The DMA has pledged to join the industry quest to achieve racial equality in the workplace by signing a partnership with not-for-profit organisation Race Equality Matters.
A key part of the deal will see the trade body help fund and support Race Equality Matters’ campaign to empower ethnic minority employees and provide individuals, organisations, and networks with the insight, tools and resources to drive effective action for sustainable change.
The DMA joins over 15 UK organisations, including BT, Kick It Out and Diversity UK, that have pledged support to Race Equality Matters in the four months since it was launched.
These organisations will also help fund resources and activities throughout the UK’s first Race Equality Week, to be held between February 1 and 7 2021. The event aims to unite organisations and individuals across the UK to address issues affecting ethnic minority employees and to develop and implement collaborative solutions.
The DMA already spearheads a number of initiatives designed to help promote diversity and inclusion across the data and marketing industry, including a leadership programme in partnership with Culture Heroes, a Neurodiversity Initiative and DMA Mentoring Scheme.
It hopes the Race Equality Matters collaboration will help the industry body to drive positive societal change in a key industry sector.
DMA managing director Rachel Aldighieri said: “[We are] committed to creating meaningful change to achieve racial equality in the industry and society more broadly. A key motivation behind this partnership is to help continue our work in ensuring that the creative, data and tech industries are both accessible and inclusive from the classroom through to the boardroom.
“Diversity and inclusion are key tenets of intelligent marketing that puts people first. In order for our industry to better serve the customer, it is vital that the workforce is truly representative of them – something that’s front and central to the DMA ethos.”
Race Equality Matters was co-founded by Green Park, an executive recruitment and diversity consultancy which has long strived for workforce diversification.
Green Park CEO and co-founder Raj Tulsiani added: “Following the Black Lives Matter protests and the disparity of impact the Covid pandemic has had on ethnic minority communities, the UK is beginning to face truths about its relationship with race. With organisations and individuals more open to have honest conversations, we have a real opportunity to turn this moment into meaningful change for the future of the workplace and wider society.
“We are grateful to have the DMA’s support and look forward to collaborating through Race Equality Matters to empower ethnic minority employees and provide organisations, networks and individuals with the insight, tools and resource to drive effective action for sustainable change.”
Another key area of the DMA’s involvement with Race Equality Matters will be The Big Promise – where organisations make a public and measurable commitment, to which they will be held accountable, to create a positive change. The organisation will be announcing its own “promise” in the coming weeks ahead of Race Equality Week.
In addition, the DMA will be hosting a series of Safe Space discussions, in an effort to drive meaningful dialogue between ethnic minority employees and their senior leaders and/or board members.
The partnership coincides with new DMA research, which reveals that diversity and inclusion have been cited by senior professionals as the data and marketing industry’s biggest challenge, mentioned by nearly two thirds of professionals (62%).
This was followed closely by ‘recovering from the coronavirus pandemic’ (59%) and a need to ‘build more ethical approaches to data’ (50%).
DMA head of insight Tim Bond said: “2020 will be remembered for the many challenges coronavirus has thrown at us all. However, despite the significant impact the virus continues to have, senior professionals believe the biggest challenge facing the data and marketing industry is diversity and inclusion. In order for our industry to better serve the customer, it is vital that the workforce is truly representative of them.”
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