New initiatives
We have set up 鈥淭he Collective鈥 鈥 an employee group empowered to champion all aspects of D&I and provide constructive dissent across all agencies in the group to drive positive and sustained change.聽 The Collective has a direct line to executive sponsors, allocation of time within working hours and an ally network of employees organised around it. Our initial focus is on racial equity and building changes to our systems and processes to uproot systemic injustices. Specifically with these aims:
Hiring, retaining and promoting diverse talent
Ensure we foster a sense of belonging in the workplace
Push the industry agenda on ensuring that diversity is authentically reflected in our work and ensure our clients are also on board in attaining this
We have created a reverse mentoring scheme across the agency to drive a two-way honest conversation about D&I.聽
We have appointed a special advisor to the board: Belinda Smith, who is the diversity ambassador on the World Federation of Advertisers.聽 She will bring expertise and objective challenge and advice as we build and progress our plans.
In addition, we have created anti-racism resources, a 鈥渞ead learn share鈥 library and hosted safe room discussions across the agency.
Existing initiatives
- T&P moved to blind applications (removed names, education and photographs) in 2016, opening its doors to talent from all backgrounds.
- T&P was a founding member of Creative Equals, working with them and other industry initiatives to offer work experience and internships for people from all backgrounds.
- We have been working with Access Aspiration for several years, part of The Mayor鈥檚 Fund for London, which supports over 35,000 young Londoners - offering advice, work experiences, internships and permanent roles to people from all backgrounds.
BAME pay gap
We don鈥檛 have this but will be discussing with The Collective what measures and data points to track going forward locally. As part of the larger network, WPP is going to track and report this going forward.