In July 2020, we published our US diversity data for the first time, along with a commitment to revisit the data every three months. Since then, we’ve also published our strategy for the creation of equity at R/GA, Make / Change.
New York, NY, November 2, 2020 — A COVID year is a strange year to be looking at changes in employee data, as the pandemic has forced both delayed promotion cycles and restructuring of workforces, including ours. As a result, the quantitative data representing the race, ethnicity, and gender of our employee base shows little movement between May and October, with a couple of exceptions which you will see below.
By the end of October 2020, we’ll have completed our round of promotion cycles, and early indications are that we’ll see a lot more progress. The results of this cycle will be published in January.
Make / Change is deliberately a playbook and not a pledge, because the work of anti-racism is never done. Here are some of the first actions we’ve taken to put the playbook into practice.
1. We repositioned our company to better reflect our work, our values and where we want to be for the long term: designing businesses and brands for a more human future.
2. We appointed Jai Tedeschi as a VP, Global Executive Director, Culture & Operations. To change a culture, you need someone who understands exactly how the company works. Jai’s a get-shit-done operator who’s been with us for seven years. Her job is to decentralize and democratize the role of EDI at R/GA, thus making it everybody’s job.
3. We had 98% (and counting) of our US workforce complete a two-hour Allyship curriculum to discuss the ways in which racism against Black people makes itself felt in our every day, and how we can all start our own journey to Allyship.
4. We’ve brought in third party coaches to run empathy workshops with US managers; as well as a focus on how to give unbiased feedback.
5. We signed up for the 4A’s Vanguard program, which will provide mentorship and career development to eight Black employees making the move into leadership. This program will also help our Executive Leaders broaden their perspectives, and build pathways through retention and promotion plans.
6. We saw members of our Black Leadership Coalition address a crowd at Advertising Week, talking about the power of connection between leaders of color.
7. We’ve made additional investments in standardizing, enhancing, and accessing our global EDI data and our Business Intelligence tools.
This is a highlight reel and not everything we’re doing, but we’re hopeful that the changes we’re making will be reflected more quantitatively after our next promotion and merit cycle.
Now, onto the data.
Representation by Gender and Ethnicity (as of September 2020):
Women now account for 52.9% of our total US talent, which is up +1.6% pts. from May to September. POC account for 36.0% of our total US talent, which is relatively flat (-0.25 pts.) over the same time period.
Representation Variation by Gender and Ethnicity (from May 2020 — September 2020):
Representation by Seniority (as of September 2020):
Seniority remains skewed towards White Men, with a slight increase observed from May to September driven primarily by POC attrition.
Representation Variation by Seniority (from May 2020 — September 2020):
Rolling 12 Month Attrition Index (as of September 2020):
Overall US attrition rate (represented here as an index) remained relatively flat from May to September. Among female employees, you’ll see above-average attrition rates with our American Indian, Asian and Black employees.
Rolling 12 Month Attrition Index Variation (from May 2020 — September 2020):
