NEW YORK — Weber Shandwick has hired operations expert Brian Offutt to better equip the agency and its workforce to thrive in a post-pandemic world.

As the agency’s first chief workforce innovations and operations officer, Offutt will initially focus on two of the firm’s most pressing challenges: preparing to fully function as a hybrid operation that includes remote staff, and creating a more diverse and inclusive environment.

Offutt, whose background is in the entertainment industry, will collaborate with Weber Shandwick’s human resources, talent, client services and DE&I leaders to redesign agency structures and processes.
 
In time, Offutt's work could extend beyond the agency, to help clients reconfigure their own operations.

Weber Shandwick president and CEO Gail Heimann said: "The nature of work today is changing dramatically and rapidly —  a result of the pandemic but also of seismic shifts in both the role employers are playing in advancing social issues as well as the omnipresent technology that powers our lives.

"Given these shifts, the needs of our business today and in the future demand that we put workforce innovation squarely at the center of our strategy and leadership team going forward. This is essential as we prepare for the hybridization of work to deliver for our people and clients in a post-pandemic world. And as we take action to address structural inequities in our company and our communities, Brian, with his impressive experience and expertise, will bring an operational lens to ensuring we deliver for our people and our clients now, in the next decade and beyond.”

Offutt brings more than 20 years of experience as an operations leader, which included most recently running his own consultancy. Earlier in his career, Offutt served as Combs Enterprises’ chief operating officer and as senior operations leader for Viacom’s Nickelodeon Group.