Spark is a progressive company that offers everyone at all levels several opportunities for growth and advancement. Many employees started as interns and have made their way up to senior associate level and beyond by taking advantage of these opportunities.
Spark has improved the traditional annual review process in order to provide continuous feedback. Once per quarter, each employee receives a comprehensive review of their performance, as assessed by two different peers. Senior managers review feedback collected from reviews and award merit increases at the time of an exceptional review—as well as annually.
If a job description draws an employee to Spark, the company’s internal culture retains them. Co-workers are driven, motivated, collaborative and creative. The foundation of Spark has always been one of collaboration. Teams share information about media, conferences and speaking opportunities, as well as information related to overall trends. With recent organizational changes, teams that were once working in silos are working cross-departmentally and strengthening their social and professional bonds.
Every month, great work is recognized in Spark’s all-staff meetings via the Sparkle Awards. Voted on by peers and managers, Sparkle Awards come with a spot bonus and agency-wide recognition of achievement. Spark’s annual offsite employee event brings everyone in the agency to a remote location and combines skills training with team building exercises (like an epic lip-sync battle for agency bragging rights).