Marketing Briefing: ‘Poor track record of growing talent’: Why agencies need to focus on retaining diverse workforce

By Kristina Monllos

Throughout this month, Black History Month, there’s been a renewed focus on initiatives to help diverse talent break into advertising.

For example, earlier this month a group of 10 independent creative agencies launched a new internship program for Black creatives. There’s also a new paid fellowship, LabFellows, which is a joint effort from the BrandLab, Wunderman Thompson, Best Buy, Essence and Optum, focused on “fostering new career opportunities in marketing and advertising for upcoming and recent college graduates from diverse backgrounds,” per the release from the initiative’s partners.

Those programs join myriad existing internships and fellowships in advertising designed to help diverse talent find a way into the industry.

Getting diverse talent into the industry, however, is just the beginning of the issue when it comes to improving inclusion and equality at agencies, according to Black employees and industry analysts who say that while agencies should continue to grow their talent pool work still needs to be done to retain and promote Black and brown employees to mid-level roles and above.

“Given the larger focus on diversity over the past year, I’m hopeful that mid-level Black employees throughout our industry are feeling more visible and having more opportunities for advancement,” said Julianna Akuamoah, chief talent officer at Arnold and Havas Media in Boston. “But the work is really only beginning.”

As agencies have been working to improve their inclusion profiles and process, mid-level Black employees say they’ve had more outreach from recruiters looking to help agencies improve diversity. “Recruiters reach out to me all the time,” said one Black copywriter who asked for anonymity, adding that recruiters often ask for referrals to other diverse employees. “Many left advertising agencies because they had no chance of growing in their career, they went to work brand-side or left marketing and advertising in general.”

“Because we’ve had such a poor track record of growing talent, people drop out at mid-level and there is a shortage of talent at mid- to senior level,” said Nancy Hill founder of Media Sherpas and former 4A’s president. “Everyone is competing [for the same] people.”

The difficulty in finding diverse candidates for mid-level roles is a byproduct not working to promote and retain diverse talent, according to the copywriter. As agencies look to improve diversity by focusing on entry level positions via fellowships and internships, agencies need to also improve their efforts on retaining and promoting talent they already employ, according to employees and industry analysts.

That being said, some industry analysts and employees believe the focus on entry level candidates is intentional as it’s easier to get people in the door than give them the resources they need to move up the ladder once they are inside agencies.

“I feel like agencies don’t want to change their system, but want to seem like they’re concerned about DE&I,” said a Black copywriter for a creative agency who also requested anonymity. “Agencies need to [care] about the issues. Waiting until it’s a PR scandal isn’t showing …read more

Source:: Digiday