Creative and media agencies falling short on workplace equality

LGBT campaigning group Stonewall’s Index lists the Top 100 employers who have ‘done great work over the past year to help achieve acceptance without exception for all LGBT people’.

The list includes many public sector organisations, academic institutions, legal practices as well as companies such as Lloyds, GSK and Sky.

While professional services businesses such as PwC, Accenture and Capgemini feature in the top 100, there are no creative, media, marketing or market research agencies.

Lara Kingsbeer, PrideAM spokesperson said: “Despite the industry’s attempts to improve diversity it seems no progress has been made in proving that the creative workplace is an inclusive space.

“We recognise that some agencies have started to make efforts and are working with Stonewall, but the advertising sector has been too slow to respond to the LGBT+ community. We are certainly many years behind other professional services like law and accounting, and a long way behind the public sector.”

She said agencies can make positive steps to LGBT+ inclusion by doing among other things: offering gender neutral toilets; having a formal transitioning policy; and encouraging LGBT+ networks to be established in larger workplaces.

At this year’s MRS annual conference, Mark Runacus, president of PrideAM, will be taking part in a panel discussion on inclusivity in the industry.