Heartbeat Named Best Place to Work for Fourth Consecutive Year, Selected for 2021 Ad Age List

NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Leading healthcare marketing agency Heartbeat has been named to the 2021 Ad Age Best Places to Work List. 2021 marks the fourth consecutive year of being named a Best Place to Work by a premier industry publication.

Ad Age's sought-after honor recognizes 50 companies in advertising, marketing, and media that are quantifiably ahead of their peers in employee job satisfaction and other workplace-improving factors, such as benefits, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and career development programs.

To be considered for inclusion on the list, employers took a survey reporting workplace demographics, characteristics, and values, while employees took a confidential survey that measured how their employer performed in the key areas they care most about. Ad Age's scoring system aggregated a collective workforce rating with a company's scores in 6 key areas—benefits, company culture, company environment, perks, career development, and engagement—to arrive at an overall score.

Of Heartbeat's selection, Ad Age noted, "The companies on this year's list span agencies, ad tech, media and marketing. But no matter the company or its size, at the end of the day, you're in the talent business. Inclusion on our list means Heartbeat is one of the best in the business at recruiting, retaining and cultivating talent. It's a huge accomplishment."

It's rare for healthcare-focused agencies to be included in Ad Age's Best Place to Work list. Well-known both within healthcare advertising and the larger ad world for its ongoing devotion to company culture, Heartbeat has maintained their commitment to cultivating a uniquely rewarding workplace experience, even as the agency moved to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Internal programs like affinity groups, the "Beat Basics" agency education program, a robust Employee Appreciation Week, well-defined career advancement tracks, professional development stipends, and generous anniversary rewards are a few of the many reasons the company boasts some of the highest employee satisfaction and retention rates in the industry—all factors that weighed into Heartbeat's Best Places to Work list inclusion.

Heartbeat's industry-leading commitment to diversity and inclusion also helped secure their place on the list; while the agency had long led the pack in workforce diversity initiatives, they ramped up programming in 2020 to accelerate progress and better reflect their core values. The company released a commitment letter outlining a long-term, measurable plan for a more inclusive workplace; held workshops addressing bias and trauma; hosted regular peer-led Brave Space meetings; reevaluated their hiring and promotion practices to ensure equity; and formed a diversity-focused, employee-led action committee devoted to keeping up collective momentum on D&I learning and programs, among other projects. Heartbeat reported record-breaking diversity stats in 2020, and many Heartbeaters say that they've never worked anywhere as committed to inclusion as Heartbeat. Correspondingly, the agency took home the Med Ad News Diversity and Inclusion Champion award in 2020.

"When you're leading an organization, this is the highest honor you can possibly receive—especially after a tumultuous year like 2020," said Heartbeat President Nadine Leonard. "Heartbeat is a great agency because Heartbeaters are great people. Purposefully, diligently working to nurture an outstanding workplace culture has been critical for our ongoing growth and success."

Michelle Edwards, Heartbeat's VP, Human Resources, and force behind the company's employee programs and D&I initiatives, said of the Ad Age honor: "Heartbeaters work incredibly hard, and, in turn, the HR & Operations team at Heartbeat works hard for them. We center love in everything we do, and we genuinely feel that every Heartbeater is a valued member of our community. Our people strategy celebrates each Heartbeater's unique contributions and empowers every person to bring their most authentic self to work. Our work is rewarding in itself, but getting this kind of validation—which tells us, unequivocally, that what we're doing is working well—is the icing on the cake. I hope we can inspire more of our peers to take a truly people-first approach, because we promise: they'll reap the rewards. Oh, and by the way, we're hiring!"

More information about the Advertising Age Best Places to Work program and the full 2021 list can be found here.

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ABOUT HEARTBEAT

Heartbeat is a full-service agency for healthcare Challenger Brands. Challengers are playing a high-stakes game—they must battle behemoth market leaders, upend ingrained treatment habits, or transform a "me-too" product into "yes-please."

The agency is known for serving up distinctive strategies and differentiating approaches, ensuring clients' market positions are uniquely owned. Heartbeat designs their organization around a 100% integration model, housing media, strategy, med comms, creative, technology, and even point of care/population health under the same roof for the tightest, most integrated campaigns possible. They price work based on outcomes, not outputs. Their innovative model delivers not only alignment, but powerful orchestration, greater efficiency, and maximum impact for every dollar spent—all the necessary elements for Challengers to triumph.

That's the philosophy, here's the creds: 250+ employees between NYC & LA; 6 agency leaders with decades of tenure; a pile of awards from the likes of the MANNYs, MM&M Awards, OMMAs, and Clios; an industry-leading commitment to diversity and inclusion (with a Med Ad News D&I Champion nod to match); and a President who dared to be quoted as follows, "We celebrate people who stand up and say, 'You know what? This is dumb.'" Damn straight.

For more information about Heartbeat, please email [email protected].

Media Contact

Heartbeat Marketing, Heartbeat, +1 3177966407, [email protected]

SOURCE Heartbeat