Few Brands Have Delivered on Their 2020 Diversity Promises

If you can recall the tumultuous summer of 2020, you’ll probably want to forget it just as quickly. Deaths from Covid-19 had already reached an average of 1,000 per day by May. An increasingly ugly presidential campaign had some pundits predicting the collapse of democracy come the election. And then there was the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, leading to weeks of demonstrations and marches that appeared, at least in some places, to awaken white America to the systemic injustices suffered daily by African Americans and other communities of color. For their part, corporations couldn’t do a whole lot about Covid or the nasty election, but a slew of brands all but tripped over themselves to get #BlackLivesMatter up onto their Twitter accounts. In the weeks that followed, the nation’s 50 largest companies pledged a collective $49.5 billion, a figure calculated by The Washington Post, toward helping achieve some measure of racial parity. Infographic: Diverse Audiences Value Brands That Show Up Where They Are In addition to funding more housing, education and small-business loans for Black Americans, many companies also promised internal changes by diversifying their hiring practices and establishing promotional tracks. Now, as the three-year anniversary of these public pledges nears, how much has the workforce changed for Black people and other employees of color? According to a just-released study, not much. The persistence of inequity In November 2022, Hue, an organization that advocates for increased recruitment and career growth for Americans of color, partnered with Harris Poll to survey 3,000 professionals in fields ranging from finance to engineering—including advertising, communications and marketing—to get a sense of whether the corporate world has actually become more racially diverse. The result is the State of Inequity report, and its most telling findings are these. Since June 2020, 85% of employees report that their employers have failed to invest in more racially diverse hiring; 80% say they’ve seen no increase in promotional opportunities for people of color, either. And 80% believe that their companies haven’t lifted a finger to create a more equitable atmosphere within the office walls. If companies and brands don't do what's needed today, they may not be [here] tomorrow.Fahad Khawaja, founder, Hue “There is a massive gap between the words of companies and their actions, especially with the layoffs that we've seen over the last few months,” Hue founder Fahad Khawaja told Adweek. “It’s glaringly clear.” (The report addressed workplace conditions for employees identifying as Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). As the acronym has caused a degree of confusion and controversy, this story will refer to the group simply as people of color.) Quiet quitting backfires Last summer, the corporate world was abuzz with talk about quiet quitting, a passive-aggressive maneuver through which burned-out employees throttled down to doing the minimum amount of work necessary to avoid being fired. Quiet quitting was itself an outgrowth of the Great Resignation, which saw an unprecedented number of workers walk out of their jobs with nothing else lined up. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 47 million employees ditched their jobs in 2021—essentially flipping the bird at their bosses for the long hours, high burnout and wage stagnation that the pandemic period made plain. But corporations have struck back, not with words but with pink slips. And according to Hue’s study, employees of color have been hit disproportionately hard: They’re twice as likely to have been laid off compared to their Caucasian counterparts. And because Hue conducted its research in November, Khawaja is concerned that the diversity picture today may be even bleaker than what his group’s report lays out. Even people of color who’ve held onto their jobs feel less happy and secure in them, the report’s data shows. Not only do three in five employees of color report that their salaries have not kept up with inflation, half of them worry they might need to take a second job just to keep up. Employees of color are also more concerned than their white colleagues that they’ll lose their jobs in the next year. CreatorIQ Report Unveils Strategies That Scored Big For Top Performing Brands Where’s that raise you promised? Making changes to their internal career tracks for employees of color was among the pledges America heard from some of its biggest brands in the summer of 2020—but respondents to Hue’s poll said they haven’t seen much of that, either. For example, a quarter of Asian American employees reported that their companies had not accomplished much in the way of “fair and equitable promotion,” as the study phrased it. One out of four employees of Latin American heritage also felt this way. But the inequities measured by the study seemed most pervasive when it came to women of color, who as a group were up to twice as likely to report that their employers have failed to deliver when it came to promotions and advancement opportunities. A quarter of women of color said they’re not paid fairly in comparison to other employees at their level within their companies. And overall, compared to white males, women of color are now twice as likely to be underpaid, according to the study. One dismal department Employers’ failure to address problems of racial equity were especially pronounced when it came to marketing. While the marketing field at brands has historically been a career ladder for women (60% of jobs in the field were held by women in 2021, according to the LinkedIn Ads Blog), it’s never been a very diverse department to work in. According to the Association of National Advertisers’ Diversity Report for the advertising and marketing industries, Black professionals make up only 7% of corporate marketing departments and only 5% of senior level executives. “Ethnic diversity remains poor from the senior level on down,” the report said, “especially for African-American/Black and Hispanic/Latino [employees].” But that ANA study came out in November 2020, just months after many corporations pledged to make changes. The Black, Queer Hosts of Vibe Check Explain What Diverse Podcasting Is All About While Hue’s study did note some small perceptual improvements—a slightly larger cohort of marketers reported a feeling of inclusion within their organizations—tangible progress was still mostly lacking. For example, only 15% of marketing professionals reported that their companies have hired a leader to guide diversity and inclusion efforts since 2020. And 8 out of 10 marketers said their employers had no executive-level support for promotion when it came to ethnically diverse team members. Diversity and the bottom line Setting aside diversity as a social justice issue, companies that have failed to make progress on this front are ultimately also paying for it, Hue’s report suggests. The link between employee satisfaction and productivity—which in turn affects revenue—has been well established. A study conducted by University of Oxford in 2019, for example, revealed that employees who were content with their work at a major telecommunications company were up to 13% more productive. “We found that when workers are happier, they work faster by making more calls per hour worked and, importantly, convert more calls to sales,” professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve said in a statement released by the university. It only follows logically that discontented employees will not work as hard, nor stay as long. Hue’s study uncovered a direct link between morale and diversity—or the lack of it. Over 3 in 4 employees of color said it’s energizing to see people at work who look like them or who are from the same ethnic group. (For Black employees specifically, that rate is 81%.) “If you are motivated by your environment that's a positive culture- and community-driven environment, you're going to bring energy to everything you do,” Khawaja said. “You’re going to be more productive. You’re going to deliver on your organization’s goals.” DEI Action Is In, and Diverse Media Needs More Budget Share On the flip side, Hue’s report found, the fact that 3 out of 4 respondents reported that their employers had made no meaningful progress since 2020 in creating a more equitable workplace environment should be a wakeup call for the HR department. “This lack of progress,” the report said, “represents a threat to retention levels.” Strong medicine Hue’s study outlined several measures that brands should take if they’re serious about diversity, but they all boil down to the need to commit real leadership, time and resources—measures that go considerably beyond simply hiring a chief inclusion officer or posting politically correct messages on Twitter. “If we want to build a better future for all of us, not just the few, we have to start changing our organizations from within today,” Khawaja said. “And the time is now to ask. Because if companies and brands don't do what's needed today, they may not be [here] tomorrow.”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Brands Made Countless Diversity Promises in 2020. Very Few Have Delivered on Them

A new survey measures the gap between intent and action

Robert Klara

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Robert Klara