Embrace All People: Publicis Media's Tim Jones on the Essence of Diversity & Inclusion

MediaVillage will induct Jones into the Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors on January 8 at CES along with seven others who have stood out by accelerating the move from advocacy to activism Jones who serves as a conduit for many of diverse voices at the agency group aims to ensure he amplifies their messages throughout the organization to drive real action He loaned his voice to a episode with EB Moss head of content strategy for MediaVillage discussing both his origins and the origins of some of the Publicis Media initiatives created to help diverse talent get hired by our industry and be heard amp8212 and why they strive to take that message to Washington DC as wellThe following is an abridged version of their indepth conversation Listen here to the full interview Subscribe or listen to the Advancing Diversity podcast series on Apple Podcasts Stitcher or watch on YouTubeEB Moss Let39s talk about your overall company DampampI initiative What39s the message internallyTim Jones We express our overriding vision in three words trust talent and transformation A key component of each is our approach to diversity and inclusionWe39ve put in place a number of foundations to build on One was establishing business resource groups We have Egalitamp233 which is LGBTQ We have Viva Mama which is mothers in the workplace We have Next Generation which is young professionals We have MOCA which is Men of Color Alliance Each group acts as a voice for its constituents and to help activate our plans And I help to ensure they39re heard throughout our organizationFor example we select our star performers from within the Gen Next population and assign them with tasks to look at such as mobility and the company39s internal communication As a result we39ve learned to communicate in a different way such as shortening memosThe second is that we set DampampI goals within each level of the organization We track our entire population by the typical demographics and we look at diversity and we set goals within each level to ensure that we have a diverse balance between men and women across all areas of diversity among African Americans and Hispanics and Asians as wellamp8230 We also reach out to the veteran community for people looking to come back into the workforce And we hire people from among the autistic adult community amp8230 who have the ability to work in an office environment and can cope with administrative tasks that need accuracy and commitment We39ve had a lot of success with that and they39ve really enriched the culture of the companyMoss You39re also an honoree of the 13th annual Autism Speaks Celebrity Chef Gala Talk about the work that you39ve done through Zenith and Publicis Media for Autism Speaks Jones I was at a fundraiser for Autism Speaks and I was touched by the issues that group faces the number of children being diagnosed with autism I felt that it was something we could help with provide strategic counsel pro bono in addition to the Ad Council media inventory that they receive So we now have a 10year partnership with Autism Speaks in securing strategic space for them particularly around World Autism Day and their Light It Up Blue programMoss What have you done in the past year that39s new or differentJones When we created Publicis Media we looked for a cause that we could adopt Right at that time Ad Council was coming out with this with it39s a signature campaign quotLove Has No Labelsquot We put our hands up and said quotWe would really like to be involved in thatquotThe ambition of that campaign was something that we wanted to promote and get behind I39m really happy with our association with that work RGA does the creative and we support with media strategy and other services particularly in the digital areaWe also put our hands up to support the See All initiative launched by the ANA and AIMM They39re recognizing that advertising still doesn39t totally reflect multifaceted American consumers and that it needs to be course corrected Advertising and programming need to have more accurate representation and inclusion of all segments including African American Asian Hispanic disabled LGBTQ multiracial and beyondMoss Tell us about Publicis Media39s Multicultural Talent PipelineJones MCTP is a fantastic source of multicultural talent for us Typically we will hire more than 50 percent of those people into positions or into our graduate training program which is another initiative we have It39s tremendously important for us It39s not easy to address the imbalance in diversity you have to come at it a number of ways and one of the most important is ground upSo if we can increase our ability to bring in a diverse population through things like MCTP our outreach to specific colleges and in specific areas of the country then we can overproportion that intake And then the conversion through and the success of that talent building within the company is heightenedMoss How are you seeing diversity and inclusion efforts help your client and employee engagementJones There isn39t an RFP or opportunity that comes into us that doesn39t include a question about our approach to diversity and inclusion So we are able to talk to clients about all the initiatives we39ve been chatting around And I think that reflects really well on our companyWe work with some of the best companies in the world and they all have very developed diversity and inclusion programs They also have amp8230 specific causes they39re behind so we like to pair up on those and support them and that39s been very successful as wellInternally our programs are on screens throughout our offices in the US and we talk about our policies on diversity and inclusion We celebrate success amp8230 whether that be the Graduate Training Program the Multicultural Talent Pipeline the latest work that we39ve done for Autism Speaks or for Finish Your Diploma You can39t talk enough about it And there is an expectation from our workforce that we do thisMoss Let39s talk about the censusJones OK I39ll go there If you39d asked four months ago I would have said one of the biggest concerns I have is with the forthcoming 2020 census At that point there was a serious likelihood that there would be a question on citizenship and that if you weren39t a citizen you would be excluded from the census There are huge ramifications if you39re missing 10 percent of the population amp8212 more in some areas amp8212 and the census is used to look at things like roadway planning railroads infrastructure where housing and stores are builtBut specifically for us in marketing to be able to account for that multicultural population is absolutely critical It is our fastestgrowing most important segment across the US so we lobbied hard on thatI39m really happy that the administration decided to take out that question And I do think it points to the tolerance of diversity and inclusionamp8230 Whether it relates to immigration policies gun control importance of all sectors of society amp8230 the advertising industry and the marketing community need to be behind the founding ethics of this countryI came here as an immigrant and this country embraced me and I became a citizen And I think America has a fantastic history in doing that embracing people whether they39re coming here through opportunity or under duress It39s a big country We need to keep growing And I think we need to readopt all of the great things that we39ve done in the pastWeaving diversity and inclusion into the fabric of your company is good for business And we have proof In this podcast series our Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors 2020 inductees each discuss the many ways their organizations champion diversity equality and inclusion as well as examine the benefits to their company constituents and community Each episode features one inductee39s strategies and best practices that others can adapt to help their organizations accelerate the move from advocacy to activismThe 2020 Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors inductees include Jill Baskin chief marketing officer The Hershey Company J Michael Haynie PhD vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation Institute for Veteran and Military Families Tim Jones chief executive officer Publicis Media Americas Tim McNeal talent development Walt Disney Television Sue Obeidi director Muslim Public Affairs Council The Hollywood Bureau Tony Rogers chief member officer Sam39s Club Tiffany R Warren founder and president ADCOLOR and senior vice president chief diversity officer Omnicom and Shelley Zalis chief executive officer The Female QuotientClick the social buttons to share this story 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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Embrace All People: Publicis Media's Tim Jones on the Essence of Diversity & Inclusion

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