(rbb PR's offices after the makeover)

PRWeek's Agency of the Year award given at Tavern on the Green was a bit of a surprise last night. The finalists for best overall are pulled from the small/medium/large winners. Coral Gables Florida-based boutique rbb PR beat out mega-shop Edelman for the top prize.

Rather than re-report the client wins, client/employee retention and revenue information, I took the opportunity to call rbb CEO Christine Barney and President Lisa Ross to find out more about their big differentiator: the quality of life of their staffers.

According to Barney and Ross, addressing the happiness of employees is key to retaining and attracting talent, and ensuring clients get top service. First and foremost is they allow execs to design their own schedule and choose where to work.

As suspected, they confirmed there is a lot of competition in the market for a smaller pool of talent, than the revolving door of New York agencies. However, lately more PR people are looking to the market as a place to move for the sun, atmosphere, and hipness of the Miami metro area.

Clients and friends of the agency will look forward to a open house now that they took the price, to celebrate their open-sourcey renovation (the agency let the world look at the plans, and vote on design themes on their site).

We understand there are several jocks on staff including a spinning instructor, and a yoga instructor who make use of the workout room. rbb also pays a Pilates instructor to give classes after work, and is letting staff vote for either a nifty new elliptical trainer or spin bike to grace the office.

No word on the addition of a tanning bed, yet.