Why Trust, Not Perks, is the key to Hustle Agency’s Success
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Anthony Simonetta
- 5 minute read
Company culture has become such a loose buzzword amongst workplaces of all industries. It’s made fun of constantly by Millennials and Gen Z on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
When unchecked, a poor workplace culture has such a damaging impact on the output of a business. High absentee rates, drop-off in high-performing employees and loss of productivity. .
When I started Hustle Agency ten years ago, we recognised early as a small agency that to remain an attractive place for coders, developers, project managers and creatives to work at – we needed to give them the one thing that many big companies were scared to give. Trust.
We believe that putting trust in our team will mean our employees do everything in their power to drive our agency’s growth, to maintain our reputation, and to better themselves as people and contributors.
Trust works in both ways though, so where were we willing to reciprocate, in a way that felt valuable and empowering for our team.
We’ve narrowed down the three best ways we’ve used trust in the past ten years below.
Flexibility
The first thing that comes to mind post-Covid, which many employers and employees are still struggling to agree on, is role flexibility.
The common argument is: Should time working in an office be near or equally offset by time working from home? Three days in the office, two days at home – or vice versa.
At Hustle, we got the jump on working from home pre-Covid, given we saw this trend when it was emerging.
Providing this trust of working from home, not just for a set amount of days, but whenever our team needed to do so, allowed our agency to convert talented intercity and interstate contractors/job opportunists into loyal employees.
Consider we’ve been able to do this as well, in a job market that especially in recent years, has increasingly swung in power of the individual over the agency.
If you ask our employees why they’ve stayed with Hustle for so long, you’re likely to hear job flexibility as their number one answer.
Collaboration
It would be so easy as the leader of any business to distance yourself from your team – in a manner that could be considered overly trusting in individuals.
To have the confidence they will complete a task to a satisfactory level – and the capability to do that over, and over again.
I’ve never wanted to do that though, because as mentioned, I want to work alongside people who I can learn from and be inspired by.
The only way to do that, is to be alongside them as a collaborator. Otherwise, can you really call yourself a leader, or truly ‘a part’ of the agency?
Arguably the greatest way we’ve been able to entrust our employees as collaborators here at Hustle, is by providing them with the opportunity to work alongside us in ventures.
Opportunity
Name any venture we’ve done. Website2App, Hustle Outbound or recently XtraClubs. Each time, we have had team members from the agency lending their expertise.
With Xtra in particular, the majority of Hustle Agency has contributed to its growth. We were able to encourage this collaboration through utilising the Employee Share Option Program (ESOP), which incentivised percentage ownership of the venture via completion of KPIs and time spent working on the business.
We don’t just build businesses—we build them together, ensuring our team is part of every step of the journey. By making employees stakeholders in our success, we create a sense of ownership and commitment that goes beyond the traditional workspace.
Our team enters ventures that align with their skills and interests, and we provide an environment where learning and development are interesting and a continuous process.
Not only does it enhance their satisfaction at work, but it also fuels innovation and creativity in the agency’s marketing strategies too.
I find it incredibly rewarding to see this trust within our team, and how it elevates our output.
Trust is the Foundation of Hustle Agency
Trust isn’t just a value we talk about at Hustle – it’s the foundation of everything we do.
Whether through offering flexibility or fostering collaboration and opportunity within our team, we’ve built an agency culture that thrives on empowering our people.
By trusting our employees, we not only strengthen our agency but also create a workplace where innovation, growth, and loyalty flourish.
Trust, simply put, is the key to our success.