So it’s been a month since we all started talking about diversity in the ad business more with some focus. Has anyone seen any real progress from their employer? (Policy, pro bono work, programs, hiring etc). Genuinely curious as my agency is treading water.

Use me as a dislike button for the pointless term: diversity and inclusion.

Good question. Recently, a client was sharing all the internal discussions and communications they’ve had on race, etc., and then just said... “I know this is a big issue, but should we now get back to business stuff?!”. To me, that echoes the core thinking across corporate America.

I wonder if it's even possible to do anything meaningful in less than 6 months? What is an agency supposed to do? Fire a few people because of their skin color and explicitly hire other based on skin color? That's a lawsuit for sure. Find people who have the exact experience and ability who also happen to be of the right racial background and slowly promote them? It's not as if there are thousands of POC trying to get into advertising either. Plus we're in the middle of historically record-breaking unemployment, meaning there aren't a whole lot of positions available. It's one thing to demand an immediate end to racist policing and law enforcement, but demanding an agency fire 15-50% of their surviving employees and immediately replace them with POC is not going to work. This work takes years to accomplish, not months.

lol no. But, I think it has to be said, I dont think anyone is hiring anyone for ANYthing these days. Its about trying and mostly failing to keep the people you have employed

I mean, we all know nothing meaningful will be done without a profit motive, but even if they tried they idea the legacy agencies can make any changes inside a month is laughable. I'd say at best we're on meeting 3.

Yep; we actually restarted the interview process for several key hires. Put a lot of pressure on HR to actually get us non white candidates, even if it meant casting our net wider to look for folks without agency experience. Ended up hiring POC who were more than worth the wait and more than qualified at their craft, they just need to learn agency lingo and they're set. Our hiring process is now under review for total revision. It hurt, a lot, to go more weeks without those roles filled but the feeling was that it was worth putting in a few more hours a week if it helped us become the kind of agency we want to be.