Happy Teams, Better PR: Why Culture Matters When Choosing an Agency

This isn’t just a nice accolade for us, it’s a signal to our clients that they’ll be working with a happy, high-performing team that delivers consistent results and cares about the work.

The Lemongrass team reported a 98% employee engagement rate (nearly four times the industry average of 25%), gave a score of 97% for wellbeing and reported 98% job satisfaction.

Our Founder and CEO, Mirjam, posted about how being better drives us to build Lemongrass differently. We are a company that focuses on people, not about squeezing every last drop of productivity at the expense of human dignity.

Naturally, this is incredible news for us, but it should matter to our clients and partners, too. Why? Because a happy, engaged, trusted team leads to better work. Our clients enjoy better results, tighter and deeper collaboration, and a reliable consistency in quality.

There’s a reason companies big and small market their culture. It’s not just as a selling point for candidates; it’s to show clients and customers that they’ll be working with an invested team, with people who care. Happy, engaged teams are more invested in their work.

Employee engagement increases productivity by 18% and boosts profitability by 23% and companies with engaged workforces outperform the competition across a ton of metrics. For our clients and partners, this means better work, and more of it.

A great culture also attracts and retains top talent.

We’re extremely proud to report a 0% flight risk (in stark contrast to the 40% industry average), for employees at risk of leaving within nine months. And we keep our top performers by giving them 100% empowerment, with trust and autonomy at every level, and by recognising their achievements and rewarding them in kind.

This means less change for our clients too, no chopping and changing of account managers, or having to tell yet another account executive what makes you different, many of our team members have been with our clients since the start. Scaling alongside them as they grow, and allowing for more time getting great results.

We were early pioneers of the four-day week in the UK and have always been a flexible workplace, offering remote, overseas, and hybrid working options. We recognise that family comes first, and give our people the flexibility to work around life, not live around work.

Less burnout means more creativity and strategic thinking, but it also leads to enhanced continuity for our clients; with fewer new starter briefings, reduced onboarding time, and a deeper understanding of your brand coming from stability.

It’s this mindset, that wellbeing and performance go hand in hand, that shapes how we work at Lemongrass. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Mich Bondesio on the Creating Cadence podcast about how flexible, purposeful ways of working can create real, long-term impact, for our people and our clients. You can listen to the episode and our conversation here.

PR thrives on relationships, with clients and with journalists. Long-tenured teams mean longer media relationships and better trust. For example, PRs with long-standing relationships can negotiate better exclusive media coverage terms, and get the best out of affiliate partnerships, by nurturing the existing relationships they have with key people in media.

And of course, a happy team stays proactive and connected with you; they’ll be confident, transparent, and engaged with your project, leading to better outcomes and a smoother process, all the way through. Our clients are with us for an average of 7.5 years, and relationships are the key reason for this.

When you work with Lemongrass, you don’t just get an agency, you gain a true extension of your team. We slot into your marketing activities with new expertise and experience, helping you amplify your brand with insight, creativity, and care.

We embed ourselves in your world, because we genuinely want to be a part of it. Transparency is embedded in our company culture; we scored 98% in information sharing when reporting to The Sunday Times Best Places to Work Award.

Our team wants to know how your business works from the inside out, so we can fully integrate in every way, whether that’s setting up shared inboxes, attending your internal stand-ups, or aligning to your brand tone and internal KPIs.

We work with partners and clients that we love as organisations: people-first, purpose-driven brands that share our values and build the same relationships with their people as we do our own.

Lemongrass will show up every day, with care and consistency, and the results will speak for themselves; just take a look at any one of our case studies to see the impact our style of work has on business goals.

Lemongrass is a certified B Corp, which means we have extremely strict standards for working practices, ethics, social and climate impact, and a duty of care. Our annual impact report shows how we’re actively working towards a better world for everyone.

We’ve trained our team in carbon literacy, inclusivity and accessibility, and focus on initiatives that positively impact our team and the wider community.

We scored 98% on instilling pride in our people. We all feel deeply connected to the company vision and values, and we seek to live by them every day.

It’s easy to be impressed by sleek proposals, polished websites, and big campaign headlines, but when it comes to choosing a PR agency, culture matters just as much as credentials. Why? Because culture shows up in the day-to-day, in the people you work with, the energy behind the ideas, and the consistency of the output.

So how can you tell if an agency truly lives its values and supports its team in a way that benefits you as a client? Here are a few tips and questions to help guide the way:

• Look beyond the campaigns: Awards and accreditations for workplace culture (like Best Places to Work or B Corp certification) show that an agency invests in its people, not just its work.
  
   
• Ask about the team behind the pitch: Who will actually be working on your account? What’s the average tenure? High turnover can be a red flag.
  
   
• Dig into client relationships: How long do clients stay with them? Can they offer references from clients with similar values or challenges?
  
   
• Explore their online presence: Take a look at their team or culture pages, LinkedIn profiles, or social feeds. Do they celebrate their people? Do their values align with yours, especially if you’re a purpose-led, people-first brand?
  
   

• Don’t be afraid to ask direct questions: What’s their approach to wellbeing and work/life balance? What internal initiatives are in place to support the team? What does transparency look like in practice?

   

• Check out Glassdoor: What do current and former employees say? Anonymous reviews can reveal a lot about leadership, culture, and how people are treated day to day.
   

A great agency culture won’t just sound good, it will feel right when you engage with the team. And when that culture supports motivated, trusted, happy people, the results speak for themselves.