US agency pays rivals to hire redundant staff

NEW YORK - Interpublic's The Martin Agency has sought to improve the job prospects of 24 staff it made redundant last week by promising to pay their future employers one half of their first month's salary for laid-off employee hired by May.

The agency said it would pay up to $4,000 (£2,836) towards the first month's salary of each of the employees it made redundant, which accounted for 5% of its workforce.

Beth Rilee-Kelley, partner at Martin and director of human resources, told AdAge.com: "We're trying to think creatively about how we can get the employees we let go hired by someone else, and hopefully incent them to get them on their payrolls right away.

"We believe it's important if , faced with a layoff situation, we think of creative ways to help our employees land on their feet."

The redundancies, which were made due to client cutbacks, were the first cuts at The Martin Agency since 2006.

Martin's clients include Walmart, UPS and the American Cancer Society.