{"id":132476,"date":"2020-09-29T14:58:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T13:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=132476"},"modified":"2020-09-29T15:46:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T14:46:15","slug":"prca-uk-national-conference-2020-solving-the-pr-industrys-r-word-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/prca-uk-national-conference-2020-solving-the-pr-industrys-r-word-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"PRCA UK National Conference 2020: solving the PR industry\u2019s \u2018R word\u2019 problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s PRCA UK National Conference took place last Thursday as a virtual event and explored topics including Ethnic Equality and Inclusion, Brands Doing Good, and Thrive and Survive \u2013 all part of its PR as a Force for Positive Change theme. <\/strong><\/p>\n

PR\u2019s history (and continuing issues) with inequality when it comes to who gets to the top of agency hierarchies, and who makes up the majority of its workforce, was the focus of the panel \u2018The \u201cR\u201d Word. Finally, time to tackle racism in PR and Communications\u2019. Chaired by PRCA Race & Ethnicity Equity Chair and Director of Brownstone Communications\u2019 Barbara Phillips, the discussion featured advice for best practice from ENGINE\u2019s Ete Davies, Kantar\u2019s Mandy Rico, John Doe\u2019s Magin Trewhella and BAME Recruitment\u2019s Cynthia Davis. Recent Board of Directors\u2019 appointee Rax Lakhani also followed the panel with a brief update from the PRCA Diversity Network.<\/p>\n

\u2018We know that we can\u2019t tackle the whole thing with one panel. But we can break it down,\u2019 is how Barbara opened the discussion, with data highlighted as a starting point for pinpointing problems and creating benchmarks.<\/p>\n

Ete Davies shared how data is only the start of the journey to true inclusion: \u2018In truth, we\u2019re still on a journey to be representative within ENGINE. The last seven months, particularly after the exposure the media gave to the systemic issues that ethnic minorities are experiencing, highlighted for us that the data we had wasn\u2019t doing enough. I think there\u2019s a lot more work to do \u2013 actually using the data to inform decisions. Driving actions, rather than just monitoring.\u2019<\/p>\n

On making meaningful change, Magin Trewhella explained the catalyst for inclusion commitments being made at John Doe: \u2018I\u2019ve been frustrated by a lack of diversity for a long time, practically my whole career, so one of the drivers has been to build an agency truly representative of the city where it\u2019s based.<\/p>\n

\u2018We put out a number of commitments, on recruitment, supply chains and representation in campaigns, with numbers behind them so we\u2019re actually accountable to something. That led to us auditing everything we did. It\u2019s provoked cultural change within the business, and that\u2019s the work that needs to be done for something genuinely proactive and sustainable.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s going beyond performative allyship,\u2019 agreed Ete. \u2018It\u2019s holding yourself publicly accountable. What are you doing about your supply chain, for example? We need more of that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s always a challenge you have as a minority in a position of leadership, an implicit impression people can have that you got the role because of your identity, a diversity agenda, instead of your achievements,\u2019 continued Ete regarding his role and responsibility as CEO of ENGINE.<\/p>\n

\u2018There can be an impression that when you\u2019re trying to drive change, that agenda is tied very much to your identity. Which it is, but in our industry, if we don\u2019t have representation in our companies, we can\u2019t do our jobs, we can\u2019t service our clients or understand our audiences and the communities that we\u2019re supposed to be engaging with. It\u2019s not a political choice, it\u2019s not even a personal choice \u2013 it\u2019s a business decision that CEOs should be leaning into. Everyone needs to be onboard with it; it\u2019s a strategic priority.\u2019<\/p>\n

BAME Recruitment\u2019s Cynthia Davis was upfront about why she decided to start her own recruitment business: \u2018I was so fed up of hearing that excuse, that \u201cwe can\u2019t find black talent\u201d or \u201cthere aren\u2019t qualified people from ethnic minority backgrounds\u201d. In this day and age, that\u2019s lazy, and an easy excuse to not hold yourself accountable for driving change.<\/p>\n

\u2018For me, the question is \u201cwhy?\u201d We have to look at the processes and systems that are in place. When people don\u2019t see themselves represented in certain sectors or certain roles, they see it as unattainable and don\u2019t even bother. It\u2019s not a level playing field. This has to go further than targets and to accountability. If you\u2019re bringing talent in, what are you doing to promote them and move them up?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The \u201cpipeline challenge\u201d argument is one I always smile at,\u2019 added Ete. \u2018Recruiters are specifically paid to solve recruitment challenges, for businesses. This is the brief that\u2019s given to you; it\u2019s not good enough to come back and say, \u201cwe can\u2019t find the people\u201d. Look harder, or don\u2019t claim to have the expertise. If it\u2019s business-critical, you\u2019ll find a way to solve it.\u2019<\/p>\n

On tackling systematic racism in hiring, retaining and developing talent, Ete advocated for \u2018putting well-established best practice processes on recruitment and benchmarking in place. Setting representation targets that the leadership team are held accountable on. And modelling and demonstrating your values \u2013 from meetings, ways of working, and how we recognise and reward each other.\u2019<\/p>\n

Barbara finished the panel with a question for the PR industry: \u2018Everything we\u2019ve discussed today is valuable, but for me, the one core theme is desire \u2013 whether or not organisations want to take the step to be inclusive. You have to have a moment of introspection and think \u201cwhat\u2019s stopping me from making this work?\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

Catch up with more from this year\u2019s PRCA UK National Conference on the PRCA website<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s PRCA UK National Conference took place last Thursday as a virtual event with PR as a Force for Positive Change as its theme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":132479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7401,7272,3725],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132476"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132483,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132476\/revisions\/132483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}