual has the opportunity to redefine their career path, and to play an active role in constructing their future,” Yawney explained.
Growth and career exploration have made us a more complete, well-rounded business that can better serve our clients.
Upskilling & Investing in Employee Growth
The modern workforce necessitates upskilling. TIA is committed to employee performance development. We encourage—and sometimes require—our team to stay up-to-date on the latest industry-relevant courses. For example, 2023 saw many of our staff complete their Google Analytics 4 certification. This is one of the many ways we looked to stay ahead this year.
“We set annual goals across the company, each department, and each individual across the dimensions of strategy, creativity, execution and growth mindset,” Yawney said.
Why? For our clients! When our people upskill, they’re improving their capabilities and developing their expertise so we can offer better services. This strengthens our relationships with our clients and helps them do more business with their own customers. Everyone wins!
Empowering Employees for Intrapreneurship
An “intrapreneur” is someone who incites innovation within an organization—we take pride in having a lot of them at TIA.
And this is no accident. It’s a major goal of ours to promote an intrapreneurial spirit by providing our employees with autonomy and empowerment. We offer our team chances to take initiative, solve problems, and carve out their own niches.
“We encourage the team to share their voice and ideas. This comes in the form of check-ins with department Directors, through our goal-setting exercises, and much more,” Yawney said.
Perhaps most importantly, we reward innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. As we mentioned when discussing some of our new service offerings, you can be a successful intrapreneur here if you put in the work.
Cliché as it may be, but thinking outside the box is the only way to escape it. We think differently around here. It’s fun.
“Progress is the root of happiness. If people feel like they are improving, that their personal and professional goals are being met, and that the future is bright, they will deliver great work. Conversely, if someone feels stuck and stagnant—or that they are no longer growing—their work will be negatively impacted,” Yawney said.
The Domino Effect: Employee Success Drives Company Success
Individual employee growth and satisfaction play a pivotal role in shaping the success and growth of TIA as a whole. Here’s what we mean:
When employees experience growth opportunities, recognition, and a positive work environment, their satisfaction levels increase. Satisfied employees are more likely to stay with a company, reducing turnover and preserving organizational knowledge. As a result, a satisfied team becomes a magnet for top talent. Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth recommendations. Positive reviews from current employees attract skilled professionals to join the company.
We were a new venture in 2017 with just our four managing partners. Now we’re a team of more than 50. “Companies are only as good as their people, and teams can't win if they aren't on the same page. So developing an environment where people are supported, but challenged, is huge,” Yawney said.
As top talent has joined TIA and our team continues to improve their skills and capabilities, we’ve seen higher rates of productivity and efficiency. This has led to better outcomes as a company, such as increased revenue, client satisfaction, and overall business success. We’re better positioned to diversify and expand our service offerings, which we have done over the last few years. Through developing specialized services, we’ve been able to cater to a broader range of client needs.
The collective growth of our team has formed the backbone of TIA’s own growth journey, and the results speak for themselves. We’ve been able to experience sustainable growth, achieving our strategic goals year after year, hitting milestone after milestone.
The Ripple Effect: Company Success Benefits Our Clients
To our existing and prospective clients: we do it all for you. The growth and success of TIA as a company have an impact on our clients, resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship.
As we grow, our clients benefit from an increasingly skilled and motivated marketing team with expanded capabilities and resources. Our expertise and experience result in a broader range of services and solutions, enabling our clients to address diverse marketing and digital needs effectively. We’re able to bring more creativity, more innovation, and more solutions-focused thinking to the table, ensuring high-quality deliverables and improved results.
Building long-term partnerships with TIA generates substantial benefits, as clients experience a consistent level of service quality, expertise, and reliability. With a growing and diverse team, we’re better equipped to collaboratively tackle complex challenges our clients face and develop comprehensive solutions that win. This means a more personalized approach to the services we provide, focused on the specific goals and objectives of every business we work with.
“We have many clients who have been with us for three to four years, and they have had the same team throughout. It is hard to win without continuity; we are always looking and moving forward rather than constantly having to get new people up to speed,” Yawney said.
Continuous Growth for Next-Level Results
Employee, company, and client success are all intricately woven together. The Influence Agency’s journey showcases how individual growth paves the way for collective success. When our team prospers, so does our company. This journey is a testament to the power of a growth mindset, fostering an environment where ambitions can take root and thrive.
We encourage you to consider letting us be the agency to take your business and product line to the next level. By embracing a partnership with TIA, the elevation of our team translates into significant benefits for your brand.
Are you in? Contact us today to get started!