Future of Work DE&I Forum Recap: Companies work to make tangible changes to keep DE&I commitments

By Sara Jerde

Almost a year after the murder of George Floyd sparked one of the biggest waves of protest and social activism in American history, how is the ad industry doing to address diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I)? In the wake of last year’s protests, brands and agencies promised to “do better” by their employees and consumers. However, the general perception is that progress has been slow and it’s clear many companies have failed to match words with action.

The Digiday Future of Work DE&I Forum on April 28-29 unpacked current developments in the DE&I space, looking at everything from hiring and retention to the implications of companies returning to the office. Agency insiders and DE&I professionals joined us to share their thoughts on the year gone by, what they’ve learned and what building a more diverse, inclusive workplace looks like.

Progress on hiring remains sluggish

A number of speakers pinpointed hiring as one of the major areas where progress on DE&I in the ad industry is stalled or happening too slowly. The industry is still overwhelmingly white, and diversity is concentrated in admin and entry-level roles.

Retention is also critical, particularly when it comes to improving representation further up the organization chart. If POC employees aren’t staying with a brand long enough to reach those managerial positions, the company needs to address the reasons for this.

The diversity gap invariably widens at the upper levels of the company hierarchy, particularly in the C-suite. If leaders fail to redress the balance, young employees will often draw their own conclusions.

The ripple effect of under-representation

Under-representation creates compounding disparities within the industry. Until at least last summer, brands have been wary of advertising alongside social justice content, citing “brand safety” as a concern. REVOLT CEO Detavio Samuels said it’s a perfect example of how under-representation ripples throughout the industry.

Over the past year brands have embraced social justice content to a greater extent, but Samuels said under-representation continues to have negative knock-on effects. Consider the minuscule fraction of total advertising spend received by Black-owned media companies. Less revenue stifles the growth of businesses and hinders access for young creatives.

Turning that ship around would have compounding positive effects, according to Samuels. “Community reinvestment is literally baked into our supply chain,” he said. “So it is invested into our employees, Black production companies, Black agencies, producers, and creators. You get an exponential impact from your investments.”

As we’ve seen many times over the past year, good intentions often fall by the wayside. To guard against that, Standard Dose founder and CEO Anthony Saniger said companies should hire a head of people as soon as they can. Saniger, who talked about his own experiences acknowledging and learning from blind spots in terms of understanding employees’ needs, described the head of people role as “Pivotal to making sure that you have someone on the ground, listening, and implementing recurring things so you don’t fall off the wagon.” This is just one small step, but …read more

Source:: Digiday