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BlastMedia is an 18-year-old PR agency that works with tech companies to get them coverage in trade journals and national publications and boasts it has always emphasized constant learning for its employees. In 2022, it formalized its professional development program under the name BlastMedia Accelerator Program.
“We really wanted to formalize it into something that could be replicated year after year and grow with our business,” said Lydia Beechler, the company’s first director of learning and development. “We’ve had big growth in the past couple of years and wanted to make sure that the new talent we were bringing in was getting the same opportunities as people who’d been here for years.”
The accelerator is an umbrella for all the programs Blast offers internally, including boot camps, cohort sessions and its mentor program.
Boot camps are intensive trainings for everyone in the company. They’re designed to educate employees about software as a service, which is the industry Blast works closely with. The company might bring in a venture capitalist to talk about a topic, which will lead to a deeper discussion among the employees.
“I like those trainings,” CEO Mendy Werne said, “because entry-level people can hear what senior-level people are thinking about and asking about—and vice versa. So it’s a nice, collaborative learning environment.”
The cohorts bring together people in similar roles in the company for a six-month program that focuses on soft-skill development and areas related directly to their jobs. And the mentor program lets entry-level people learn one-on-one from senior-level personnel.
Werne said the accelerator was created largely because, at the end of 2021, Blast had doubled in size and, over the past year, had 20 promotions based on the development the company has provided to
its employees.
“There was a real need for us to elevate our skill set, both with client communication, our PR skills and our SaaS skills,” she said. “If you don’t understand your client, you’re not going to be able to talk to the client, strategize with the client and pitch the media.”
While all this has been going on, Werne and Beechler said, Blast has worked to educate its employees on the importance of DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging). That includes adding more inclusive language on its website, attracting more diverse applicants and creating employee resource groups for the LGBTQ community and working parents.
The result of these efforts, Beechler said, is 80% employee retention, “which is amazing for an agency.”
“I like to think a big part of that is the education that we do here. We value our employees and want to make sure they are not feeling stagnant in their role. They see an opportunity for growth in the agency.”•
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