Ever since our launch in 2011, The Industry Club have been passionate about equality and diversity in the advertising and marketing industry. ‘Everyone’ is our diversity and inclusion programme and is one of the key pillars of our business strategy.
We recognise as recruitment consultants we have a responsibility to ensure that every gender, age, race, religion and sexuality is embraced and are given opportunities within the creative industry with some candidates needing more support, training and mentoring than others and through our workshops we help build confidence and skillsets to help both the candidate and the agency thrive.
Diversity
We are committed to supporting the principle of equal opportunities, and oppose all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination on the grounds of any Protected Characteristic (PC) including sex; race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin); religion or belief; age; disability; marital status and civil partnership; sexual orientation; gender reassignment; pregnancy and maternity.
Our objective is to represent and present diversity to our clients building on the difference’s individuals bring.
We aim to draw upon the widest possible range of views and experiences in order to meet the changing needs of our, clients, partners, candidates, contractors and temporary workers.
We seek to promote diversity and to respond to the needs of all individuals in a fair and equitable manner, whilst observing our commitment and responsibility to current legislation.
Everyone
Everyone is our diversity and inclusion programme and Katie Hart is our dedicated ‘Everyone’ Champion. We apply the ‘Everyone’ lens across all company activities to ensure we promote diversity and to respond to the needs of all individuals in a fair and equitable manner. All of our staff receive training and have a checklist to ensure unconscious bias is not practiced internally or by our clients.
Partnerships
We continue to grow our diverse talent pool by working with a number of partners like The Opportunity Group, Generation Success, Flipside, Eric, I Like Networking (women and non-binary) and Outvertising as well as a number of inner London schools and universities.
Sponsorship
We offer 2 free places to members of our charities and partners on all of The Industry School’s marketing training courses to support under-represented groups building careers in marketing.
Mentoring
Several members of our experienced team are active mentors to our partner organisations and support their members with recruitment and professional development advice.
Training
Through our training arm The Industry School, we support businesses in reaching and sustaining their D&I goals through ED&I training workshops. These interactive workshops cover areas such as unconscious bias, impartial candidate selection techniques, collection and publishing of D&I data and developing inclusive workplaces for positive change. We advise on how to reach D&I goals and provide information on support groups and pledges
Inclusion
To attract an inclusive talent pool outside of the marketing echo chambers, we use broader jobs boards and dedicate time to unearthing talent from currently underrepresented groups in the industry. We ensure that the language used in our advertising and general comms is optimal and inclusive.
Our Data
To make significant changes in the industry we believe that measuring progress through data is critical. We review our selection criteria and procedures to ensure that we are representing a diverse talent pool. We collect data from candidates at registration to measure diversity and report quarterly on voluntary data provided.
Your Data
We ask our clients to share their diversity and inclusion data, and the pledges they have made or the initiatives they are running to address underrepresented groups. We provide this to our candidates to give them the reassurance of a fair and inclusive employer. We support and follow #knowyourdata a campaign to collect Diversity data and encourage clients to do the same.
Marketing Debuts Apprenticeships
Young people from diverse backgrounds are underrepresented in the creative communications industry.
Marketing Debuts is our entry level recruitment programme that provides businesses with a tangible and actionable platform for positive change in diversity and inclusion utilising the government’s apprenticeship levy funding.
The two unique programmes in Project Management and Social and Community Management are tailored exclusively for the marketing industries and are available to employers and apprentices across all major cities in England.
Recruitment
Recruitment of the apprentices is led by Katie Hart, working with our diversity partners providing clients with a fully assessed shortlist of candidates from low social mobility and BAME backgrounds. We have recently placed 14 new learners into apprenticeships with companies in London and Manchester. Read more about our recruitment process or contact Katie for more information.
Training
Taking two of the Government’s approved level 4 schemes, we’ve tailored them exclusively for the marketing industries. We’ve teamed up with specialist apprenticeship provider, The Opportunity Group, to create two unique, highly relevant programmes.
Working with industry experts, our nationwide schemes offer exceptional video conference classroom training, e-learning, mentoring as well as on the job learning. Suitable for training new apprentices and to upskill existing staff using the government’s apprenticeship levy to fund the training.
Our first programmes started in January 2021 with over 18 companies taking part in Marketing Debuts, providing employment to 14 new apprentices across London and Manchester.
The second cohort is planned for April 2021. Get in touch to find out how you can give an opportunity to a young person in 2021.