CorpComms Magazine

Three public relations agencies - Shine Communications, Bite Communications and Lexis Public Relations - are among the ten best small companies to work for, while another five register among the top 100.

Shine Communications is the highest ranked PR agency in the Sunday Times '100 best small companies to work for' list at number six.

Founded in 1998 by Rachel Bell, the agency invests 13 per cent of annual profits in staff development, has a £72,000 fun budget and shares a quarter of its profits among staff.

Bite Communications, which is ranked seventh, offers 100 hours of training per year to each employee, and 91 per cent of staff believe that they are gaining valuable experience. Nobody on the workforce is over 44, and they rank Bite as ninth most fun at work company.

Lexis Public Relations, which like Bite is part of Next Fifteen, is ranked at ten. It offers a secondment programme to its US-based sister company, M Booth & Associates, and 83 per cent of employees say they are not bored at work.

At Brands2Life (number 15), 93 per cent of employees have faith in their leaders, while Blue Rubicon (number 42), which also won the Sunday Times special award for training and development, offers 148 hours of courses every year. These include visits from external experts, such as an acting coach to help with presentation skills, and an IT training specialist.

All 128 employees at the Red Consultancy (52) spent time at Centrepoint last year, and the agency signed up 128 companies to support the Soho-based homeless charity during a campaign week last year.

Text 100 (54), which is also part of Next Fifteen, has a Nintendo Wii in the office, Friday afternoon 4pm drinks and fresh fruit. During the summer, staff can leave the office at 3pm on Fridays on a rota basis.

But the PR agencies are not the only communications specialists in the top 100. After marketing and communications agency Elvis (number 26) surveyed its 100 employees last year, it responded with a range of benefits, including birthday holidays, sabbaticals after three and five years, and healthy breakfast options.

Annual report company Black Sun (58) offers staff a free breakfast on Fridays, free drinks on the first Friday of each month, company bake offs and an annual Christmas party. 

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