Australia’s comms agencies are failing to embrace cultural diversity, finds new report
A new report released by the Scanlon Foundation and communications agency Think HQ has shown Australian communications agencies are failing to ‘walk-the-walk’ when it comes to cultural diversity.
The Framework for Agency Inclusion and Representation (FAIR) report found high awareness but limited knowledge and inconsistent practices when it comes to building cultural diversity in agency workforces and campaigns among Australian communications agencies.
The study is based on one-on-one interviews with 9 senior leaders in Australia’s communication, public relations and advertising agencies between March and April 2021, and an online survey with 131 valid respondents from agency practitioners from Victoria, NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, conducted from May to July 2021.
The report showed that nearly three quarters of Australian communications agencies don’t regularly recommend their clients consider culturally and linguistically diverse audiences, with only 25.8% of respondents saying their agencies do so even ‘some of the time’.
This is despite ABS data showing that nearly half of all Australians were either born overseas or had at least one parent who was born overseas, and one in five Australians speak a language other than English at home, calling into question the ability of our communications professionals to speak to all Australians.
Importantly, the report also indicated respondents were overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic at 82% (compared to 58% of the Australian population) and only half (49.6%) said their agency had a diversity and inclusion (D&I) policy.
The report showed that many industry leaders acknowledged that they had not consciously done enough to integrate cultural diversity into their business and struggled to estimate the proportion of their employees who come from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
Co-commissioner of the report, Think HQ MD, Jen Sharpe, said that the time for action on this issue has come.
“Despite great awareness of the importance of diversity and almost universal agreement the industry needs to do more, the fact that half of agency workplaces don’t have a D&I policy reflects a stark gap between awareness, rhetoric and practice,” said Sharpe.
Led by RMIT Honorary University Fellow, Dr Marianne D. Sison, the 2021 report is the first in a planned series of annual reports that aims to benchmark and track these issues over time.
The exploratory study examined the cultural makeup of the industry’s workforce and perceptions and practices around cultural diversity through in-depth interviews with senior agency leaders in Australia’s advertising, PR and communication agencies and a national online survey open to agency staff at all levels.
Sison said that there is a need for greater capability around cultural diversity with benefits that go beyond commercial returns.
“The opportunity exists for the communication industry and academia to partner and co-develop resources, checklists and frameworks to guide practitioners in enhancing their cultural diversity competence and capabilities.
“The results indicated a strong desire for industry practitioners to learn more about the diverse cultures within their agencies, they just need to know how and where to start,” said Sison. “As one of the worlds’ most successful multicultural societies the focus should be on more than the direct tangible benefits to agencies and the whole communication industry, a deep commitment to cultural diversity and inclusion contributes to a richer, and socially cohesive Australia.”
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Dr Marianne D. Sison
Jen Sharpe
Scanlon Foundation
The Framework for Agency Inclusion and Representation
Think HQ
