I first started working with Recipe over 13 years ago as a client. Whilst a lot has changed in that time, what has remained unwavering is the unique culture and the essence of the agency. Now being on the inside, I know that this is not coincidental, quite the opposite in fact - it’s been carefully nurtured and protected and something we’re very proud of.

Let’s rewind to 2011, I recall a much smaller team (7- 8 people), male-skewed and at face value, seemingly not very diverse. Walking into the offices then, I was always greeted with a warm and friendly smile. There was no bureaucracy, no egos… just pure positivity and an energy that makes you feel instantly at ease (much like when you land in a new, unknown country or city for the first time and you instantly feel safe)...  like you belong.

Fast forward to today, we’re a talented tight team of 74 (and growing!). We have 12 different languages natively spoken, we’ve closed the gender gap - grassroots up, and despite hybrid working policies, our offices are always buzzing. We have maintained industry beating staff retention figures for two decades and whilst we’ve inevitably had growing pains, the energy, passion and personality of Recipe has evolved to be stronger than ever, with every new starter, every new client partner, intermediary or consultant who comes through our doors all noting the ‘feeling’ they get when they enter our world.

So what’s our secret?

We’ve ‘grown up’ but have never stopped ‘growing up’. At the heart of this is staying true to what we’ve always aspired to do; unbuild walls; create recipes (not follow them)… all the while keeping the essence of friendship and belonging alive within the workplace, both amongst our teams and our partners. We build relationships by being good people who do great work. It’s that simple.

Growing up

As we’ve grown, we’ve recognised the need to formalise processes and initiatives which were previously more intuitive. Naturally, part of this is ensuring best practices around training and development, hiring policies, providing regular open and anonymous feedback loops and establishing clear DE&I and sustainability policies.

Going further, we have reframed our monthly all agency meetings which has had a profound impact on our agency's growing culture. Instead of key business updates, we host a show and tell of work, learnings and successes before promoting a device-free afternoon for all. Food is sourced from local independent businesses and themed to suit key events/cultural trends/events. We break bread together before spending the afternoon playing games.

Our creative showcase enables our people to share their passions and side hustles outside of work - creating a supportive space for our team to bring their authentic selves to work. From spoken word to photography, we celebrate the sometimes hidden talents of our talent.

Last year we also introduced ROTM (Recipean of the Month) - a peer to peer nomination on contribution to the business by demonstrating our beliefs and values where they are rewarded with a voucher and extra time off.

This year we launched our monthly leadership diary - an email from our CEO that outlines what the management board are working on, why and how they relate to our short and long term goals. We’ve also reframed our pitching policies - we say ‘no’ more and have shaped a clear client profile designed to find the right Recipe partner so that we’re not seduced by the wrong opportunities.

Last but by no means least, we have also launched a ‘Recipe with Love’ - a pro bono fund where we encourage our teams to proactively suggest charities/initiatives that they’re passionate about and that their peers are willing to support. So far this has resulted in us helping Turkish non-profit Ahbap.org have their first international campaign during last year's devastating twin earthquakes, a 29 channel takeover for the DEC with Channel 4 and we have two live projects ongoing which we’re excited to launch - sadly I can’t say much more at the moment, but all will be revealed in the coming months.

To conclude

Was this all me? Absolutely not.

I don’t believe that one person is solely responsible for driving cultural change in an organisation - it takes the collective. What I was able to do, however, was take my observations of what made this agency truly special as an outsider, to double down on what is uniquely ours. In turn, we have focused our efforts on evolving, adapting and changing to suit the needs of our growing team and agency.