Multinationals can set DEI standards

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) will launch a Global DEI Charter for Change at Cannes Lions next week, with the aim of driving real actions and improving the lived experiences for multiple groups working in the marketing industry.

Why it matters 

The Charter identifies actions that need to be undertaken to ensure a better experience for the one in seven members of the industry who say they could leave their company or the industry due to lack of diversity and inclusion. The WFA believes these should be minimum requirements for all global organisations and that implementing them globally will deliver a huge improvement for many in the industry. 

The Charter for Change 

The Charter identified 11 main action areas: four at a leadership level, six to tackle challenges faced by specific groups, one around mental health.

• Leadership: create a diverse leadership team; understand and democratise your company’s data; create transparent policies and publish them; create psychological safety and support. 
• Under-represented groups: age; caregiving; gender; race and ethnicity; disability and neurodivergence; sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Mental health: provide and promote mental health benefits so that they are accessible and top of mind; train people managers how to respond to mental health issues and have supportive discussions around mental health with employees. 

Key quote 

“Getting this right internally enables us as companies and marketers to have a much sharper handle on how best to reach out to a broad range of groups that collectively make up a huge proportion of decision-makers when it comes to consumer spending” – Jerry Daykin, VP, Head of Media, Beam Suntory, and Global WFA Diversity Ambassador. 

*The WFA is organising several sessions at Cannes Lions dedicated to the DEI Charter and last year’s DEI Census, including a panel discussion on Tuesday 11:00am. 

Sourced from WFA