Don’t roll back on representation — our mental wellness is at stake
Opinion
Seeing yourself reflected in your workplace and your industry helps build self-esteem, confidence and a sense of belonging — all essential for good mental health.
Representation really matters for mental wellness. And with the current DEI rollback, it’s essential that we do what we can to keep representation alive in the ad industry.
Seeing yourself reflected in your workplace and your wider industry can have a huge impact on your wellbeing. It helps build self-esteem, confidence and a sense of belonging — three things that are essential for good mental health.
What’s more, seeing people who look like you in more senior roles makes it clear that you, too, can progress and thrive.
On the flip side, feeling invisible or left out can take a real toll on somebody’s mental wellness. There are a number of side effects that can come into play here.
We spoke to many adlanders for our research report Diversity in Focus and community consultation All Ears who told us about how they had been impacted by a lack of representation at work. People reported needing to mask to fit in; feeling invisible, misunderstood and unable to progress; and experiencing anxiety and burnout.
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Be proactive
The stance that you take on representation sends a message. Take a positive and proactive position to show that people matter from every unique background. In doing so, you’ll create a sense of community and connection in which everybody feels welcome.
When companies take inclusion seriously, it helps create a culture where everyone can thrive. Teams feel safer, more supported and more engaged. That’s good for people and good for business.
That DEI is being rolled back across the board makes this an even more important conversation. Just as we were making progress, the push-back began.
Although the main rollback is happening in the US, the ripple effects are being felt in the UK. It’s a dangerous precedent — not least because, according to this survey, nearly 60% of UK employees would leave their company if it cut its DEI initiatives.
People, quite rightly, want to see that their employers are actively practising equitable representation and supporting everybody at work to thrive.
Mental wellness must be the focus of learning and development
Keep learning
Inclusion is not optional and a lack of representation has real mental wellness consequences. Even if your organisation’s DEI budget has been cut, there are still practical steps you can take to support representation in your teams.
Encourage your managers to create authentically inclusive spaces for open conversation. Training can help, such as Nabs’ Managers’ Mindsets holistic programme, which offers workshops on inclusive leadership and mental wellness conversations.
The skills developed throughout the programme will enable managers to empower people to bring their whole selves to work, to be who they need to be — both for themselves and to role-model positively to others.
Give your vocal support to employee resource groups and other staff networks and inclusion groups. These networks need more than just permission to exist; they need the loud back-up of leaders and managers.
When these groups want to lobby for positive change, they’ll need your allyship to get the right decisions made. And they’ll need your active support to help broadcast and champion their work across the organisation, so that as many people as possible can get involved.
Embed representation throughout all of your activities. If you’re holding an event, champion speakers and participants from different backgrounds — you have a responsibility to ensure you are truly representing our whole industry and wider community.
For example, Nabs’ forthcoming Manchester Fashion Show will feature Models of Diversity on the catwalk: a community that advocates for inclusive fashion, body positivity and disability awareness. In doing so, we’ll celebrate models who are truly representative, inspiring our audience and supporters.
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Adding to great work
Our industry at its best is inclusive, inspiring and truly authentic. When we create spaces where everybody can thrive and celebrate their uniqueness, we all benefit from talent that feels confident and proud to be themselves.
There’s some great work taking place in this space across the industry, even with the rollback. So let’s join forces to keep the momentum going; we need to be in each other’s corner.
Because when people see themselves reflected at work, they feel stronger, happier and more connected. And that’s exactly what mental wellness looks like.
Katrina Urban is head of learning and development at Nabs