The creative industry leads culture; but right now, we’re lagging behind. We don’t have enough women in leadership positions, our doors are closed to those born into socioeconomic disadvantage and we don’t value the experience and insight of the industry veterans. This has to change.
The very nature of our output demands diversity, a proven understanding and empathy of the changing world around us. We need to attract and retain the best talent, and our idea of what that means needs to be challenged.
In IAPI, we are committed to identifying the most practicable, straightforward means by which to support agencies on their own journeys, and welcome your involvement in working with us to make Ireland an inclusive, innovative and diverse industry.
We will be holding an event on 8th March, International Women’s Day, that we urge all MDs and anyone with hiring responsibilities to attend. We will hear from agency leaders from the UK and Ireland about steps they are taking to shrink the gender gap, and give us the practical ‘how-to’ tips to be able to move our own agencies along.
We will be holding Unconscious Bias training in May, to ensure we employ the most equitable working practices and hiring strategies in our businesses. We need to learn how to identify bias in our own organisations, and understand the potential negative impact of that on recruitment, promotion and retention. Once we identify it, we can adapt our own workplace culture, processes and practices to promote inclusion and a more diverse workforce.
We aim to lead the debate and champion the education around diversity with a more active Linkedin profile to bring the global conversations that are happening elsewhere to our shores. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and learn more about how we can play our part in championing change, as well as understanding why we need to do it.
We’ll repeat our industry census to ensure we can track progress. I’d love to see if we can be an international exemplar for diversity in a country that, in other industries, successfully attracts talent from around the globe. There’s no reason why Ireland’s creative industry can’t be up there with some of the greatest and most diverse cities in the world – our major cities are infrastructurally ripe for growth.
This is just a snapshot of some of the actions we will roll out, but we’d love your involvement. Diversity initiatives are driven by people, for people, and we want to hear from you to really understand what you believe we need as an industry.
However we look at it, the world is changing. Society is changing. Our industry is changing. Our businesses must change, and now is the time to embrace the new.
Get Involved - email Charlotte@dynamo.ie
