Young Professionals Club Builds Connections, Supports Agency Success

After last year’s annual holiday party, a small group of Falls & Co. junior teammates got together for a celebratory drink. The gathering ended with a conversation about how we’d love to get together outside the office more frequently.

This sparked an idea. Create more opportunities for the agency’s early- to mid-career professionals to network outside the office and away from Teams meetings. Not long after, the Falls & Co. Young Professionals Club came to life, receiving enthusiastic approval from leadership and buy-in from several new members.

Are you a young Professional?

We define “young professionals” as those with less than 10 years experience in the industry. However, we have a “the more the merrier” mentality. We welcome all team members who would like to join us.

Culture at Falls & Co.

If you’re wondering why we welcome team members of all ages into our young professionals club when “young” is in the name, let me tell you a bit about the employee culture at Falls & Co.

The definition of culture likely varies by company, but Gallup defines it as “how we do things around here.”

We do things around here with mutual respect for team members, regardless of experience level. We’re open to hearing new ideas, celebrating our experiences and backgrounds, and enjoying balance.

Lucky for us, our team is built on a strong culture and positive group dynamics. We frequently spend more than 40 hours a week collaborating, meeting, brainstorming, planning and executing for our clients, so there are plenty of opportunities to build bonds over morning meetings and late-night deadlines.

However, I’d be willing to bet that we’ve made the most meaningful connections when we’ve stepped away from day-to-day work for a team lunch, traveled to a tradeshow with clients or celebrated the year’s accomplishments at our annual holiday party.

The Young Professionals Club was formed to do just that – form more meaningful connections by spending time together outside of the office. Now, we have regularly scheduled happy hours and lunches, working sessions, networking and professional development events and volunteering opportunities.

This part of our relationship is what makes our jobs enjoyable and keeps us around. Many of our early-career team members have been with the agency for one-to-two years, and late-career team members have been around for more than 10 years.

Research bears this out.

Company culture has a much bigger influence on employee well-being than salary and benefits, according to a Glassdoor study. Gallup says a strong culture can attract and retain talent, increase engagement and productivity, improve employee well-being, enhance diversity, equity and inclusion, and most importantly, deliver the best possible customer experience. Furthermore, employees who feel connected to an organization’s culture are four times more likely to be engaged at work.

Get Away to Get Together

It’s not about getting away – but rather getting together, which is more important now than ever before, especially for those in the early stages of their careers.

The 2024 Work in America survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll of more than 2,000 working U.S. adults, found that younger workers may have difficulty connecting with their coworkers on a personal level; nearly half (45%) of workers aged 18–25 said they feel lonely when they are working.

Taking time to step away from work and to network with people both inside and outside of your organization should be a top priority for every young professional.  

It might sound counterintuitive, but the relationships built from time away from the office socializing together enhance job satisfaction (57%), increase efficiency (22%) and boost innovation (21%) according to a 2021 survey on workplace happiness.

Not only do these casual meetings away from work encourage the development of morale and friendships, ultimately increasing job satisfaction, engagement, and productivity, but they also aim to support key agency values.

Support Agency Success

Our values represent our core beliefs as an agency. The Young Professionals Club lives out many of Falls & Co’s core values and principles, including serving others, celebrating diversity, and enjoying balance.

Our time together helps us better support our clients and our community through professional development and volunteerism. We encourage the growth and development of each other’s unique paths through mentorship and collaboration.

We volunteer our time to those in need. Most recently, we spent an afternoon at a local school, preparing its learning garden for the winter.

Learn Leadership, Enjoy Balance

While our career experience is the common ground that brings us together, the Young Professionals Club is diverse in backgrounds and areas of expertise. We learn from each other by discussing challenges and ideas.

Additionally, we’ve created opportunities for “lunch & learn” style meetings where more experienced team members join us for discussions and questions. Their background, advice and insights open us up to different experiences and strategic approaches. We learn to be leaders from those who lead.

We take time away to find balance, ultimately allowing us to flourish personally and professionally. We work hard and we play hard.

The Club’s Future

The Young Professionals Club has created a community dedicated to connection, growth and collaboration.

“My office is located two floors below most members of the group, so the club has allowed me to connect with co-workers from different teams that I don’t regularly cross paths with,” said Paige Haren, an account executive on the advertising team at Falls & Co. “I’ve really enjoyed connecting with those teammates at happy hours and outings.”

By fostering relationships that extend outside of the office and embodying our core Falls & Co. values and principles in the community, we contribute to the success of the work that happens in the office and in the world around us. 

We’re optimistic that the positive momentum of the organization’s first year will continue through the coming years, bringing new opportunities to mingle, network, learn and serve others.

Interested in learning more about the Falls & Co. culture? Check out more blogs here.