Diversity is a necessity

Diversity in the officeDiversity is the hot topic on everyone’s mind at the moment, with industries ranging from film to the creative industry coming under scrutiny.

Recently we saw the Oscars being criticised for their lack of diversity around nominations for the awards – all are white. However, last month the Screen Actors Guild Awards shone a light on what diversity should look like as the winners ranged from various ethnic backgrounds with Idris Elba and Queen Latifah both accepting awards. I feel the creative industry is waking up to the reality that if we don’t open our doors to a more diverse pool of talent, we will lose out in the global creative race.

Screen Shot 2016-02-26 at 15.24.47I recently saw some statistics published by The Drum Diversity Census that shocked me. Over a four-week period, more than 750 respondents from the marketing industry completed the Diversity Census survey anonymously. Only 7% of the participants identified themselves as gay or lesbian and 86% categorised themselves as white. I was pretty taken aback. I was then pleased to see that the IPA have also been looking at this and created the IPA Agency Census in 2015. The results showed the proportion of employees who are from a non-white background has increased from 13.0% in 2014 to 13.1% in 2015. A measly 0.1% in a year. Just shocking.

As a CEO of a creative agency I place great significance on diversity and I am proud that I work for such an accepting company. Embracing diversity is critical to being an attractive employer for today’s talent. To be brilliant at what we do, we need brilliant people – and the competition for talent is tough. I can’t imagine the young talent of today wanting to join a business that doesn’t champion diversity – especially where we are in London, a city that is famous and fabulous because of its diverse population.

Creativity thrives on difference in every sense – different view points, seeing things through different eyes, from different sensibilities. This helps us get to better solutions.
Diversity isn’t just good for business in terms of getting the best talent – it’s also about doing the best work for our clients.

We address diversity in many ways, and at my agency we have people from multiple countries, multiple backgrounds, gay people, straight people and a pretty equal balance between men and women across the board. So the people in the business who are looking to recruit new talent are ‘diverse’, and in turn attract diversity.

Diversity issues won’t be ‘magicked’ away just by talking about them – businesses have to take positive action. I particularly like one of our female creative director’s approach to finding talent. She’s not interested in viewing a CV, she reviews an anonymous portfolio of work and evaluates that. Therefore, she has no notion whether the candidate is male or female, gay or straight, black or white. She shortlists people purely based on the quality of their work, which is what people should be judged on. Actions like these should be implemented throughout all sectors and in time, hopefully, every industry will increase their diversity.

Diversity is important in any industry, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes good business sense. Diversity is no longer a tick box exercise or an add-on in the creative industries, it’s a necessity.

This article was provided by Vicky Bullen, CEO at Coley Porter Bell.

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