All In Census – The THC view
There’s a lot to be pleased about in the All In Census (the advertising industry’s census conducted by Kantar) - 19,000 responses show an engaged population. However, the results are mixed and many of them feel a bit ‘meh’ (to use the scientific term).
I can understand the sentiment of not wanting to pile pressure on agencies in a time of economic uncertainty. But, if we genuinely buy into the paradigm that DEI is good for business, then surely it’s still a business imperative to sort some of this out.
We need to be honest that the dial isn’t changing as fast as we would like it to - the presence of negative behaviour has declined by 1 percentage point and the ‘sense of belonging’ has increased by just 2 percentage points.
Research by BetterUp shows a direct correlation between belonging and an increase in performance as well as a decrease in turnover risk. Surely this makes it business critical?
While the census suggests that the advertising sector is doing ok in terms of diversity when it comes to gender and LGBTQIA+, it shows that they fall short when it comes to inclusion for these groups.
For example, it found that the representation of women has increased, both across the whole industry and in C-suite positions. However, there are some very worrying stats about these women’s experiences. They are concerned about taking parental leave, they feel that their gender impacts their career and 9% have experienced sexual discrimination in the last 12 months. 25% of women respondents would also not feel comfortable talking about their menopause symptoms with their manager.
While LGBTQIA+ representation (11%) is way above the UK average (4%), 27% of LGBTQIA+ respondents are likely to leave their company in the next 12 months.
And there are still areas in which this sector continues to underperform with diversity metrics:
Black, Asian and mixed-race representation is on par with the UK working population but particularly low in comparison to the London working population. And minority ethnic respondents continue to be under-represented at the board level.
The working class are under-represented - 20% vs 40% of the general population.
And disabled people also continue to be under-represented with 22% likely to leave the industry due to lack of inclusion.
There’s clearly a huge amount still to do. And I am seeing two big barriers…
Firstly, some companies / c-suites haven’t genuinely bought in to the ‘business critical’ paradigm. They are still seeing DEI as a 'nice to have' and something they ‘should’ be doing. This is evidenced by the reduction in emphasis on the topic as we go in to leaner times. If your business relies on creativity, innovation and recruitment of talent to get ahead, DEI remains critical.
Secondly, I see companies stuck in step 1 - Awareness.
Awareness involves driving attention to the key issues around these topics and many agencies have done a great job here. I imagine this because communication is one of our systemic strengths.
Step 2 is behavioural change. It’s going to require actually changing how we recruit, promote and engage with one another.
So what are you going to do to continue to drive sustainable cultural change? It’s going to require courage, and behavioural change (alongside shifting hearts and minds) to keep this going.
Rox x
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