Staff numbers among IPA agencies stabilised in 2021 after suffering a sharp drop in 2020, according to the association’s annual census.
Between 30 September 2019 and the end of September 2020, the number of people employed in member agencies dropped from 24,866 to 22,188 – a fall of 10.8%. On the final day of September 2021, IPA agencies employed 22,062 staff, a drop of just 0.6% year on year.
The number of people employed by creative and non-media agencies fell from 12,298 in 2020 to 12,278 in 2021 (-0.2%). Staff numbers at media agencies declined slightly more, down 1.1% to 9,784.
Taken at face value, the 2021 staff figures show an improvement on the prior year. However, turnover increased only minimally to 26%, from 25.8% a year earlier. Despite this and the oft-cited "Great Resignation", both were an improvement on 2019’s turnover rate of 27.9%.
The profiles are based predominantly on the 102 IPA corporate member agencies that submitted full census responses to the IPA’s questionnaire.
Ethnic diversity improved but the pay gap widened
The percentage of employees from a non-white background in 2021 was estimated at 18.3%, a 3% percentage point rise on the figure of 15.3% reported in 2020. In 2019, this figure was 13.7%.
The percentage of employees from non-white backgrounds remains skewed in favour of junior, executive and assistant employees. In 2020, the number of employees from ethnic minority backgrounds at this level clocked in at 21.9%, in 2021, this increased to 27.1%.
Paul Bainsfair, director general of the IPA, said: “There are some welcome figures within this year’s Census findings, particularly regarding the increase in the ethnic diversity of our business. I have no doubt that these improvements have been fuelled by some fantastic initiatives our industry has embraced over the past couple of years, and we mustn’t lose momentum here."
People from ethnic minority backgrounds made up 7.1% of the people in C-Suite roles, but in the broader workforce, this more than doubled and 18.3% of people were non-white.
This unequal progress potentially explains the ethnicity pay gap. In 2021 the IPA estimated there was an ethnicity pay gap of 21.2% in favour of white employees, up from 19.5% in 2020.
This year, a higher ethnicity pay gap was estimated for media agencies (23.4%) than creative and other non-media agencies (15.3%).
Agencies rehired women
After the number of women fell disproportionately steeply last year, in 2021 the number of male employees fell 3.2% to 10,752 but female employees rose 1.8% to 11,612.
According to the latest figures, 33.5% of C-suite roles were occupied by women, a small rise on the 32.4% the IPA reported last year but still stubbornly below the 40% target set by the IPA in 2017.
The agencies that provided salary breakdowns reported an average pay gap of 23.3% in favour of men, up from the 22.7% recorded in 2020.
Hybrid working models, post pandemic
When asked about their post-coronavirus working practices, more than 85% of agencies indicated they would be adopting a hybrid approach to working.
Only one agency said it would expect employees to return to their desks five days a week.
Bainsfair said flexible working was one of the “core opportunities for improving diversity”.
Temps and freelancers more than doubled
Hybrid working was not the only method of flexible working that proved popular in 2021. The number of temps and freelancers recorded by agencies reached a new high, having more than doubled since 2020, from 889 to 1,913.
For a pre-pandemic comparison figure, in 2019 the number of temps and freelancers was 1,619.
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