New initiatives
We are just at the start of this anti-racism journey with additional actions and policies to enact in the pipeline and an understanding that there will always be more proactive thinking, growth and work to be done. We will be providing ongoing updates where and as we have concrete developments to report.
Below is a snapshot of some of what we have accomplished and what is to come, though we recognise the work to become anti-racist is never a finished job 鈥 it is a practice.
People of Colour Steering Committee 鈥 we have established a steering committee for the people of colour in our agency to advise and give a steer on all of the anti-racism activities the agency is undertaking. In order to ensure our work is going to have the intended impact, it is essential we get this valuable perspective from the people it intends to serve. It鈥檚 a voluntary group that meets once a month with our executive chairman Chris Freeland and group head of talent Ursula Marchese.聽So far we have had three sessions, over the course of which we have established a clear set of priorities to operate by and reviewed our diversity statement and zero-tolerance policy with the input of our steering committee to ensure it is fit for purpose.
DISCO 鈥 We have revamped our diversity, equity and inclusion committee, which we now call DISCO. The focus is shifting towards promoting and placing an intersectional mindset at the heart of our culture, operation and work. This is valuable in that it helps us to account for all of our people in all of their multitudes of identity and experience. We have members that sit across both the People of Colour Steering Committee and DISCO to ensure alignment and cohesion.聽
Culture Add 鈥 We have ditched 鈥淐ulture Fit鈥 in favour of 鈥淐ulture Add鈥 as our recruitment and talent-progression ethos. Fitting in is not for us. Instead we鈥檙e interested in the things that make you special and seeing the value it brings to our make-up and what we do.
Time for reflection and learning 鈥 Our business gave our people Juneteenth to celebrate, reflect on and learn about and acting on becoming anti-racist. We crowd-sourced and disseminated resources to get everyone started and to provide self-care and support in an emotionally overwhelming time and unrelenting news cycle.
Mandatory unconscious-bias training 鈥 Our entire organisation was booked last month for this training with our partners at Unlrn. This training will be held for new starters on an ongoing basis indefinitely.
Mandatory anti-racism training for anyone who is involved with or influences hiring or career progression 鈥 we hope to roll this out as company-wide in 2021.
Amplifying the message 鈥 We are increasing our use of internal and external channels to continue consciousness-raising, education and facilitating idea generation.
Focusing on the next generation of talent by collaborating with organisations such as the Brixton Finishing School and running our mentorship scheme with the University of Greenwich.聽
Existing initiatives
Diversity and inclusion committee 鈥 a voluntary group of passionate and engaged individuals who were working to support and promote diversity, equity and inclusion through consciousness-raising and idea generation for the business.
Unconscious-bias training 鈥 we have been offering this to our people on a semi-regular basis.
BAME pay gap
We are currently preparing to report on our racial pay gap and intend to run the data alongside our gender pay gap reporting in the coming year.