Advertising Age reported WPP confessed common knowledge: U.S. racial and ethnic minorities are woefully underrepresented at the White holding company. WPP CEO Mark Read admitted in a memo, “While our U.S. data shows progress between 2018 and 2020, it also underlines the work we have to do to ensure greater representation of Black, Asian and other under-represented communities within WPP—especially at the more senior levels.” The 2021 statement sharply contradicts the 2016 position, where WPP claimed the drones in its global workforce “represent perhaps the most diverse example of diversity of any single organisation.” The latest solutions? Meeting DE&I goals—figures that are not being specified or publicized, incidentally—will be tied to annual bonus plans for leadership. Plus, WPP will boost recruitment via HBCUs, diverse groups (ie, heat shields) and “other talent pipelines”—which sounds like code for tapping cronies of color and targeting embryos.
Why simply reduce leaders’ bonuses for failing to achieve equity and fairness? After decades of denial and delinquency, shouldn’t noncompliance merit immediate termination?
And why does an industry boasting to be driven by innovation and creativity constantly settle for contrived and clichéd “solutions” that have been proven ineffective? If any advertising agency or holding company demonstrated similar ineffectiveness in meeting clients’ goals, wouldn’t the failure merit immediate termination?
In short, “leaders” like Read shouldn’t be drafting memos—rather, they should be receiving pink slips.
WPP’s Workforce Diversity Report Reveals A Long Road Ahead For Representation
Differences in diversity become starker at the management level, data shows
By Mike Juang
WPP has revealed the results of its first workforce diversity report, hoping that increased transparency will help the company’s efforts to create a more racially and ethnically diverse workplace.
The data, which mostly pertains to the U.S. workforce, reveals widespread underrepresentation that becomes increasingly marked in upper management. WPP says it employs around 100,000 people worldwide.
WPP remains overwhelmingly white, with that group making up 68.9% of its overall workforce in 2020. Asians make up the second largest group, at 12%, followed by Hispanic or Latino employees making up 9.9% and Black or African American employees making up only 6.5%.
The differences in diversity become starker at the “management” level, according to the report. In 2020, WPP reported 80.9% of senior/executive-level managers were white, with Asians at only 6.9%, and Hispanic or Latinos at 6.4%. Black or African American employees were the least represented, accounting for only 3.9% of the workforce at that level.
WPP employees at the “professional” level in 2020 were the most diverse compared to other levels, with 65.4% white, 15.3% Asian, 9.3% Hispanic or Latino and 6.7% Black or African American.
“While our U.S. data shows progress between 2018 and 2020, it also underlines the work we have to do to ensure greater representation of Black, Asian and other under-represented communities within WPP—especially at the more senior levels,” said Mark Read, CEO of WPP, in an internal memo.
Last year, the company released U.S. diversity data for 2018 via a memo to staff. And while the company has seen its diversity improve over time, the differences are minimal. For all staff roles, Black or African American employees rose from 6.2% in 2018 to 6.4% in 2019. For senior and executive-level managers, Asian employees rose from 5.7% in 2018 to 6.6% in 2019.
“The story our data tells is clear: we still have a huge amount of work to do,” WPP said in a sustainability report. “We have acknowledged that we need to improve ethnicity representation at all levels of the Company, especially at senior and leadership levels.”
The company says it is launching new policies, such as tying annual bonus plans for leadership to hitting diversity and inclusion goals. The company also says it is expanding recruiting to HBCUs, diverse groups and other talent pipelines.
For the industry, 2020 was a tumultuous year in which companies were forced to confront issues of racial injustice and inequality at all levels, including in the workplace. Ad Age tracked many of these developments in this blog.
WPP says it is publishing the data in the interest of transparency and to drive accountability, and that it will continue to do so annually.
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