Mi9 lures new people and culture director Raechel Gavin + unveils bold new Mi9 Manifesto

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rach.jpgMi9 has made a very public commitment to its people today announcing Raechel Gavin has joined as people and culture director and unveiling a bold new document that will be central to her role – the Mi9 Manifesto.

Mi9 CEO Mark Britt welcomed Raechel, who was most recently group HR director at dmg Radio,  explaining that people and culture at Mi9 means much more than just human resources.

Says Britt: “Our people are central to everything we’re doing. Raechel will be at the heart of the values led and purpose driven culture we’re building here. She will also be charged with making our new Manifesto part of every day. We’ve done a lot of work over the past couple of years to move away from thinking about HR as a function – payroll processing, job levels and definitions. There’s the broader issue of people and culture, which we think is much more important.”

The Mi9 Manifesto – a public declaration of the culture the digital media company aspires to –  lays out the nine foundations of Mi9’s approach to business, states the company values and asserts a go-getting company purpose; “to create the future of media”.

Says Britt: “The Manifesto makes a fairly clear and direct statement about the culture we aspire to and what we expect from people at Mi9.”

Starting with the reason staff get out of bed in the morning – and ending with a gutsy checklist of “9 reasons to look for a job somewhere else”, the Manifesto can be found at: www.mi9manifesto.com.au.

The Manifesto is designed to give insiders and outsiders a true sense of what it means to be an Mi9er and to help current and future employees decide ‘I fit here’ or ‘I want to work there’. The team of employees who crowd-sourced the content and developed the Manifesto have described it as; ‘mostly already true, partly aspirational, altogether inspirational’.

Says Britt: “The Manifesto also forces people to think about their personal agendas and contributions at work and openly admits that the Mi9 way of working is not for everyone. Mi9’s definitely not for you if you’re not brave, smart, humble and you don’t give a shit – and we’ll call you on it.”

Mi9 is has a large Gen-Y heavy workforce. 350 employees, 51% female, average age 30 – which is consistent with much of the digital media industry and Mi9’s major client base.

Says Britt: “A predominantly Gen Y workforce comes with a much greater expectation of purpose. They want to contribute to the world around them, feel good about what they do, in addition to being remunerated fairly and having a great environment to work in and in which to progress. We started by crowdsourcing and instilling the Mi9 company values; Brave, Smart, Humble and Give a Shit, in everything we do  and now we’re continuing that work with the Manifesto.

Raechel Gavin: joins Mi9 from dmg Radio where she held the role of Group HR director, highlighting her proven track record of working with diverse commercial organisations to improve working environments and attract talent. Her HR career spans 20 years, with experience across a variety of organisations from boutique consulting companies and professional services environments to media and government.

Some of the leading organisations Gavin has worked with include Bain and Company, Freehills Lawyers, Qantas, Clayton Utz and Centrelink.

Says Gavin: “The industry is in the middle of an unprecedented period transformation and digital media companies are well placed to build positive and engaging work cultures which help companies attract and retain the best talent. The Manifesto is a real point of differentiation for people in media. It’s a public declaration to the market about why you work in media, here.  It’ll play a critical role in building creativity and sense of purpose across the business. I’m really excited to be starting at a time when the values and people are really visibly at the forefront of everything Mi9 is doing.