The Top Places to Work in PR: Agency—Text 100

This tech-centric boutique consultancy tags itself as “big agency 2.0,” combining analyst, traditional and social media to offer best-in-class insights to its global client portfolio, which includes multinational behemoths like IBM, eBay and Philips.

Text 100’s innovative spirit comes from within. Its staffers contribute their local perspectives to the overall firm’s global fluency (speaking of fluency, more than 40% of employees are multilingual or have worked in more than one region). The Global Secondments program allows employees to transfer to one of Text 100’s 30 global offices, and overseas assignments are the rule rather than the exception.

The philanthropic initiatives undertaken by “Texties” are also global in nature, ranging from a summer “sleep-out” in the streets of London in support of Action for Children, to an eco-office audit in the company’s Shanghai and Beijing offices. Plus, its partnership with TechnoServe, which seeks to help entrepreneurial men and women in developing countries build businesses, has taken employee volunteers to the likes of Tanzania and Latin America for pro bono projects.

The culture, described by employees as “quirky,” “coolly nerdy” and “fun-loving,” is all about open collaboration, which is further facilitated by the cubicle-free, newsroom-style office setting. Advancement is purely performance-based, and the firm’s 88% voluntary retention rate is proof of its highly motivated workforce.

As one employee puts it, “Text 100 is a great place for smart, ambitious, creative and passionate professionals to work with like-minded colleagues who continually challenge the status quo, and who chafe under the constraint of following the herd. We strive to be out ahead of the pack, blaze new trails and shape our destiny.” PRN

October 19, 2009