This Agency Senate Report is taken from the responses of the Agency Senate to the senate survey for March 2022.

We asked Senators about their experience of attracting, supporting and retaining top talent in their agency.

We gave them the following strong statement, a perspective on the topic that might commonly be expressed by an agency leader, the kind of thing you might hear in conversation with peers talking about trends or strategic positions. We asked them for the reactions to the statement.

Rockstar employees can be such divas, constantly needing their egos massaged, and badly unbalancing the business — they’re way more hassle than they’re worth. In the current talent market, where these people have unrealistic expectations, it would be better for agency leaders to sacrifice growth than to spend the time, money and attention it takes to attract and retain these people.

We then asked them for their opinion on the statement, and to express their agreement on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

What is the Agency Senate?

64% of Senators
believe that highly-talented individuals can create more hassle than their worth for an agency, including making the agency team a target for other businesses to pinch highly-skilled talent.

“We've experienced the detrimental effect of these egos in the past and won't go back there. Period.”
 
Agency owner of a digital agency
Founded 1999
Headcount: 30–74
HQ in Australia

21% of Senators
strongly disagreed, and rather see the agency leader’s job to create a good working environment for top talent and a healthy business simultaneously.

“Top talent is key to any consultancy and as a leader I need to do whatever I can to keep them.”
 
Agency owner of a consultancy agency
Founded 2009
Headcount: 30–74
HQ in Switzerland

The Senate's Opinion on Retaining Top Talent

Here’s how the Senate expressed their response to that statement.