The latest annual report from She Runs It, which measures inclusion and diversity across marketing, media and tech, found that only 35% of the employees in these industries in 2022 were women; down from 46% in 2021 and 50% in 2020.
The report found that while the representation of Black employees in 2022 improved to 14%, only 6% of managers and 4% of corporate executives were Black. Approximately 17% of employees were promoted last year; 63% of them were white while only 8% were Black and 9% were LatinX. Only 8% of the entire workforce across marketing, media and tech in 2022 was LatinX, according to the report.
She Runs It President and CEO Lynn Branigan said recent return-to-office mandates by companies in the marketing, media and tech space have notably led to a decrease in female representation, many of whom are caretakers and need to work from home. She Runs It had a 60-person event last year with working mothers, Branigan said, and when they were asked if they were worried about being called back to the office and specifically it affecting their career growth if they weren’t able to return, almost every person in the room raised their hands.
Branigan said what she’s found is companies in the marketing, media and tech space do not have formal programs to promote women and people of color; only 43% of the companies She Runs It surveyed have succession planning for gender and diversity.
“It’s really important that companies are intentional about having support systems [for] women and underrepresented groups and have internal slates for vetting diverse promotions,” Branigan said.
Be intentional
WorkReduce CEO and Founder Brian Dolan said part of the reason agencies have always been particularly bad at succession planning is because of the way they’re structured.
“This is the nature of agencies,” Dolan said. “If you’re a marketer at a brand, you’re working with a much more hierarchical structure. Agencies are a lot more like a federation of people. A lot of the people are working primarily at the direction of their client. So that idea of somebody being there to do training or succession planning, it’s not there to the same degree it is in a traditional business structure.”
Agencies can overcome this if they dedicate the time to do it, Tucker said. She said ad agencies must have programs in place that ensure executives are not favoring employees who come into the office over remote workers.
Lauren Lotka, founder of ad industry talent firm Lotka&Co, said she’s been working with a number of clients on how best to evaluate talent on an equal basis. “We’re seeing a lot of younger talent not being invited to meetings, not around the conversations they need to be,” she said.
Lotka said the issue comes down to just having good company culture. Creating that culture ultimately falls on the shoulders of executives.
from Digital Marketing Education https://ift.tt/Vc7pu3D
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