TRA recognised as a Best Place to Work by AFR BOSS
Recognition of Strong Company Culture, Employee Wellbeing and L&D programs.
As the only dedicated market research agency to be recognised across the prestigious AFR BOSS Best Places to Work awards system, research and insights agency TRA has been awarded third place in the Media and Marketing category in this years’ AFR BOSS Best Places to Work Australasia list.
Andrew Lewis, co-founder and MD, TRA said “Placing third is an unbelievable honour and I could not be prouder of our team’s recent accomplishments to not only overcome the challenges of COVID, but also help our clients thrive during a period of enormous uncertainty and change. The least we can do to repay them is build a fantastic culture and make TRA one of the best places to work.
“Each and every team member has helped shape the fantastic culture we’ve built in Australia and New Zealand, and their roles as guardians of that culture will ensure TRA continues to be a Best Place to Work, where our employees can both influence the direction of our company and brand and be exposed to the best training, thinking and collaborators” he explained.
The AFR BOSS Best Places to Work recognises companies based in Australia and New Zealand who continuously attract and retain talent by developing workplaces that foster adaptability and agility.
This recognition marks a series of recent accolades acknowledging TRA’s positive company culture and leading dynamic work platform, including winning Best Innovation Program at the AFR Most Innovative Companies awards for a third time in 2021.
Lewis continued: “At TRA, we’re on a mission to see people get better stuff from organisations – to improve the experience of life – and we recognise it is only through an unwavering commitment to the development of people and thinking that we can achieve this. We are focused on ensuring our people are supported and valued, and this award is a testament to our team’s dedication to going above and beyond to support our clients and each other every day.”
TRA has recently launched two cutting-edge initiatives, TRA Flex and TRA Academy, both of which focus on providing opportunities for employees to develop, work and learn in ways that suit them best.
“Surveying our employees to find out how we can do better by building care and belonging is essential for our business plans around people retention and attraction,” said Irena Bakker, Head of People and Capability. “TRA Flex and TRA Academy both evolved from insights we gained from employee input and enabled us to discover how things are for our people today and as a result build solutions that take us into the future.”
TRA Flex allows employees to decide where, when and how they work. Flexibility that can change by the day, to fit around their lives, or employees can decide to make more far-reaching changes without feeling they are short-changing colleagues and people, or sacrificing their own personal career progress.
Amelia Sayes, Quantitative Consultant, now works between Palo Alto and San Francisco as her partner studies in the US. Sayes says, “TRA have been incredibly supportive while I moved to the States and have done everything they can to put my personal circumstances and mental wellbeing above all else. I work mainly New Zealand hours but a little later in the day which works perfectly for meeting tight client deadlines. It works for me, for my clients and for the business, a win on all levels.”
TRA Academy was created to accelerate growth by putting employees in control of their learning and upskilling journey. Each Wednesday TRA is closed for two hours – no exceptions - during which time the TRA team devotes themselves to learning.
Employees can choose from a curriculum of more than 85 courses, developed by TRA leaders, based on their personal development goals. Courses include, but are not limited to, global best practice for quantitative or qualitative analysis or data analytics, cultural foresight, behavioural science, strategic thinking, marketing models or influencing with impact. Backed by a commitment from TRA of time, resource and learning assets to help make it happen, employees also have access to tutorial groups with TRA’s partners and leaders.
Since implementing TRA Flex, TRA employee engagement scores have increased from 76% (2020) to 82% (2021). Overwhelmingly 97% of employees answered the question, “we are genuinely supported if we choose to make use of flexible working arrangements” favourably, an increase of 21%.
“Stats like these highlight if you use people as your organising principle it really works” concluded Bakker.