Agency teams need diversity targets at every level for real change
MediaCom’s UK CEO explains how the media agency is setting targets for teams – not just across the business – as well as sponsoring Black and Asian talent.
It was both sobering and heartening to see the ad industry sharing its findings of the All In Census results last week, and as a result, to see the Inclusion Working Group creating a plan for actionable change to boost representation and inclusion of black, disabled and working class people in the industry.
We clearly still have a long way to go, but communicating measurable action is a key stepping stone to making real, tangible progress.
Last summer, I committed to sharing the details of MediaCom UK’s diversity and inclusion journey. As such, I want to share with you as much as I can about the steps that we have since taken to make our business a more inclusive organisation. We never claim to be perfect, but we do commit to being transparent, and the more we share as an industry, the greater our collective learning will be and the more we can accelerate change.
Over the past year we have redoubled our efforts and put in place a series of projects and initiatives to help deliver effective and long-term change within MediaCom. Some of these represent entirely new thinking and some are projects that have been tweaked and accelerated in response to the urgency of the Black Lives Matter message and, more recently, the devastating upsurge in Asian-targeted hate crime in the wake of the pandemic.
Our efforts are broadly structured across two categories: firstly, ways in which we can encourage systemic, structural change and build diverse representation across all levels of MediaCom UK; and secondly, creating an inclusive environment, free of hostility (conscious or unconscious) in which everyone can thrive. In this piece we’ll focus on the first point – our approach to systemic, structural change.
Getting the basics right
Firstly, appointing a Head of Inclusion & Belonging has been instrumental in our journey. We brought the brilliant and passionate Nancy Lengthorn into the role in 2017 and over the past four years she has elevated our understanding of inclusion and how to tackle it within our organisation.
Although it’s vital to have someone leading the charge, we cannot see hiring someone to spearhead our programme as a silver bullet to drive change within our organisation. Our employees are central to this shift and creating advocates for all the DEI work that goes on is essential to ensuring it gets properly embedded around the business. For this reason, our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) sit at the heart of our inclusion strategy, working closely with the leadership team to implement change.
We have seven ERGs at MediaCom, spanning ethnicity, religion, age, gender, disability, LGBTQI+ and mental health. Each group is supported by a senior sponsor, who mentors them and advocates their insights and contributions to the company’s inclusion vision.
Every quarter our ERGs meet with the senior leadership team, where there is a space for their voices to be heard and for change to be implemented.
Setting ourselves targets
Secondly, we have set diversity targets at a team level to drive accountability and accelerate change. This may seem like going back to basics but we’re not just looking at a broad “corporate” diversity target: we are tasking each team leader with a target to drive change at every level in their teams, broken down by marginalised groups.
It is no secret that targets often face criticism, but we are honing in on them, recognising talent and potential, promoting solely on merit and giving a voice to those who our industry has systematically silenced. It’s not something we will deliver overnight, but all progress will count.
Sponsorship for Black and Asian talent
Thirdly, we have taken steps to build on our sponsorship programme, supercharging it with action to provide more equitable opportunities.
Our scheme pairs senior leaders from across the business with Black, Asian and minority ethnic talent. The leaders are given 12 to 18 months to help an employee become tangibly ready for the next step of their career. Importantly, it’s about more than simply giving advice; this is a chance for the leader to unlock their privilege by introducing sponsored talent to as wide a network of people as possible and bringing them into situations they may have previously struggled to access. This could be a new business pitch, industry events, or important meetings, all while actively supporting them outside of these situations.
Critically, the programme is focused on the individual employee: looking closely at that person, understanding where the gaps are in their career, and how to fill them, with the sponsor using their voice and their privileges to advocate for them.
And while so many of us have been fortunate enough to be unofficially “sponsored” throughout our careers – through historical relationships, extensive work and social capital, and ‘traditional’ bonding forums – we wanted to formalise the process to bring equity into the picture and open up opportunities to those without the same privileges.
We have built a community across the WPP network and hope to extend to the wider industry. This is about ensuring that people see themselves reflected and are able to have honest conversations. Plus, from a more practical perspective, it helps us as a leadership team to understand what is needed to shape and evolve the programme.
Belonging at MediaCom
These are just a few of the fundamental elements and approaches within our diversity and inclusion programme. They are all in place to drive greater representation and diversity in our business at all levels. However, there is little point in welcoming people from diverse backgrounds into our agency if, when they get here or as they progress through the ranks, they do not feel that they belong.
Building an inclusive culture is critical and, in many ways, comes first. We will share more on this and expand on our allyship programme, how we have faced into the challenge of microaggressions and the importance of ongoing learning.
Every day we get things right and every day we get things wrong. But we continue to learn and must keep moving forward.