‘Inspire work that matters’: How this agency’s people-first approach puts it a cut above the rest
This article was originally written and published by HR Leader on September 8, 2023
Corporate Crayon is an end-to-end creative communications agency offering people and culture consulting services.
The brainchild of CEO and founder, Evelyn Jackson, first kicked off in Sydney eight years ago, quickly growing from a single operation to one that now spans right across Australia and internationally.
At the heart of Corporate Crayon’s vision is to “inspire work that matters” – something Evelyn says is essential to the ongoing success of the agency.
“Corporate Crown was born to say, ‘Let's focus on who our audience is first, and who our employees and potential employees are, and really understand their key motivators’. And then with that knowledge, be able to communicate to them more effectively.
“We want employees to feel inspired to do work that matters – that’s our company vision and it's really about helping organisations to create an environment where employees want to work because it fulfills them as much as it gives them the cash to live their life.”
The employee impact
Corporate Crayon’s purpose to “increase employee and organisational performance through meaningful connection and considered design” is key for Evelyn, who, by employing like-minded people has been able to maintain a competitive edge over other agencies.
“Our unique point of difference as competitors is we really do understand the people side. And I think with my background is behavioural psychology, and because I care deeply about the impact we can have on people, I’ve also employed people that have similar backgrounds, and so they genuinely understand what makes people tick,” she says.
The agency’s values speak to how the team works with clients, partners and with each other.
“We have three core values: flexibility, trust, and imagination. Everyone in the organisation is part-time and everyone in the organisation works flexibly 100 per cent of the time. That is because people are more creative when they have breaks and people are more creative when they have a variety of projects to do, and the people I employ place accountability, freedom and balance as high on the list of their motivators,” Evelyn says. She explains how having a flexible workplace has ensured the values are met and enables the agency to have the best people on each project.
“The imagination goes to solving problems so it’s about how we help organisations solve problems as their partner. Most of our clients start with one project, but they usually evolve into a longer relationship, because I think we work in partnership and build trusted relationships with them.
“So, the word ‘inspire’ is really important. We always talk to companies about wanting to inspire people to apply for a job with them. We want to inspire people to work more effectively. We want them to feel inspired by the organisation’s vision. And that can only happen when employees are meaningfully connected to the organisation. And so, everything that we produce needs to do that.”
Ongoing support
As evidenced by Evelyn, the value of providing ongoing client support cannot be understated.
While a client may initially come to Corporate Crayon for one area, i.e. help in attracting talent, they tend to stick around and partner long-term with the agency if needing assistance in other areas.
Corporate Crayon’s services are vast, covering everything from employee value propositions (EVPs) and careers websites to internal communications strategies and mentoring.
Its unique five-stage approach – discovery, connection, human, considered design, and individual simplicity – enables the team to use a tested approach and create tailor-made solutions for organisations, helping them overcome headwinds and roadblocks that are impacting their success.
The first stage – discovery – is key when partnering with clients, with it deliberately taking up around a third of the time the team will spend on a specific project with a client.
“Discovery is all about uncovering what exists but maybe isn’t known to others. We do a lot of research around what motivates our audience, what their habits are, how they prefer to be communicated to, and what channels they use,” Evelyn says.
From there, the team identifies the organisation’s goals (known as the connection stage) before working to understand the user journey and how people behave once they obtain information (known as the human stage).
Next, the considered design stage pays attention to the creative details with the audience and at its core.
“I always say to the team, ‘Make it beautiful’. If you think of inspiring people, if you’re going to present something visually to someone, it needs to really stand out, and I find the word ‘beautiful’ really describes our creative style to inspire.
“Considered design means that it also needs to be useful, so it’s not just a branding exercise or a marketing, creative agency approach. It needs to be considered based on its users and our deep understanding of them,” she says.
The last stage, individual simplicity, focuses on making recommendations easy to adopt, creating assets that are ready to use.
“We make it easy for our audience (talent) and make it easy for HR people to implement so it’s easily adopted,” Evelyn says.
How Corporate Crayon Can Help
At Corporate Crayon, we work to increase performance with meaningful connection and considered design. If your organisation is looking for external support, get in touch with us.