One of major things we focus on at AndHumanity for our clients is the congruence between the internal and the external.
There was an article by Strategy released a couple weeks ago that stated “despite the efforts many companies have made to engage with and improve upon it”, “one in seven marketers [are still] likely to quit over DEI shortcomings.
Further to this, a majority of brands we talk to have already made significant DEI efforts internally, however, as the article states, these same brands that think they’re doing it right are actually still missing the mark; “72% of global respondents and 87% in Canada acknowledge that the industry is trying to improve the lived experiences of specific groups. Still, people among those groups remain likely to leave the industry, with disabled respondents (24%) and those belonging to an ethnic minority (22%) leading the pack, while 2SLGBTQ+ (17%) individuals and women (16%) are also more likely to consider exits.”
Can you imagine the compartmentalization and internal justification needed for Marketing and Communications teams that are – on one hand – tasked to focus on equity externally, but – on the other hand – are well aware that their organization is not investing any significant time or resources into equity internally?
It’s a real issue in our industry; we have to take care of our insides as much as we do our outsides in order for this work to be successful.
