Equality Diversity and Inclusion

by Chris Bantock | Jun 2, 2023 | Agency Business, Events

This month’s Learning Focus is on EDI, equality, diversity and inclusion.

We are living through the biggest societal change in decades. Change in terms of attitudes, and behaviours. We have had a focus on sustainability and what that meant for agencies and now we are exploring the topic of EDI which is at the centre of this transformation.

And as agencies I maintain we are the catalyst of change. We are creative, forward looking and innovative. EDI is something that we should be leading on and really bringing into our standard agency practices. 

Monthly Learning Activity

I am delighted that this topic will be led by Liz Mayers (LI) from EDI Accreditation. She is hugely experienced, knowledgeable and passionate about this topic having run a consultancy working with businesses to help them overcome this challenge.

Liz will be helping us to focus on three key areas:

• Understanding what the issues are; understanding what is the meaning of equality, diversity and inclusion; what it means for your agency; what it means for you as an individual leader.

• We will be looking at the business case for adopting EDI into your agency. There are strong arguments for this in addition to ‘It is the right thing to do’.

• We’re looking at agency leadership and leadership behaviours, as change like this has to come from the top.

Creating Impact

We want to have an impact on your agency business. So this focus is more than simply expanding your knowledge. We want you to take action and that way we create an impact. 

Research shows that racially and ethnically diverse organisations outperform industry norms by 35% and gender diversity boosts financial performance by 15%.

Adopting EDI principals and practice will make a significant impact on your agency. This is why we want to help you by creating a policy which is a policy or statement about your EDI attention and intention. 

The output for the Learning Focus will be for you to develop an EDI policy for your agency.

Now, that’s something that you can use in proposals, in tenders, to have on your website, to increase your brand employability, and to be seen as a responsible business.

What’s involved: 

Watch the knowledge videos and
Join us at the Inspiration Circle – 8th June – 9.30am – 10.30am 
Join us the Inspiration Clinic – Friday 30th June 9.30 – 10.30
Join us at theBook Club –  Tuesday 27th June 4.00pm – 5.00pm

Open to All

Members and non members can join in for the monthly focus so this is open to any agency owner to participate and benefit. 

You can purchase a Pass to the learning content and all the associated events and resources for only £40

Sign up now: https://agencylocal.kartra.com/page/Pass-focused-learning

agencies for good

by Chris Bantock | Apr 5, 2023 | Agency Business, Events

Objective: To Create Agencies for Good

Agencies are drivers of change. They influence peoples thinking and communications they drive agendas. 

There is a huge groundswell of agencies being purpose driven, becoming BCorp accredited and generally having fully sustainable agencies. It is taking around 18 months to get BCorp accredited which just shows the demand and the desire to be seen to be purpose led. 

Getting this accreditation is commendable, however there are many other agencies that are using their business for good. Contributing in some way to the community, having a view on saving energy, recycling and even becoming carbon neutral. Often these are not spoken about or publicised. Whether it needs to be is a whole other debate.

Here at Agency Local for example, we have been part of B1G1 since conception in 2019. We raise money for local charities, we respect the environment and question our travel, paper and energy usage. We are also committed to being CSR-A accredited this year. There is so much more we can be doing and I know that there are other agency owners that want to do more but don’t know how. 

Creating Agencies for Good

This is why this month’s Learning Focus is on this subject. We will be 

• equipping agencies with the understanding of what can be done, 
• helping them develop a sustainable strategy for their agency and 
• assisting them to make this part of how they run their agency moving forward. 

We are delighted that this will be led by Richard Collins the creator and founder of CSR-A – (https://csr-accreditation.co.uk/) who help businesses to navigate the sustainable landscape and provide an Accreditation to demonstrate their commitment to developing a sustainable business.

Richard is an Agency founder and owner so understands our world. We also have one BCorp accredited member Martin Knowles and some other purpose driven members ABA Me and You who I know will be joining in to show their support and share their wisdom.

Time to make change 

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today.

Now is the time to look at your agency and work out exactly what you can do to make a difference. This is really for everyone – small agencies, remote agencies, more established agencies with larger teams. Everyone has a role to play and now is the time. 

​​In the recent Benchpress Report 24% of owners of agencies under £1m said that building a business that has a positive impact on the world was their top priority.

We will be discussing the topic in detail at the Inspiration Circle and Inspiration Clinic gatherings. However it will be more than discussion – our aim is that everyone will go a away with an actionable plan to being a more ethical agency.
Key takeaways will be

• Understand about the UN sustainable goals and increase your knowledge as to how you can use your agency for wider good
• Audit where you are now on your Business for Good Journey
• Understand the relationship between profit and purpose
• Build a Sustainability strategy for your agency
• Create an action plan to use your agency to make a real contribution

This is so valuable in the development of any agency I really wish that this was not only for Agency Local members. If you are a non member and want to join in let me know.

Here is to us – marketing and creative agencies – creating a better future by developing Agencies for Good.