34 roles at Publicis Groupe at risk of redundancy
Publicis Groupe ANZ has released a statement, revealing that after protecting as many jobs as it has through the COVID-19 pandemic, 34 roles are at risk of redundancy out of the more than 1,570 people that work across Australia and New Zealand.
Says Michael Rebelo (above), CEO of Publicis Groupe ANZ: “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic putting our people first has been our guiding philosophy; ensuring their safety and well-being, and protecting as many jobs as possible so that our team is in the best shape possible to help our clients through their recovery.
“Since the middle of March we have taken every step to ensuring that we have exhausted all cost-containment measures before considering making any roles redundant. This has consisted of three stages 1.) Holding our expenses and variable costs as strictly as possible; 2.) Staff taking annual leave; 3.) Voluntary salary reduction of our Groupe leadership, agency CEOs, MDs, leadership teams and senior staff. Through all these measures, we have made sure our employees at the entry and mid-level have been protected.
“At every stage of our plan, we have taken a collaborative and united approach with our agency CEOs and leadership team. We have also been very transparent and regularly shared with our entire team our plan to manage through the pandemic, and our progress.
“As a result, we estimate that our Groupe-wide efforts have helped save around 80 jobs that otherwise would have been affected by the impact of COVID-19.
“Whilst we have held the line on making redundancies for as long as possible, unfortunately 34 roles are at risk of redundancy in a small number of our agencies, out of the more than 1,570 people that work across Australia and New Zealand. This represents less than 2% of our workforce. For some of those affected, we have been able to successfully redeploy them to other agencies within the Groupe, and we continue to look for other transfer opportunities.
“To help provide assistance to people as they search for new employment, Publicis Groupe’s Talent Acquisition team has put together a Redundancy Support Program. This includes information on immediate support such as financial support/money management, exploring new career pathways, and mental health support services; consultations with a Talent Acquisition team member for advice on where to look for new opportunities, access to industry talent acquisition contacts and preparing for job interviews; and access to online growth learning and development training modules.”
20 Comments
Yep, this is all about you and how well you’ve done!
I work for the Publicis Groupe, and I reckon the Groupe leaders have done an outstanding job to date. People first every step. So pull your head in.
Managed much better than CHEP and no doubt clear comms throughout.
I also work for Pub Groupe and can honestly say that Mike and the broader leadership group of individual agencies have genuinely done everything they could to protect jobs for as long as possible and provide the proper support for people. they have been working overdrive to try and reallocate people within the Groupe. can’t speak for other networks but they have treated us very well and communicated the entire time in a transparent way.
Here is a lesson of how to corporately manage a crisis keeping the lens focused on the wellbeing of your people.
So to every negative, pessimistic, gloomy, contrary, cynical, dissentive comment that follows here on this thread, a pox on your houses.
Look, a hugely rich company that DOESN’T slice its own people the second it thinks its profit might take a hit
What’s often forgotten is that Mike can do everything he can for his people ( and anyone knowing him knows he would do just that) but if Publicis HQ decides the jobs must go – then Mike will have little choice but to let those people go. Let’s hope for the best.
So are you saying you’ve rehomed almost all these 34 redundancies, or have you rehomed some but 34 will go?
Well done Mike and team. Thank you.
Every network agency is owned by someone overseas. I don’t imagine any agency leader wants to let anyone go. The truth is when the instruction comes there is nothing locally anyone can do. Well done to Mike for lasting out as long as he could
I also work for publicis and the way they’ve handled this has been nothing short of amazing. thank you for doing everything you can and I’m grateful to work at a place that cares so much about its people.
Sorry I am also confused by this story.
Are they gone?
I have known Mike Rebelo for at leat 18 years or so. I know his personal and professional values are completely aligned. I also know from his relationships with his own people and his clients he really does worry about how to give everyone a chance to be successful and certainly encourages and provides the opportunities for them to be so. I’m sure this would be hurting him as much personally as professionally. We can all hope that the overall business environment/economy improves as fast as it possibly can so these people will be able to find useful and fulfilling roles, either back in Publicis, another group or an independent agency. From where I sit it is not easy for anyone in the business at the moment.
Ignore the thoughtful, considered and people first approach…
Think profit first, people second!
Run towards the fire!! muhahahah…
Che-yeaaahhhp
Management at Chep are completely blind as to how to treat their staff. They simply do not get it. A nice start would be to stop hiring new ppl with the salaries you’ve taken off your staff. Just a thought
Fuck you, you silly goose. You know nothing you stupid punk.
The less the French have to do with our industry and country the better. They strangle productivity in France by banning emails outside of working hours but get their croissants bent out of shape when overseas. It’s time to HTFU and do things right. Grow some backbone Johnny Foreigner!
Obviously CV19 is a black swan event, and it is a positive that Publicis folke are praising their response.
But I’m reminded of previous mass redundancies I’ve been caught up in.
At the exit interview the MD invariably explains how heart-wrenching it is, and that it is no fault of the workers, but it is not their fault.
I, invariably, tell them it is their fault. My job is to write good ads. Their job is to make the company successful. I did my job, they did not.
So Publicis is probably 20 different businesses in Australia and New Zealand and they make 34 redundancies in July across all of these, roughly less than 2 people per business. Some others make 35 redundancies in March from a single agency….
Isn’t great to write press releases about how good we are… (From the same creators as “we give mental health day to our people and everyone needs to know about it” ) this is just depressing… nothing against Michael, everyone knows Publicis is just a bunch of coordinated monkeys for Paris… they only care about the numbers…