Creating Purple Unicorns

Written by: Jennifer Fracassa, VP, Director of Human Resources

Hi! My name is Jen and I’m the leader of the Talent team at RFH. We strive to build a culture that empowers our employees in ways that are meaningful to them. Through a “listen first” methodology, we discover what makes each person unique, their career aspirations, and what support and experience we can provide to help them achieve their goals. At RFH, we believe that talent is more than a job description or title and that everyone has super powers that are waiting to be unlocked. It’s important that our people feel valued for who they are as well as what they bring to the table.

But how do we do that? How do we make sure our talent is being supported personally and professionally, feels safe coming to work, can be who they are no matter what they believe or what they look like—talent that comes from all walks of life that will help our agency thrive and future-proof?  

People first, employee driven

The most important thing to RFH is its people. We are surrounded by smart, passionate, driven individuals who push limits because we share a belief that what we do is making the world a healthier place. My focus is on ensuring the talent experience is truly employee-led. It’s not just about the role that they were hired for, but where their skills can stretch outside of traditional defined roles. Our people-centric approach keeps them from feeling stagnate, avoids burnout, and helps them find the spark they need to stay engaged and committed to the work they’re doing.

Shifting our strategy on how we define our roles, develop skills, and engage our talent

We’ve shifted how we define our roles to include not only core skills but also behavioral/leadership competencies that reflect each job that are not typically found in boilerplate job descriptions. This helps our people and managers to think differently about measuring performance and developing talent. Making the shift to competency-based interviewing also allows us to look at talent outside the traditional advertising agency ecosphere.

Being able to Connect From Anywhere—a RFH methodology that allows our talent to choose where they work from—is another critical factor into helping us find the best talent anywhere in the country. Being able to expand our footprint beyond the usual zip codes and expand our virtual workforce has helped us improve our diversity and skill bench. In addition, our job rotation program has also allowed our talent to broaden their experience. We know burnout happens, so we look for opportunities for talent to switch into a new role that will help them grow, stretch, and find new areas of individual success. This ultimately leads to success for our agency because happy people do amazing work.

Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion

The world is changing so fast that we need to build a workforce that can adapt to not just the changes in the workforce, but the world around us. Allowing people to escape traditional boxes enforces a culture shift to be more inclusive, looking outside the box not only for new talent but also in how we all approach our roles.

Recruiting, career development, education, and partnerships are the strategic DE&I pillars for Razorfish Health. Together with our Advisory Council and Leadership team, our mission is to promote opportunity, inclusion, and a voice for all, with an emphasis in support of BIPOC, and those traditionally excluded because of their gender, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, or national origin. My team works in partnership with the Advisory Council to ensure we are building a strong, people-led foundation.

People are constructed like flowers, all imperfectly beautiful and unique. We all have skills and talent beyond the ones we leverage every day in our jobs. We’re not looking to build a team of traditional advertisers; we want purple unicorns—people who are willing to be different and bring that diversity of thought to the amazing work we do for our clients and create health care communications that have the power to impact health for all.

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If you are interested in joining the RFH team, check out our open roles. We know you are not your resume; we understand you are not your work, and we respect that you are so much more than a job description. You are you. So come be you and do you with us.