About MEC UK

MEC offer learning and development opportunities at all levels throughout the organisation to appeal to all learning styles, from soft skill practical training in presentation and negotiation skills, to e-learning training on digital technical skills, to experiential learning through charity opportunities, language lessons and Thrive projects. They take their commitment to learning seriously in terms of budget investment and time, to ensure MEC offers opportunities to thrive. MEC have a focus on everyone educating each other, whether that’s through Big Breakfast where teams share pitch work in an informal setting, or the annual EXPO, a day when the agency stops for a series of talks and workshops on different pieces of work, tech or learnings. Creative champions who attended ‘Upping Your Elvis’ creativity training last year continue to run sessions for the agency on creativity and creative brainstorming. They want to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to learn and develop their skills no matter what level they are. Everyone gets the opportunity to sit a variety of IPA qualifications and they offer leadership training at all levels throughout the agency. Graduates and apprentices have a full training programme to complement their journey with the company, which kicks off with an experiential team building exercise on the streets of London. MEC’s management team spent a week at a residential course earlier this year learning advanced sales and influencing techniques to help them work better with clients.

This year MEC introduced ‘Town Hall’ sessions to boost team interaction and communication. As part of the staff survey feedback employees provided the company with, it was clear that they get a great deal of value and enjoyment from the all staff ‘MEC in Motion’ company meeting sessions. However, they asked for more regular company updates as the MEC in Motion meetings are 3 months apart and things move quickly around here. The Management Board thought quite hard about the best way to do this, not wanting to resort to email communication as the obvious route. As a result, they introduced Town Hall. This is a new update session held in the open office space covering off any pressing agency, industry, client and people news. No slides or fanfare, just senior people from the management team updating people on important and interesting news, real time. They also introduced Collaboration Coffees as part of their initiative to embed behaviours and improve perceptions of approachability of the Management Board, again responding to staff survey feedback. This is an opportunity for anyone at any level to sit down for a coffee and informally talk about the agency, obtain career advice, tips on leadership or anything else they wish to discuss. MEC ask people to share their Collaboration Coffee time with everyone on the MEC social media channels.

This year MEC want to help people raise funds for the causes that matter most to them. Each quarter they match the four biggest fundraisers within the company with £500 each. There are also donations of £500, £1000 and £1500 for the top three over the year. MEC fundraise for larger charities too; over the last two years they have raised over £80,000 for Anthony Nolan and MIND. In 2015 they did their Knead and Feed project for charity network FareShare, cooking meals for 5,000 of London’s most disadvantaged residents. In 2014 they partnered with ‘Farming for All’ to transform a large area of land into a fully working farm for people experiencing social or educational exclusion. They work with ‘Making the Leap’, an employability charity that provides training and support to young people from lower social economic backgrounds. MEC ran two ‘immersion’ mornings at Sea Containers were people learnt about what it’s like to work in a media agency. They are interviewing some of these young people for some of our entry-level roles. They have partnered with Crisis and Centrepoint in their quest to re-house, re-habilitate and re-build those in need and those who also want to explore opportunities that they never knew existed. They are also working with ex-military people and looking at how they can support them in their next phase of employment and also utilise their skills within the organisation. They offer employability sessions for these parties, whether they choose MEC or secure work elsewhere. They are focused on attracting different types of talent into the organisation. This year MEC launched their first apprenticeship scheme, ‘Evolution’, where they have taken on 12 young people aged 18 – 23 to work in different teams across the agency while studying for an apprenticeship.