Brisbane based small business and digital agency Cru Digital is giving staff 10 hours a week ‘creative time’ to encourage creativity in the workplace.
The concept is based around Google’s ‘20 percent time’, which allows employees to spend a fifth of their working week on projects of their own choosing.
“Cru has a reputation for innovation and creativity and we never stop pushing the boundaries,” Cru’s general manager Rob Ryan said.
“To help manage that creative culture, staff get 10 hours a week to carry out research, develop ideas, finish off things that they think they need to get up to standard and support each other.
“We ask our designers to get out to galleries, shows and exhibitions and to talk between themselves about what they see.”
Employees at Cru, recognised as one of the top 10 digital agencies in the world, visit galleries such as the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), participate in Australian Interactive Media Industry Association events and research websites awarded for their cutting edge creativity.
Mr Ryan said the concept gave designers and developers the time to study new trends like HTML5 – a new version of HTML and XHTML, which is being used to build sites for clients unwilling to use Flash.
He said creative time had also led to the development of Snapp CMS – Cru’s own partner-centric, hosted content management platform which will be launched as a service in February.
“Two of our team have just returned from the US where they have been discussing the creative process with other international leaders in this space,” Mr Ryan said. “The initiative will hopefully deliver other ideas to help us nurture and grow the creative culture.”
Based in Newstead, Cru has accumulated 27 international awards this year including recent accolades for its work with Lorna Jane and Dreamworld.
Other clients include the Queensland Department of Justice, Suzuki Queensland, Fortitude Valley mega venue Cloudland and Parmalat brand Breaka.
