Earlier this month, Tyto launched our latest talent programme – the Tyto Accelerator. The new programme saw six future PR superstars from across Europe come together in London for a week of training, guest speakers and onboarding – both to the agency and to their PR careers.
Remote work creates more opportunities
When Tyto was established five years ago, we knew our unique remote-first model would be attractive to experienced PR practitioners – people who had built their careers in London, Frankfurt or Paris and who wanted to take their lives in a different direction.
As remote-work pioneers, our innovative approach has also given us another advantage – we are able to look beyond traditional talent hubs to find great people. When your whole team is remote, it doesn’t matter whether someone is based in Manchester, Devon, Stuttgart, Nice or Malaga. In Tyto’s model it’s the skills and attitude that make the difference.
Almost five years later, and rapidly closing in on 50 people across Europe, we’ve built a well-balanced business with people at all levels who thrive in our distributed team. Well before the pandemic we took a thoughtful and purposeful approach to creating culture and talent development and these efforts have helped us achieve more than 50% growth year on year and 100% staff retention.
But the struggle for talent has hit the PR industry too, and as we grow, we know we need to look outside the industry to a broader talent pool to find new team members and support the development of our existing team.
So we created the Tyto Accelerator – a brand new 12-week programme designed to attract and accelerate the PR careers of brand new entrants to the field.
The search for new talent
In keeping with our inclusive hiring policies, we deliberately removed the need for a degree to qualify, and opened applications across Europe and to all age groups. Applicants were asked to submit an opinion piece with their application to demonstrate how they think and how they communicate. And team members from across our business were involved in the interview process to eliminate bias or hierarchical thinking.
Last week our six Tyto Accelerator participants joined us for an exciting week of training, dinners and special guests in London.
From left to right: Tyto Accelerator new joiner Jan Angermeier, Associate Director Shamina Peerboccus, and Accelerator joiner Kaziwa Baqi
Building the next generation of Tech PR
To help introduce the team to the world of B2B tech PR, we welcomed guest speakers from Index Ventures, Remote and the PRCA as well as several journalists who shared first-hand how PRs can work effectively with them. Our in-house content, client services and media specialists delivered in-depth training to help them all upskill rapidly. And there were cupcakes. Of course there were cupcakes!
With another 11 weeks of dedicated training and onboarding, our aim is to rapidly accelerate our new joiners’ skills and expertise so they can quickly establish themselves as accomplished PRs and get a jump start on building their own successful careers.
Since day one, we’ve known that it’s possible to build a close-knit, positive team culture remotely. And we’ve seen our team go from strength to strength. We’re now showing that it’s equally possible to attract and develop new and junior talent to thrive in a remote environment.
And if what we’ve seen in their first week is anything to go by, we’re thrilled to see the impact the Tyto Accelerator is having on rising talent and proud to be supporting their development. Watch out PR world, here they come!