This article first appeared on Marketing Gazette, May 2021.
Written by Yusuf Muhammad.
As Ramadan has drawn to a close, I’ve been reflecting on how the pandemic and consequent lockdowns have changed how agencies approach supporting their staff, particularly during the sacred time of Ramadan.
Working from home was a blessing for me through my fast this year and I believe the lockdown has taught us a great deal about understanding flexibility and blend. These values have allowed me to offer my best self in both important aspects of my life, my religion and my work, and moving forward I hope that these values are upheld by businesses for many Ramadan’s to come.
Before exploring these values in-depth, I would like to share a bit about the celebration of Ramadaitself. Ramadan is celebrated during the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. It’s based on the lunar cycle, and as a consequence, Ramadan migrates throughout the seasons. We fast from the beginning of sunrise to sunset (around 2am to 9pm at the moment) which means abstaining from food, water and drink throughout the day.
One of the reasons to fast is to experience the thirst, hunger, and weakness of those who don’t have luxuries we take for granted, such as unlimited supply of clean water from a tap and food from the supermarket whenever we need it. At the end of the fast we have cold water to quench our thirst and delicious food to indulge in, so we have light at the end of the tunnel and something to look forward to that keeps us going throughout the day.
However, those less fortunate than us don’t have that. What we feel during our fast is just a little taster of their experience and it makes us feel so grateful for the things that can often be taken for granted. For a small period of time, we are putting ourselves in their shoes, and it puts life into perspective. It is incredibly humbling and reminds us to think about the bigger picture, what is really important in life.
Of course, there are exemptions for those for whom it would be dangerous to fast. Children are not required to fast before puberty; however, they are often excited by the celebration going on around them and want to join in for shorter periods of time. My children have been taking part with their own miniature fasts, but health comes first.
It’s because health comes first that the values of understanding, flexibility and blend are so incredibly important at this time.
Understanding
There’s so much more to Ramadan than just fasting, such as giving to charity and other acts of kindness, but yes fasting is an important part of the celebration. Until you’ve experienced it, it’s difficult to understand how fasting effects the body and mind. Fatigue makes it difficult to concentrate or focus and it might be uncomfortable to speak for extended periods of time with a dry mouth. Not only is your body weary from lack of food and drink but often you will also get less sleep due to the timings of Suhur and Iftar, the beginning and ending of the fast. Working from home has been a blessing for me this Ramadan. Things that seem small, such as the commute to work, can be extremely tiring when fasting and I have found it a massive relief to not need to worry about travelling and the impact that will have on my body and mind.
Flexibility
Flexibility is absolutely key during Ramadan, particularly at work. I believe the past year or so has taught us all a great deal about flexible working and the necessity of flexibility as a whole. It’s incredibly helpful for those of us who are fasting to have flexibility in our schedules to allow time to pray and time to begin and end the fast etc. Some people may find they want to come into the office earlier, for example, as they are already awake due to Suhur, but then may prefer to leave early due to fatigue as a consequence in the afternoon. The opposite may also apply.
Blend
My work is very important to me, as is my religion, and having flexibility during Ramadan means I can offer my best self in both aspects of my life. We have all experienced an unusual blending of work and personal life throughout the pandemic. We all have different things going on in our lives and Ramadan is yet another reminder to think of those around us and provide them with support and kindness, remembering that they are neither just work colleagues or just parents etc, but both.
Ramadan is the most special time for my family, my community and me. It’s a time to reflect and work to be a better person. A time to help others and a time to grow closer with God. There are so many beautiful things about the celebration of Ramadan – the community and the giving, the special time dedicated to family, the lack of judgement; the knowledge that everyone’s journey is a personal experience shared between them and God alone.
Ramadan is yet another reminder to think of those around us and provide them with support and kindness. Following Ramadan, I hope you can reflect on how you can offer a bit of flexibility and care to those around you, including your employees or colleagues.
Article first appeared on Marketing Gazette, May 2021.
Written by Yusuf Muhammad.
New Group Diversity and Inclusion Officer is appointed to McCann Central Management Board.
McCann Central, which has an office in Bristol, has further strengthened its Management Board with the promotion of Ruepal Aujla to the newly created role of Group Diversity and Inclusion Officer.
Ruepal joined McCann ten years ago so brings a wealth of knowledge and experience about the agency, people and its clients to the role. Ruepal will add this new responsibility to her current role as Managing Partner within Media.
In the last 12 months, Ruepal has been a driving force in spearheading the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion programme. As such, she will continue to draw together all the good work which is currently being done across the Central offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Leeds, and its London-based office, McCann Demand. Recent initiatives include setting up Conscious Inclusion Councils, launching a ‘Cultural Conversations’ series and introducing flexible annual leave policies around religious and cultural events. Ruepal will also continue to work with the rest of McCann Worldgroup’s DE&I teams to implement other initiatives locally. Most importantly, she will hold the leadership accountable for continuing the changes it is making to the business and it’s culture, from the work produced to the experience of all employees.
Dean Lovett, McCann Central CEO, said: “DE&I has become a key pillar of McCann’s philosophy, and whilst this has been driven within Central through a combination of HR initiatives and more recently the work of the Conscious Inclusion Councils (CIC), both of which will continue, we felt it was important that Conscious Inclusion becomes completely embedded in how we approach and run the business. I can’t take full credit for introduction of this role, as this was actually closely related to an idea which, fittingly, was originally suggested by our employees in our first Day For Meaning*.”
“Ruepal has already been a genuine asset in helping to drive positive change and create conditions of belonging throughout the business. Along with members of our Conscious Inclusion Councils, which she chairs, and guided by input from all of our employees, she has successfully steered our DE&I approach into the all-encompassing programme it is today. I’ve no doubt that under Ruepal’s leadership, we will continue to make further enhancements in this important area, and I am delighted to welcome her to the McCann Central Management Board.”
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives which have been introduced across McCann Central include; identifying and sharing best practice generally and across the advertising and media industry, including setting up a resource library and cultural calendar, working in collaboration with HR and Talent teams on benefits, career development, flexible working and inclusive social events; developing DE&I insights and processes for client work, across creative, casting and content; and advising clients on their external creative output and their internal communications.
*Day For Meaning is an annual McCann Worldgroup activation which brings together every employee to participate in a series of workshops designed to develop initiatives that will increase engagement and belonging by enhancing our diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Bristol’s world-renowned product development agency Kinneir Dufort (KD), has launched a new initiative, XXEquals – the UK’s first majority female team designing products for women across the consumer, industrial and medical markets.
Fuelled by the growing need to design more female-centred products, and to improve the gender balance in the design industry, XXEquals is already working on projects including smart femcare solutions, sustainable period products, voice recognition software, and futures research.
KD has previously developed pioneering women-centred products including a revolutionary breast scanning bed.
Comprising a multi-disciplinary collective of KD experts – 75% of whom are women – XXEquals is pushing for better gender balance across product development, in a move which is set to potentially benefit millions of female consumers worldwide and KD’s global blue chip clients.
The initiative breaks new ground in the product design industry, and is helping to pave the way for young women interested in careers in product and industrial design.
KD’s CEO, Merle Hall, says: “We are incredibly proud to be the first UK consultancy in the product design industry with an arm which pro-actively focuses on products and experiences for women. It feels like there is truly a need to bring more women to the forefront of innovation and product design.
“XXEquals offers female-focused insight and an empathic design approach, resulting in innately intuitive products. We need to develop a deeper consideration of the physiological or psychological differences for female users.
“As an agency with a strong purpose – to design a better world – we feel it is our responsibility to instigate change. We are proof that a better gender balance is possible in the product design industry and we would love to support other businesses driving equality where possible.
“We’re not where we want to be yet, representative of the world around us, but we’re focused on our goals. It’s important to us to remember that men always need to be part of the solution too, so we draw on the brilliant expertise of our male strategists, researchers, designers, engineers and makers, who are well versed in allyship and also very engaged in the initiative.”
Around half of the world’s population is female and women buy 85% of household products, yet data shows only 5% of the product and industrial design industry is female.
With the femtech market predicted to reach $50 billion by 2025 and 93% of women currently buying over-the-counter healthcare products, the business case for gender balance in this industry is powerful.
Merle Hall continues: “Without expert female representation throughout the innovation and development process now, more opportunities will be missed to leverage real life experience and create brands and products which close the gap between assumption and reality.
“XXEquals launches as we are seeing women being adversely affected by Covid, and shortly after the issuing of a Government call-out for views to inform the new Women’s Health Strategy for England, which aims to change the male-by-default approach to health and care system.”
KD has longstanding partnerships to help solve the design industry’s gender balance issue. One is with Kerning the Gap, a campaign to encourage more women into leadership roles in the industry.
Founder, Nat Maher: “I think XXEquals will be highlighting an issue that has been long understood and long accepted, and it should be accepted no more. But also, what I think KD will do as pioneers is work with their peers to work out how they get better at it. KD wants change for the industry, and not just for itself. That is why XXEquals has my full and unbridled support.”
KD’s CDO, Craig Wightman adds: “As a man working in design, I have, for too long, felt uncomfortable about the number of situations I’ve observed or been directly involved with, where products used by women are conceptualised, designed and developed by men. That is not to say that male designers cannot design well for women, but why would you not want to have your audience and users better reflected in your design and decision-making team? It just makes sense.
“I have always felt that it’s important to have respect for the people we are designing for. It is about empathy and putting yourself in the shoes of the product user. Having a more gender-balanced team is an important part of achieving that goal.”
The below XXEquals podcast episode is now available:
Twitter: twitter.com/xxequals
Instagram: www.instagram.com/xxequals
For more information visit: www.XXEquals.com and www.kinneirdufort.com.
Over the past year there has also been a small increase in the percentage of black women working in IT positions, from 0.3% in 2019 to 0.7% in 20201, according to the BCS’ study based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) employment data.
However the founders of the Black Codher team (Image below: left to right Oyin Adebayo , Olaolu Dada and Charlene Hunter) believe there is a gold mine of talent amongst the black community that companies are not yet tapping into.
Black women are still heavily under-represented in IT and, by comparison, across other occupations their level of representation is 2.5 times higher (according to BCS chartered Institute for IT). The Black Codher programme specifically targets this issue head on by taking on women who would not be able to afford learning these skills by offering training and providing job readiness for the tech industry for free. The programme is facilitated by professionals who work in tech and is supported by the work of mentors who are also tech professionals to ensure the 50 women are fully immersed in a learning experience that empowers them and is attractive for higher paid employment.
In August 2020 , two Black female run Start-ups, Niyo Enterprise and Coding Black Females started the Black Codher programme a free 6-month coding bootcamp funded by West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) for black women unemployed or in low-skilled employment.
The Black Codher team comprised of the founders of Niyo Enterprise and Coding Black Females won a £250,000 fund to facilitate this coding bootcamp specifically for black females aged 18 and above, unemployed or in low skilled employment. The 50 women have spent 30 weeks immersed in an intensive learning experience that empowers them, and they are now ready for higher paid employment as Full Stack Developers.
“Black Codher is a way for black women who have always been curious about technology to explore their chosen career and make a good income.” This programme has attracted national attention and is on it’s way to bringing change to Black women who have committed to the 6 month intensive course.
40% of the UK’s black households experience income poverty or work in low skill employment and the tech industry is a very diverse industry that offers opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to benefit from. The passion of the Black Codher directors is to directly improve life chances, increase career prospects and income.
The Bootcamp has opened applications for the 2021/22 cohort and will be bringing economic empowerment for black women through training them with skills useful in tech and digital occupations.
Features and benefits of this bootcamp include.
(Deadline 28th Feb 2021, to apply go to: https://blackcodher.com/apply)
Develop Me, working in partnership with Babbasa, are offering fully-funded tech bursaries for four young Black people living in Bristol to learn how to code and begin their career as software developers.
Develop Me’s programmes have a market leading, 95% post course hire rate into the tech industry. The bursaries aim to remove the social and economic barriers of entry for under- represented young people by providing opportunities and access to education connected to highly paid in-demand tech careers.
With 18% of tech employees from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds; and specifically, only 2% from a Black, African, Caribbean or Black British background – a long climb to diversity remains for the industry (The Chartered Institute for IT/BCS 2020).
Al Kennedy, Director of DevelopMe, explains, “Now – more than ever – is the time to work together across the Bristol city region – to invest in local talent and to create supported high value career pathways that are accessible to everyone to become future leaders in the tech sector.”
Comprising of four fully-funded places (valued at £9,450 each) on Develop Me’s newly launched part-time 52 week Coding Fellowship Bootcamp, every student will have access to Career Coaches, full learning support, industry mentor community to help set them up for their future careers, as well as a loan of an Apple Laptop for the full duration of the course.
This initiative is co-funded partly via Develop Me’s Opportunity Fund supported by hiring partners, matched by Develop Me, plus the generous support from their mentor and alumni community. Bristol inner-city-based youth empowerment social enterprise, Babbasa, is supporting with recruitment and access to under-represented communities.
For further information head to their webpage: https://developme.tech/black-bristol-tech-pathway/
iO Academy is on a mission to help to address the gender imbalance in the tech industry, and give people the training they need for a career they’ll love.
Based in the South West, iO Academy is tackling this head on with a rebrand that speaks to their core values of inclusivity and accessibility. Working with Bristol-based creative agency, Fiasco Design, they’ve created a brand that reflects their ambitions of creating a more diverse and inclusive industry, bringing about meaningful change.
It’s no great secret that there is a representation gap for women in tech. More inclusive career pathways in the technology industry have been the focus of various initiatives, such as Tech Talent Charter, Code First Girls, and Tech She Can, along with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s Digital Skills Innovation Fund and the Academy’s own Diversitech Fund.
Over a quarter of women students say that they are put off a career in technology as it’s too dominated by men. (PWC)
The UK economy would benefit from an extra £2.6 billion each year if the number of women working in tech is increased.
83% of millennial British women stated that they actively seek out employers with a strong record on diversity, equality and inclusion. (PWC)
Women account for 50% of the UK working age population but only 16% of IT professionals are women. (BCS)
iO Academy is an award-winning coding bootcamp based in the South West. In 2015 it was set up by healthtech company Mayden – not initially as a business, but as a way to solve a problem. Like so many tech companies around the UK, they needed more developers to sustain their own growth. So a team of Mayden developers designed a programme that would train people with no coding experience to be industry-ready developers in just 16 weeks. Their direct tech experience led them to build a course with a new approach; one that gave students the up to date and practical skills that were needed most. A course that anyone, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or background, could come out of as the sort of developer that tech companies want to hire.
After five years in business, it was time to look at themselves and uncover the ingredients which would make them an innovative, purpose-driven brand.
The Academy reached out to Fiasco Design at the start of 2020 with a view to repositioning the company, reflecting their own growth from an idea to solve a talent shortage, to a company with an international reputation. The aim was for a fresh, future-proof identity that would appeal to a diverse range of prospective students and break down perceptions about the tech industry.
With graduates working in tech companies from Bath to Berlin, a 50:50 ratio of men and women trainers, and a strong work ethic towards diversifying the industry and creating an environment that facilitates opportunities for all, Fiasco Design and Mayden Academy embarked on a full strategic review of the current branding; assessing their DNA and defining their core values and company proposition.
Through a number of workshops conducted by Fiasco and Mayden, a new brand name was formed; iO Academy. On the one hand it’s a clear nod to coding language – IO is shorthand for input/output in computer programming. On the other it’s also the name of one of Jupiter’s moons, which seemed a good metaphor for the brand’s innovative, future-focussed outlook.
Margaret Davidson, Business Development and Marketing Manager at iO says, “Fiasco saw right to the heart of who we are as a brand and came up with a visual identity to represent us which we would never have thought of ourselves. In particular, what we wanted was to become more attractive and accessible to a wider range of people, with a core focus on diversity and inclusivity. Working as part of a new niche sector within a wider industry that often seems intimidating, this was a challenge. Fiasco came up with an approach where we now feel confident that an underpinning of inspiring inclusivity will be clear in everything we do, and help us to be part of bringing meaningful change.”
With the name and proposition came a new visual expression for the brand. The visual language is designed to reflect exploration, harnessing imagination and working towards a better future. The graphic shapes give a sense of wayfinding, collecting badges and new skills following a creative pathway. Verbally the tone is positive, ambitious and empowering, and speaks to the curious and willing.
Working with Belgium-based illustrator Soren Selleslagh, the team created a suite of illustrations to depict aspects of the student journey across the course and into their new careers. Soren’s human-centred approach evokes joy and empowerment through positive representation of all types of people. With a devoted outlook to making meaningful illustrations, this partnership gave the brand identity the visual storytelling elements that demonstrate openness and inclusivity.
Ben Steers, Creative Director at Fiasco Design says about the project: “It’s been fantastic to work with the team at iO and help them towards realising their vision of leveling the playing field within the tech industry by creating a fairer, more diverse community of developers”
Business as Unusual – the webinar dedicated to inspiring marketers and business owners – returns!
Join Azeem Ahmad, Sunjay Singh and Joyann Boyce for a conversation about cultural diversity in the marketing sector on Thursday 17th September from 3pm – 4pm.
This webinar is perfect for marketers and business owners who want to make a start at being more inclusive at work.
We’ll cover:
– Practical ways to champion diversity in the workplace and get around the biases of your boss
– First hand experiences of cultural bias as told by our panellists
– The steps we can take as an industry and as individuals to make inclusive marketing the standard
– How we can encourage more young people of colour into the sector
There’ll also be a 15 minute Q&A where you can submit anonymous questions on the topic; so if there’s a question you have which you felt uncomfortable or a bit silly asking, this is your chance to ask it.
Register for the webinar and get the joining info here: mnky.bz/bau
Pre-submit your anonymous question using this form here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GKCM3BG
The BMAA was hugely successful last year and, after recently announcing Okori Lewis-McCalla as this year’s winner, we’re keen to hear from businesses who would like to support the initiative in 2020.
16% of Bristol’s population is from a BAME background, but these groups are still vastly underrepresented within our creative sector. Diversity and inclusion is somewhere on the agenda for most businesses but it’s often difficult to know how to make a difference.
The BMAA was launched in 2018 in memory of Ben Martin, a local agency MD who passionately believed that success was achievable regardless of background or education. The Award supports young people from underrepresented backgrounds by offering them work experience and opportunities with local creative businesses (as well as a trip to SXSW for one lucky winner).
This year, Okori and 3 runners-up have been selected to participate in the programme. Okori is currently preparing for SXSW in March, after which he and the runners up will start their paid internship programme with sponsoring agencies, taking their first steps into professional life. During their work experience they will be coached and supported for employability, setting them up for their future career within their chosen area of interest.
Marissa Lewis-Peart won last year’s BMAA and completed over 5 months of internships with 16 different agencies, gaining valuable experience across a range of creative sectors.
“Nothing compares to gaining real industry experience and I’m so glad to have been given this opportunity. Winning the Ben Martin Apprentice Award provided me with connections to people within the industry and the rare opportunity to experience some of the biggest creative agencies in Bristol. The experience and support really helped me to feel more confident in getting ready to start my career.” Marissa said.
Alongside Bristol Media, the headline sponsor for the 2020 BMAA is ADLIB with continued support from Babbasa. ADLIB are very excited to join the initiative as this year’s key sponsor.
“We all want to make our industry more diverse and inclusive, but when you run a small business it’s not always easy to know how to make a practical difference. By coming together as the Bristol Media community to support the BMAA, every member business, regardless of size, can do their bit to help young people get that all important foot in the door.” ~ Chris Thurling, Chair, Bristol Media
“Diversity and Inclusion isn’t a tick box exercise; it requires an engaged commitment to drive change and live and breathe an all-inclusive environment. Building a diverse and inclusive team is proven to drive increased employee engagement, creativity, innovation and profitability (and that’s just for starters). We have founded the True Diversity initiative with the mission to help Technology, Data, Marketing and Creative businesses identify where they are at on their journey towards diversity, what they could improve and how to go about making those adjustments.” ~ Nick Dean, MD, ADLIB
This year, we’re looking for agencies and businesses to be involved as corporate sponsors, to provide additional funding and further reach for young people. The BMAA will offer corporate sponsors the chance to promote their workplace diversity and inclusive work environment, highlighting their company values and adding to their attractiveness as an employer. Sponsors will have access to an exclusive workshop and branding opportunities.
The package costs £350 and includes but is not limited to:
To be involved in supporting this fantastic initiative, please contact Alli Nicholas at Bristol Media at [email protected].
We’re immensely proud of the role we’ve played in leading this initiative and have seen first-hand the impact it has had on both the BMAA Winner and the agencies involved. Thank you to the growing list of agencies who have already joined this initiative – Armadillo CRM, Tallt Ventures, McCann Bristol, Mr B & Friends, Oakwood, Immediate Media, Epoch Design, Halo, Torchbox and Diva Agency – who have committed to making a difference.