It could be because companies are paying attention to diverse hiring practices and employees are building up ERGs. A whopping 79% of companies mandate diverse interview slates when hiring, up from 57% last year.
Another encouraging development is that some companies erected new ERGs serving Native Americans and some religious groups. They’re also taking ERG participation seriously, given that 43% of companies consider employees’ ERG leadership roles when considering succession planning—up from 36% last year. Plus, 64% of the time, companies consider ERG leadership roles during an individual’s annual performance review.
Data on Black representation in advertising is unclear, and She Runs It suspects attrition issues
Media, marketing and technology companies are in general hiring more people of color. Latinx representation rose to 11% industry wide this year, compared to 8% last year, and Black employee representation hit 17%.
This would be good news, given that Black people make up 13.6% of the U.S. population. But, because She Runs It’s 2023 survey was so broad, the data doesn’t represent specific sectors.
Even if Black employee growth is up, Branigan is worried it won’t last, and that companies are largely unprepared to retain Black talent. In its 2024 survey, the nonprofit is tracking attrition to measure the extent of the retention problem.
After experiencing significant 15% growth last year, Black employee representation across all levels is reaching a plateau. There was just 4% growth this year.
“The challenge is if [companies] don’t have more Black people in leadership roles, they’re going to lose these people. We’re seeing some evidence that there’s fatigue from people of color in believing that their companies are walking the walk and talking the talk,” she added.
One piece of evidence is that Black employees were less likely to participate in mentorship programs. Last year, 23% participated in these official company programs, whereas this year the number dropped to 9%.
Measurement initiatives like this one are costly for nonprofits
The first thing companies must do if they want things to change is to invest in measurement, Branigan said.
“They view it as a vital part of their strategy. They must be measured, whether the information is good or bad, because you can’t create a DEI strategy without the measurement,” she added.
The nonprofit revamped its survey tool this year, cutting 300 questions down to 100 and adding segmentation capabilities that Branigan said will make 2024 data the first available to marketers who want to compare their progress with competitors.
“We made it an investment to say, ‘What if we could give you segmented data, so that if seven companies in each sector participate, you get to see your agency versus agency, media company versus media company, ad tech versus ad tech, marketer versus marketer,” Branigan said.
She Runs It invested $125,000 to build the new tool in partnership with Seramount. So far, it’s received $5,000 commitments from NBCUniversal, DoubleVerify, Basis Technologies, SiriusXM, BCW, Netflix and TransUnion. She Runs It is working on attracting interest from others to recoup its full investment.
The revamped 2024 survey is open to respondents now and will close on March 12.
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