There are very few agencies that don’t have diversity as a big business focus for the year ahead. There are very few board meetings where it doesn’t feature on the agenda. And there are very few issues of trade publications that don’t feature some form of reference to the ongoing diversity debate. That’s all great; we should be talking about diversity more.
But many agencies are focusing too much on the talking rather than the doing. In order to achieve the industry’s goals on diversity, action must be taken now and not talked about in board meetings.
The benefits of making your agency more diverse (in terms of background, skills, experience) has the potential to transform your business – commercially, creatively and culturally.
Iris is a generational company. We’re only ever as good as the talent we bring in and nurture through the ranks. Over the past 16 years, we’ve never had a “dominant discipline” gene, which has meant that as our clients evolved, we evolved – and our skillset evolved. This means the talent pool we could potentially tap into is huge
(and slightly daunting) when recruiting.
With that in mind, it’s easy to understand why action isn’t taken, because it’s difficult to know where to start. But a word of advice: this action doesn’t have to be in the form of a single, big game-changing initiative.
In my role as emerging talent manager, I know that it can be difficult to know where to look. Where we have succeeded is in running lots of small initiatives, trying new approaches, working with new partners and tapping into government programmes and independent projects to see what works. That’s why we form partnerships with the experts that can help.
It’s a mutual benefit; we get access to some of the brightest creative minds and they get work experience (and often placements) at an agency where they can form a successful and fulfilling career.
We’ve worked with Creative Pioneers, the digital and creative apprenticeship scheme, for two years to find the next generation of adland talent. We’re also offering Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) students placements, bringing in future social media analysts, web developers, user experience planners, plus a whole range of expertise for jobs that don’t even exist yet.
In the arts, we’re working with A New Direction, a London charity focused on young people and their capacity to learn and be creative. It works with schools to improve the quality of cultural and creative education on the curriculum and to provide young Londoners (regardless of background) with the opportunities to access the creative industries.
We also have two brilliant young women, Nicole and Shanice, working in the building. They’re both placements from our first intake of Digify students, thanks to the MAA. They’re currently working in the creative and planning departments and already shaking up how we approach our digital and social campaigns. It’s not that we have a special “diversity strategy” – it’s simply part of our ongoing people strategy: to find world-class talent, from any weird and wonderful place we can.
Agencies that feel they’re a long way off on industry diversity targets should stop talking about it and view addressing this as the best opportunity your agency faces. Don’t view it as a challenge – get out and start doing something.
The people are there, the partners are there. There is nothing for which to wait.
One more board table discussion isn’t going to change that.
Nikki Saxby is emerging talent manager at iris
This advertisement feature is paid for by the Marketing Agencies Association, which supports the Guardian Media & Tech Network’s Agencies hub.
