The traditional gender executive bias is flipped at Marina Maher Communications (MMC) – its executive committee features seven women out of eight members. In addition, its percentage of ethnically diverse staff is at 21% and MMC continues to focus on increasing this number, as it knows that diverse perspectives lead to higher creativity, innovative ideas and solutions for clients, as well as a greater internal sentiment of inclusion among teams.
MMC offers a number of career development and training opportunities to enhance employees’ skillsets. The MMC Masters Program, for example, is a multi-level internal training program designed to keep employees growing professionally and personally, benefitting the individual as well as the agency.
The curriculum has spanned social media and crisis management, critical thinking, budgeting, presentation and client leadership. Examples of sessions conducted in the past year include Negotiation Skills, Pharma 101, Cannes Talk: Lunch & Learn, and Insights from SXSW.
MMC also offers staff customized one-on-one and team coaching in the areas of client effectiveness, presentation skills and performance management. In addition, MMC offers one-on-one leadership coaching as well as executive level leadership development.
The agency’s Culture Team plans activities to allow people across the organization to bond over similar interests and passions. This year a macaroon-making event was hosted, and a ping pong tournament and a Karaoke outing are on the books.