“Talk is cheap!” What are companies tangibly actioning to ensure a workplace culture of diversity, inclusion and safety?
Diversity is a hot topic. Everywhere you look, someone is talking about diversity and how it impacts the bottom line. But how many companies are talking about it because they feel they should? Because RFIs are now asking for diversity figures? Because they don’t want to be left behind? According to Mark Oben-Pepra, Managing Partner at OMD EMEA, the number one reason you should be cultivating a culture of inclusion in the workplace is because it’s the right thing to do.
Speaking to DMEXCO TV following an appearance on the Congress Stage at the global digital marketing expo & conference which took place in Cologne this week, Oben-Pepra said; “I think a lot of companies at the moment are talking about this because they feel it should be spoken about, it’s a fashionable topic right now and I think there are quite a lot of superficial motivations that lead a lot of companies to talk about this topic.” Awareness is leading to action though he added; “Encouragingly you are seeing a lot more conversations around concrete actions. Talk is cheap, it’s great that you can talk about it and have a vision and a perspective, but more importantly, so what. What are the key steps you are taking to turn this into action?”
Earlier in the day, Open-Pepra joined Virginia Bastian, Group Manager HR at Nestlé, Sarah Bernuit, European Leader at IBM iX and Lisa Utzschneider, CEO at IAS in a panel moderated by the power-house that is CEO and Founder of The Female Quotient, Shelley Zalis, to discuss gender equality in the technological world, but it soon became clear the panel felt equality encompassed more than gender alone.
Speaking about diversity as a whole, Bernuit explained: “Diversity is bringing a different set of people to the party, inclusion is making sure everyone dances”. The panel was in unanimous agreement that the culture of inclusion needs to be led from the top down “It is not a tick-box, everyone needs to be held accountable” said Bernuit with Bastian adding “You have to build the process from many places, you have to start at the top and have clear guidelines and values. Once you have a framework, you can build upon it. We have diverse consumers we are talking to, so we need to have diversity in the workplace to address that”. Oben-Pepra added from a media standpoint, “Seeing yourself reflected in the media is so important. Seeing different age profiles and seeing that all sectors are accessible is crucial”.
Oben-Pepra went on to talk about being mindful of tokenism and ensuring you don’t start to steer towards positive discrimination. At OMD EMEA, a steering group has been formed to ensure this doesn’t happen. RED, an acronym for Recruitment, Engagement and Development, ensures inclusion is felt from the moment someone applies to join OMD EMEA, through using software to ensure job specs use inclusive and unbiased language, through to celebrating different cultures and international days of celebration, through to ongoing training in bias management and beyond.
Oben-Pepra was clear though “As OMD EMEA we are doing some fantastic work, but we by no means have all of the answers”.
Everyone is clear though, the more the topic of equality, inclusion and workplace safety is discussed and the more education there is around diversity for good in the workplace, the more we will see positive changes each and every day.
You can watch Mark Oben-Pepra’s interview in full on YouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o4OffK5PyQ
“Talk is cheap!” What are companies tangibly actioning to ensure a workplace culture of diversity, inclusion and safety?
Diversity is a hot topic. Everywhere you look, someone is talking about diversity and how it impacts the bottom line. But how many companies are talking about it because they feel they should? Because RFIs are now asking for diversity figures? Because they don’t want to be left behind? According to Mark Oben-Pepra, Managing Partner at OMD EMEA, the number one reason you should be cultivating a culture of inclusion in the workplace is because it’s the right thing to do.
Speaking to DMEXCO TV following an appearance on the Congress Stage at the global digital marketing expo & conference which took place in Cologne this week, Oben-Pepra said; “I think a lot of companies at the moment are talking about this because they feel it should be spoken about, it’s a fashionable topic right now and I think there are quite a lot of superficial motivations that lead a lot of companies to talk about this topic.” Awareness is leading to action though he added; “Encouragingly you are seeing a lot more conversations around concrete actions. Talk is cheap, it’s great that you can talk about it and have a vision and a perspective, but more importantly, so what. What are the key steps you are taking to turn this into action?”
Earlier in the day, Open-Pepra joined Virginia Bastian, Group Manager HR at Nestlé, Sarah Bernuit, European Leader at IBM iX and Lisa Utzschneider, CEO at IAS in a panel moderated by the power-house that is CEO and Founder of The Female Quotient, Shelley Zalis, to discuss gender equality in the technological world, but it soon became clear the panel felt equality encompassed more than gender alone.
Speaking about diversity as a whole, Bernuit explained: “Diversity is bringing a different set of people to the party, inclusion is making sure everyone dances”. The panel was in unanimous agreement that the culture of inclusion needs to be led from the top down “It is not a tick-box, everyone needs to be held accountable” said Bernuit with Bastian adding “You have to build the process from many places, you have to start at the top and have clear guidelines and values. Once you have a framework, you can build upon it. We have diverse consumers we are talking to, so we need to have diversity in the workplace to address that”. Oben-Pepra added from a media standpoint, “Seeing yourself reflected in the media is so important. Seeing different age profiles and seeing that all sectors are accessible is crucial”.
Oben-Pepra went on to talk about being mindful of tokenism and ensuring you don’t start to steer towards positive discrimination. At OMD EMEA, a steering group has been formed to ensure this doesn’t happen. RED, an acronym for Recruitment, Engagement and Development, ensures inclusion is felt from the moment someone applies to join OMD EMEA, through using software to ensure job specs use inclusive and unbiased language, through to celebrating different cultures and international days of celebration, through to ongoing training in bias management and beyond.
Oben-Pepra was clear though “As OMD EMEA we are doing some fantastic work, but we by no means have all of the answers”.
Everyone is clear though, the more the topic of equality, inclusion and workplace safety is discussed and the more education there is around diversity for good in the workplace, the more we will see positive changes each and every day.
You can watch Mark Oben-Pepra’s interview in full on YouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o4OffK5PyQ
Last week, we had the honour of attending the Omniwomen UK + Allies Basecamp event presented by Valerie Van den Bossche – a global consultant and facilitator of cultural and organisational change. The two-hour highly engaging and interactive session brought about 30 enthusiastic people together to discuss the underlying issues around Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), and how organisations can enhance awareness on these issues to ensure psychologically safer environments.
D&I has been a fashionable topic of discussion in the past few years and Valerie spoke with passion about the importance of taking the mantle and driving real change. Specific focus was on the topic of unconscious biases and psychological safety, which are unsurprisingly fundamental issues that are often undermined and ignored in organisations. One key takeaway was that recognizing the lack of knowledge on D&I and the importance of being conscious of biases is the first crucial step to create positive change in all of our workplaces.
Discussion of unconscious bias is important to raise awareness but even further, we need strategies to help tackle the crippling effect it can have on the development of diverse talent at work. Over the past 3 months, we have taken many of our teams through a comprehensive unconscious bias training and this will continue late into the summer. But there are questions we can all start asking ourselves today, to try and be better aware of our innate, unconscious biases. For example, thinking about how teams behave in meetings (who tends to get interrupted the most and by who?) and looking at confirmation bias that easily derails objectivity in our analysis of marketing data (are we genuinely open to insight? Or are we looking for data to prove a stereotype or preconception?) Biases are natural, omnipresent and not always helpful!
Here at OMD EMEA we are committed to maintain an inclusive culture that enables diverse talent to make Better decisions, faster for our clients. If you’re interested in getting in touch, check out our live jobs on OMD EMEA’s LinkedIn.
Last week, we had the honour of attending the Omniwomen UK + Allies Basecamp event presented by Valerie Van den Bossche – a global consultant and facilitator of cultural and organisational change. The two-hour highly engaging and interactive session brought about 30 enthusiastic people together to discuss the underlying issues around Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), and how organisations can enhance awareness on these issues to ensure psychologically safer environments.
D&I has been a fashionable topic of discussion in the past few years and Valerie spoke with passion about the importance of taking the mantle and driving real change. Specific focus was on the topic of unconscious biases and psychological safety, which are unsurprisingly fundamental issues that are often undermined and ignored in organisations. One key takeaway was that recognizing the lack of knowledge on D&I and the importance of being conscious of biases is the first crucial step to create positive change in all of our workplaces.
Discussion of unconscious bias is important to raise awareness but even further, we need strategies to help tackle the crippling effect it can have on the development of diverse talent at work. Over the past 3 months, we have taken many of our teams through a comprehensive unconscious bias training and this will continue late into the summer. But there are questions we can all start asking ourselves today, to try and be better aware of our innate, unconscious biases. For example, thinking about how teams behave in meetings (who tends to get interrupted the most and by who?) and looking at confirmation bias that easily derails objectivity in our analysis of marketing data (are we genuinely open to insight? Or are we looking for data to prove a stereotype or preconception?) Biases are natural, omnipresent and not always helpful!
Here at OMD EMEA we are committed to maintain an inclusive culture that enables diverse talent to make Better decisions, faster for our clients. If you’re interested in getting in touch, check out our live jobs on OMD EMEA’s LinkedIn.
Here at OMD EMEA, we have been looking to find ways to build greater diversity and inclusion as we know that diverse talent leads to new ways of thinking and greater creativity. To create positive change, we looked at our recruitment process to ensure that everyone had a chance.
Entering the job market can be a challenge for anyone. We feel it is important to be aware of any potential unconscious bias to ensure that there is equal opportunity for all. Our journey began with us exploring how we could get started and any available support, which led us to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. The Scheme supports people with disabilities to gain employment and provides employers who don’t know where to start with valuable tools to carry out assessments alongside solid guidance on what they can do to improve.
We felt this scheme was a great way to continue our journey as a flexible and inclusive employer. There is also the added benefit of proactively raising awareness around the challenges people with disabilities face.
Our journey started with us gaining the Disability Confident Committed level 1 badge where we commit to offering job interviews and work experience opportunities. If you’re interested in getting in touch, check out our live jobs on OMD EMEA’s LinkedIn.
In 2013 we learned that 232M people lived outside their country of origin, with each successive generation becoming more multicultural.
Millennials are the most diverse generation in history. Only 59% are Caucasian and 27% have an immigrant background (Deloitte 2015). So it’s no surprise they’re causing a huge shift in attitudes to diversity and inclusivity.
Once, the diversity issue was moral, and brand responses were tokenistic. Now, millennials see it as empowering. They define it by how it relates to a mix of unique experiences, identities, ideas and opinions. They expect brands to reflect this ‘omnicultural’ mind-set in their media and marketing.
80% of parents say they like seeing diverse families in marketing. 41% of millennial parents are more likely to buy products from brands that use diverse family types in their advertising.
In the past, the term inclusivity primarily implied acceptance and tolerance of gender, race and ethnicity. Now, the focus in on using collaborative tools to drive business impact. Multicultural consumers see themselves as part of a new mainstream. They have access to an infinite combination of choices and products to suit their lifestyles and tastes.
There is now a higher value placed on teamwork – millennials value a culture of connectivity. They feel empowered when they believe their employer fosters an inclusive nature.
They love to share their experiences and explore the cultures of others. In doing so, they influence mainstream consumers and expand the multicultural market opportunity. Their increased social media and technology adoption has accelerated this.
Brand implications
Multicultural consumers tend to gravitate to brands, products and activities that reinforce their cultural roots but also allow them to explore new identities.
Millennials are demanding that brands, assets and campaigns are more creative, provocative and challenging. Brands, therefore, need to recognise that inclusivity starts in-house. They need to deviate from accepted story lines around identity, for example.
Brands can go further than just reflecting a broad range of identities in their advertising. There are huge opportunities in constructing a narrative around a ‘no normal’ mindset. Brands are increasingly representing disabled, homosexual and gender fluid consumers in their advertising.
A great example is US bank Wells Fargo’s #WhyIWork campaign. Their ad featuring a lesbian couple learning sign language before adopting a young deaf girl garnered 1.6m views on YouTube.
A year later, Channel 4 launched its ‘Superhumans Wanted’ initiative. It encouraged brands to creative innovative advertising featuring disabled people. The winning ad was shown during the first ad break of the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Finally, OMD was proud to broker a partnership between QuidCo and LGBT+ publication Attitude earlier this year. Timed to coincide with London Fashion Week, it provided Attitude’s readers with a new way to get the catwalk look for less.
Want to explore this talking idea more? Contact us at [email protected]
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