Earlier in 2014, the Marketing Agencies Association conducted a survey into diversity in the industry. Arc, I’m pleased to say, ranked in the membership’s top 10 diverse agencies.
At first I was somewhat surprised; we don’t have a specific policy of promoting ourselves to certain sectors of our society. We draw our talent from a wide range of sources and tend to recruit based partially on skills or capability, but more on a fit with the Arc culture. The term we use for an Arc person is a brand activist, which suggests the willingness to take action. A brand activist is someone who stands up for what they believe in and takes responsibility rather than stand on the sidelines while others forge ahead. They are people who can deliver standout brand activation.
On reflection, it’s precisely because we don’t push for specific niches, rather look for those with the right cultural fit, that we are seen as diverse. While our people are united in a common purpose to produce the best work they can, they don’t necessarily share the same background or other interests.
In fact, due to our international client portfolio and network around the world, we have clients and staff members from across the globe. Our London office has recruits from as far as Dubai and Chicago, as well as representatives from closer to home in Europe. This has happened through a combination of recruiting via the network and being open to programmes designed to help the free movement of talent, such as the EU-funded Leonardo Da Vinci Internship programme, which provided one of our recent star graduates.
Indeed, these imports often encourage us to view our own city and culture through new eyes via initiatives such as the “Pub Club”, who meet in a different London bar each month to reflect on London life. Their selection of location and topic of conversation is always an eye-opener on how our own culture is perceived and helps to make us more self-aware.
As the list of skills demanded of our employees grows – from shopper, digital, experiential and sponsorship through to social or B2B – recruiting by attitude and fit is becoming more important than ever. Gone are the days of staffing up with people defined by one skill set alone. We need diverse talent with diverse skills and a truly international outlook, who can blend their skills with others in our creative ecosystem to solve client problems in an innovative and creative fashion. We have quite a few of them at Arc London.
Ian Thomas is managing partner at Arc London
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