What are agencies doing to increase the representation of women?

Companies find out how many women they have in their workforce and what policies they are adopting to increase that number

With only 44% of women in management positions, the presence of women in advertising agencies is low. Fact: And as much progress there is, the road for this percentage to at least approach the percentage of the opposite sex is long and, like the lives of these professionals, full of challenges.

With the advent of Women’s Month, the media was flooded with campaigns that brought up themes such as justice, camaraderie, respect and women’s struggle for space. All of them are signed by agencies that, through the topics discussed and together with their clients, seek to celebrate and reinforce the importance of International Women’s Day, which was celebrated last Wednesday (8).

Shedding light on these issues is important to raise public awareness, but more than television or social media scenes are needed. It takes actions and policies to involve more and more women in conversations and decisions.

Thinking about it PROMARK: sought out some key agencies to ask two questions. what are the actions and policies taken to increase the representation of women in the corporate environment, and how many women work in these companies?

Read the newspaper’s comments in full below.

AlmapBBDO:

AlmapBBDO currently has 337 women in the agency, representing 56% of its total staff. 51% of them are in management positions.

According to Monica Lessa Kamimura, director of people and culture at AlmapBBDO, the agency prioritizes hiring women, especially in leadership positions. In addition, the director emphasized that the agency is creating initiatives that encourage the development of leadership, purpose, presence and leadership skills with its partners.

Among the initiatives mentioned is the ElevaElas mentoring program, which is aimed at women and seeks to foster an environment for the discovery, growth and exchange of soft skills, prioritizing underrepresented groups and their intersections. According to Mônica, the program, which launched in October 2022, involved 170 women in its first phase.

“The challenge for gender equality in advertising and beyond is in leadership positions. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we still have a long way to go on this, including the barriers of unconscious bias that affect many women early in and throughout their careers. We want to show that through representation, it’s possible to further expand the brightness of women in the agency world through welcoming and inspiring links to them. It is an exchange of experiences, experiences and achievements that, if shared, will strengthen mentors and mentees,” said the director.

Ogilvie

Ogilvy Brasil employs 239 women, of which 76 are in management positions. According to Taysa Veras, Director of Human Resources of the agency, the “Somos” and “Axis Benguela” committees operate on the site, which aim to pay attention to social issues. Regarding gender equality, the agency has some programs, such as 30for30, which consists of leadership training developed by Ogilvy Global and exclusively for women, with the aim of supporting female professionals.

Especially for Women’s Day, Taisa explained that the agency has organized a series of workshops with women in leadership positions, where they share their trajectories and methodologies with the aim of inspiring people.

Other policies adopted by Ogilvy in favor of women include extended maternity leave of six months and preferential hiring of women at manufacturing sites.

VMLY&R

VMLY&R Brasil has 53% women in the agency. Women make up 54% in leadership positions, management positions and above. Luana Gonçalves, director of the agency’s HR Group on operations and policy, said the company is impressed by the individuality of its employees and that it works on the pillars of social issues in the areas of HR and equality, inclusion and belonging.

“Our work only resonates if leaders also embrace this philosophy. And so that leaders understand the challenges they face, we promote training with external consultants on diversity, mental health and people management,” said the director.

In addition, the agency implemented some additional projects to help the cause, such as the Conversa program, for exchanges and career planning between managers and their teams, and PAR, for internships, mentoring and career acceleration for mid-level blacks.

fbiz:

In the case of Fbiz, a census conducted by the agency in 2022 showed that almost 53.7% of the team was made up of women, and 51.5% of them held management positions.

According to Amanda Stefani, the agency’s Diversity Specialist, based on the data provided by the survey, they identified the need to define priority groups and establish guidelines for increasing diversity within the agency’s teams.

Among the actions taken by Fbiz is the creation of positive vacancies, which, according to the expert, has been widely promoted as a policy of fairness.

“In addition to formulating quantitative goals, we understand that a more welcoming space can only be built with knowledge. That’s why, since 2022, we’ve been training our senior management to create an environment where diverse talent thrives with emotional safety. The next challenge is to think of ways to promote the careers of different people who are already part of the teams,” concluded Amanda.

BETC Havas

BETC HAVAS has 54% women in the agency, 61% in management positions.

The agency is a signatory to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPS), an initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women, and is part of the Advertising Diversity Observatory (OPD) as a supporting agency.

“We are continuing several actions to create an increasingly inclusive work environment, with the strengthening of our Diversity and Inclusion Committee, awareness and literacy lectures across the agency, and a focus on inclusive leadership, positive vacancies, a diverse hiring curve, an exceptional talent bank on For Diverse Audiences (#Diversité) for our demographic analysis based on the recent census, supporting our operations to operate in a targeted manner and to ensure internal balance,” explained Larissa Lacerda, director of the agency’s resources.

BETC HAVAS has global programs such as the Femmes Forward Academy, which the director says will launch in 2023, with a focus on growing women. “The program focuses on working with topics such as confidence building, stress and self-care, and empowering the female voice,” concluded Larissa.

DPZ:

DPZ has 184 women in the agency, representing more than 57% of the team. In managerial positions, this percentage reaches 58%. With operations focused on working on diversity and inclusion, the agency has a UN program for black and indigenous people that includes mentoring, coaching and English language training.

In terms of gender equality, DPZ has policies such as affirmative action processes aimed at hiring trans people and women, mostly black women.

“By focusing on business, this diversity allows us to have more diverse and creative ideas and strategies because we are talking about people with different cultures, backgrounds and experiences. In the case of women, we have a kindred group of women. with the entire DPZ team in an action called “Between Us”, which aims to share experiences to raise awareness of gender-related issues in the advertising market,” explained Rejane Romano, Director of Communications at DPZ.

Lew’Lara TBWA

Lew’LaraTBWA has 55.12% women, with 67.5% women in executive management, in addition to having Marcia Esteves as agency president and partner, and incoming president of the Brazilian Association of Advertising Agencies ( Abap).

According to Elise Passamani, the agency’s Chief Culture and Operations Office (CCOO), the agency’s efforts and commitments add to those of TBWA Network and Omnicom. “There are countless talent development initiatives like Colectiva and Omniwomen designed specifically to tap the talent of women in networks. One of the most memorable results of these initiatives is that we have already achieved the goal. At least 50% of TBWA agencies in the world are managed by women,” said the executive.

Wunderman Thompson

Adding up all fronts, Wunderman Thompson Brasil has 58% women in its workforce. Women occupy 64% of positions in leadership positions. In addition, Camila Arruda, the agency’s CPO, announced that by 2022, 55% of the agency’s promotions and moves were aimed at women.

As for initiatives, the executive explained that in 2018 the agency committed to a project called 50/20, a platform called More Grls, consisting of 50% of the creative team composed of women by 2020. Currently, the area is 57%. Among the agency’s creative staff are women.

Camila also explained that within the technological business, the agency operates the ADA project, which aims to encourage the presence of women in this market.

“We launched the first cycle in 2021 and today we already have 44% of our positions at WTT held by women. And, operating across all of our business units, we have the WunderWoman Collective, formed by collaborators to ensure visibility of this agenda. our actions, calendar and initiatives,” said the executive.

Art plan

Artplan employs 188 women, which is 59.9% of the workforce. 45.7% of them are in management positions, but 65.2% of the 132 positions in this part of the pyramid are held by women.

According to Deborah Moura, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Grupo Dreamers and Artplan, the agency’s recruitment team has been working on hiring different profiles, in addition to working on a training program and evaluating women in senior management and creative positions, which now has four directors. .

(Credit: Christine Hume on Unsplash)