AGENCY DEI: A Not-So-Secret Weapon in the War for Talent

What AGENCY DEI has done is remarkable and unprecedented in the advertising industry While there have been previous surveys or even content analyses of diversity they have generally compiled their data in the aggregate in order to find quota villainy with no villainsquot a phrase I borrow from Marc Bendick author of what still remains the most comprehensive study of diversity in advertisingThe 4A39s repeated this mistake in 2020 when they blunted 600 ampamp Rising39s call for a diversity survey that would have held individual agencies publicly accountable for their numbers by instead conducting a more superficial survey that protected bad actors by keeping participants anonymous dumping all the data into two categories independent vs holding company agencies and declaring the report quotconfidentialquot and thus quotnot to be shared with third partiesquotThe contrast could not be more stark AGENCY DEI provides an openaccess onestopshop where conscientious clients and discerning talent can go to see how individual agencies stack up against each other in terms of how they39re hiring promoting and retaining diverse talent The 4A39s told us what we already knew advertising as an industry is too white and male from the middle to the top and all the way down to its creative core We don39t need another survey to tell us that Besides any need for a baseline was already established when all the major holding companies released their numbers last summerWhat we do need is more agencylevel data that will separate the villains from the heroes and penalizereward them accordingly In other words we need accountability transparency and a centralized and standardized mechanism for documenting and measuring actual outcomes that makes the data easily and freely available to the only agents capable of getting advertising agencies to change current and prospective clients employees and investors And that39s what makes AGENCY DEI39s accomplishment so historicIn the midst of the quotgreat resignationquot job candidates are starting to ask more of their potential employers and in my view AGENCY DEI just might be the perfect tool for the times As Pam Yang put it on stage at the 3 ConferencequotWe wanted to make sure that talent had information about the environments in which they were potentially entering that they could make a more informed decision about where they were going to invest the majority of their waking hours and their creative energyquotIn 2020 millions of people took to the streets to protest police brutality against Black bodies a legacy of oppression harkening all the way back to the slave patrols of the early 1700s Activists decried how police unions have long protected abusers and demanded the repeal of qualified immunity a judicial doctrine that shields officers from liability even when they break the law And in 2021 millions more many having worked successfully from home during the pandemic resisted or even outright refused to come back to workplaces which had never been safe for them in the first place For instance many women of color reported remote work as a welcome relief from chronic microagressions and biasWith activists and workers alike raising expectations for our public and private institutions agencies may face a distinct challenge in 2022 as they try to recruit and retain talent It might not be enough to simply say quotBlack Lives Matterquot or even raise wages or allow more flexible working conditions to better compete with rival firms and adjacent industries With a labor shortage shifting power away from employers and towards employees job interviews will become more twosided Candidates who are aware of advertising39s racist past and present and want to be part of the solution can do so by asking one simple question quotSo have you shared your diversity data with AGENCY DEIquot It39s a quick and easy way to test an agency39s values and their answer will speak volumesClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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AGENCY DEI: A Not-So-Secret Weapon in the War for Talent

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Christopher Boulton

We Are the Outliers - By Jack Myers

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AGENCY DEI: A Not-So-Secret Weapon in the War for Talent

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Christopher Boulton

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We Are the Outliers - By Jack Myers

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