What is the salary like at Burson?

Great people, competitive pay and benefits

Big lack of transparency between upper management and lower

Diverse client roster, good team members, opportunities to work on large brands and campaigns.

Not a lot of rom for growth, below average pay, a lot of overtime hours and poor work life balance. Very top heavy and management often has no idea what their teams actually do.

Great roster of global clients in various sectors, good brand name for the CV and part of WPP, interesting work, and generally nice people and opportunities to learn.

Abysmal in everything to do with employee engagement... Inconsistent and confusing comms from the top - ironic for a comms company. Salaries are generally below industry and market standard. There are very few pay rises, not even a yearly inflationary one (this should really be standard practice and was at my previous two companies - at least a 2-3% rise otherwise you are effectively getting a pay cut every single year that passes due to cost of living increases). There is no bonus system at all, even for senior staff. This means there is very little incentive to go the extra mile as all you will get is a pat on the back and promise of a promotion and pay rise that rarely / never comes. Promotions are few and far between, there must be a backlog of 20+ current good staff who are overdue a promotion based on high performance but have not been rewarded with one. Even those who get promotions advise the pay rises are miniscule (circa 5% on average). 4 days a week in the office (and two being Friday's bizarrely) being mandated from April by WPP leadership will reduce flexible working as well as make people less productive and poorer. Another terrible decision by the leadership at WPP who are out of touch and making a myriad of unenforced errors leading to unnecessary high churn of decent staff. Avoid if you want a good work-life balance. Overall, investments in people have generally decreased - good perks like lunch vouchers, free snacks and vouchers as a Christmas bonus have been removed over the last 12 months as cost cutting has become the number 1 focus of WPP and by extension Burson.

My experience working here has been mostly positive, with of course ups and downs. A significant advantage is having access to some of the world's best AI technology available in the world of Public Relations, thanks to being part of a large holding company like WPP. This allows employees to deliver superior work, reducing time on 'more mechanical tasks' and allowing for greater focus on strategic tasks and consulting. The learning opportunities are well-thought of, ranging from global webinars to in-person trainings. You get to work alongside some very talented people in the region but also across the global network, and even with the usual corporate layers, there's always a chance to pick the brains of senior team members and really learn from them. The people are generally kind, professional, and inclusive. Furthermore, the office space and location is nice (although it can get noisy at times).

However, it's worth noting that the recent merger has led to some shifts in the company's identity and culture. While the work is engaging, salaries could definitely be more competitive, especially given the rising cost of living. The flexible working policy is also undergoing changes, and while learning opportunities are many, the recent delays in promotion cycles have been a point of concern. While significant mergers naturally bring disruption, I'm hopeful the dust will settle soon and these changes will lead to a much stronger organization in the future.

Good clients, interesting projects , nice offices

Bad pay, terrible comms around redundancies

-Flexible for working from home -Nice office

-Significantly lower pay than any other entry level PR job - Zero benefits as a fellow -Misogyny: men getting promotions constantly over women and POC -Not inclusive culture

We have access to a lot of resources

Salaries weren't competitive with industry standard

Great roster of global clients in various sectors, good brand name for the CV and part of WPP, interesting work, and generally nice people and opportunities to learn.

Abysmal in everything to do with employee engagement... Inconsistent and confusing comms from the top - ironic for a comms company. Salaries are generally below industry and market standard. There are very few pay rises, not even a yearly inflationary one (this should really be standard practice and was at my previous two companies - at least a 2-3% rise otherwise you are effectively getting a pay cut every single year that passes due to cost of living increases). There is no bonus system at all, even for senior staff. This means there is very little incentive to go the extra mile as all you will get is a pat on the back and promise of a promotion and pay rise that rarely / never comes. Promotions are few and far between, there must be a backlog of 20+ current good staff who are overdue a promotion based on high performance but have not been rewarded with one. Even those who get promotions advise the pay rises are miniscule (circa 5% on average). 4 days a week in the office (and two being Friday's bizarrely) being mandated from April by WPP leadership will reduce flexible working as well as make people less productive and poorer. Another terrible decision by the leadership at WPP who are out of touch and making a myriad of unenforced errors leading to unnecessary high churn of decent staff. Avoid if you want a good work-life balance. Overall, investments in people have generally decreased - good perks like lunch vouchers, free snacks and vouchers as a Christmas bonus have been removed over the last 12 months as cost cutting has become the number 1 focus of WPP and by extension Burson.

Great team, global large scale clients

Limited career progression and salary progression, no bonus

Management tries their best to guarantee some personal time for their employees, pretty rare for a PR/Ad agency

Minimum wage for junior levels Regular team rearrangements without prior notice