Jack Nimble: Creative Production Agency
About: Jack Nimble is a creative production agency based in Sydney focused on creating fast-craft social media content including live action, stop-motion, GIFs, and animation.
Location: Surry Hills, New South Wales.
We're for the marketers who love social, value social and see the potential of using social to connect with people.
Note: This was written as part of an interview with Adam Wise, co-founder and creative director at Jack Nimble.
Building a family vibe culture
Although Jack Nimble is only creeping up to three years old now, there's definitely a family vibe to the culture we have built here.
I think this comes down to our staff sticking around for a long time. We've had a very low staff turnover, which is quite rare in our industry. In fact, our first two full-time hires are still with the company and have been for more than two years now. So not only have they seen Jack Nimble grow into what it is today, they've also played a big part in that growth as well.
But you've got to give the right people the right reasons to stick around. And the right people aren't motivated by money, payday pizzas, ping pong tables, or bar tabs. Sure, those things are nice. But the most important thing is enjoying the work, feeling comfortable, empowered, and heard. I'm really proud to say that I truly believe that's how our staff feel at Jack Nimble.
I've been fortunate enough to work for a company in the past (One Green Bean) that made me feel that way as an employee, so it set a great example for the kind of culture I wanted to create here at Jack Nimble.
You could describe our company culture similar to that of a 'startup culture'. We're a small, nimble team that moves fast and takes creative risks. As we're a startup, this means our staff get to be a part of the growth and we're very transparent with them.
Work-life balance at Jack Nimble
Firstly, I don't love the term "work life balance" because work is a big part of life. We spend more of our lives at work than anywhere else. So first and foremost, you need to find some joy in your work. And a lot of that comes down to being honest with yourself. If you hate your job, then unfortunately that means that you hate a big percentage of your life. That's pretty depressing. So I think it's really important to find something you're passionate about.
In saying that, no matter how much you love your job, I think there needs to be a clear separation between work and life outside that. It's important to have set times where you're switched off entirely from work.
Most weekdays I start work at 9am and finish at 6pm sharp, and can count the weekends I've worked on one hand. I encourage all my staff to do the same, too. I'm not a fan of after hours or weekend emails – 99% of the time, they aren't necessary. Switch off and enjoy your life outside of work.
I've also recently started to schedule proper time into my work days to switch off and exercise. Before the pandemic hit, we signed our whole team up to ClassPass. Not only was it a great team building exercise, but I found it made me happier and more productive in my work days.
Now that all gyms and studios are closed, and we're all working from home at the moment, it's definitely blurred the lines between work and life outside of work. We've recently started a run club on Strava as a team, which I'm finding is helping combat that and encourage us to all switch off as much as we can.
Independence & trust: Working at Jack Nimble
We're very independent. We've been very fortunate to find staff who are amazing at what they do, have an excellent work ethic, and have a genuine love for the work we do. It's really hard to find staff with all of those traits. And because everyone we have at Jack Nimble at the moment has those traits in spades, it means there's a lot of trust there. We all own our own departments, trust each other, and get stuff done fuss free.
We have plenty, but one of the first values we came up with when we started Jack Nimble was quite simply to be nice. The industry we work in can be quite toxic at times. I've personally experienced the worst in people many times in the past on film sets. It's not fun.
We spend a lot of our lives working, so when we started Jack Nimble we decided we wanted to surround ourselves with people who give off good vibes. We truly believe that attitude trumps skill. We'd prefer to work with an upcoming creative who has passion and a good attitude, rather than a seasoned veteran who's jaded and negative.
If you'd like to showcase your unique company culture on Balance the Grind, get in touch with us today!
Every company approaches culture and work-life balance in their own unique way. Company Cultures is a project by Balance the Grind to showcase different workplaces and cultures from around the world.