Business & Money | Tuesday 19 May, 2015 12:33 pm |

TRACCS, the largest home-grown public relations network in the Middle East & North Africa, headquartered in Saudi Arabia, has been named the “Best Consultancy to Work For” in Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa by The Holmes Report, making it the first regional agency to ever win this prestigious accolade. This distinction by one of the foremost global authorities on the PR industry is considered the ultimate benchmark of PR firm culture and workplace performance in an industry whose primary asset remains its people.

The employee-voted recognition is determined by a comprehensive survey of agency employees from around 40 PR firms throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. The process solicits employee views on a wide range of issues ranging from the integrity of senior management and the quality of professional development to empowerment, risk-taking and compensation.

“This recognition is a huge vote of confidence in our approach to hiring and training Arab PR practitioners and our unwavering belief that a professional and sustainable communications industry needs to be built from the ground up, without relying overly on imported talent. Building indigenous Arab talent is the only way forward for the PR industry in the Middle East,” said Mohamed Al Ayed, TRACCS Chief Executive Officer. “TRACCS is deeply committed to transforming itself from an ‘executing’ organization to a ‘thinking and learning’ organization. This is a painstaking process that requires coaching, mentoring and integrating new talent within the core teams of the network.”

Al Ayed explained, “Agencies and other industry drivers need to look at building talent within their respective agencies as a strategic imperative rather than something that is part of the HR function. Moreover, in high density, high potential markets such as the Middle East and North Africa, there needs to be concerted efforts to bridge the gap between the educational offering and real requirements within a highly competitive job market.”

TRACCS operates countries 13 markets in the region, making it the largest PR network in MENA. Globally, the agency currently ranks #107 among The Holmes Report Top 250 PR Firms in the world. Today, TRACCS has a presence in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dubai, Muscat, Kuwait, Doha, Manama, Cairo, Beirut, Amman and Damascus with affiliate offices in Tunis, Algiers and Casablanca.




Al Ayed added, “Our mandate is to create a strong presence in every market we operate in and the only way to do so is by hiring local practitioners who must evolve from being service based to expert driven. This in turn facilitates knowledge sharing and skills transfer which lies at the heart of building a strong and collaborative company culture that values employee satisfaction and growth as much as successful business results. Easier said than done – but we are living proof that it is not only possible but successful.”

In the past few years, TRACCS has deployed a number of signature programs internally and externally to further promote the benefit, value and importance of building an indigenous public relations industry in the MENA region, all of which have won awards on an international level. The Maestros, its internal employee relations program that is geared towards encouraging and promoting talent across the TRACCS network, was awarded a Silver Sabre in 2015 for “Best PR Agency Employee Program”. Driver's Seat, another award-winning proprietary program developed by TRACCS won a Silver Sabre in 2014. Driver’s Seat teaches public relations to university students using a creative, interactive and non-conventional approach and aims at training 1,200 students annually across the MENA region.

With more than 55 awards across a diverse service portfolio, TRACCS is a multi-award-winning practice with an employee base of more than 200 PR practitioners strategically spread across its network. 85% of its employees are native Arabic speakers – the largest pool of Arabic speaking PR professionals within the global industry.