Dentsu Americas Aims for Women to Account for 50% of Executive Roles by 2025

Dentsu today released its 2021 Americas DEI Report, which functions both as an assessment of the current state of the company and a look toward the future. Christena Pyle, who joined Dentsu from Time's Up in the new role of chief equity officer, Americas last year, said in a press briefing Monday that the report reflects a commitment to transparency, as Dentsu outlines its progress in the past year and goals for the first half of the decade. Pyle said Dentsu's goals for 2025 include women being represented in half of its executive leadership positions in the Americas as well as 30% multicultural representation in the U.S., including 25% of executive leadership roles. Pyle said the network is also focusing on expanding its representation of employees from LGBTQIA+ backgrounds, the disabled community and veteran populations, though it has not yet shared information about its current representation in these areas. A more expansive view of representation Last year, Dentsu Americas CEO Jacki Kelley shared the company's U.S. EEOC diversity data in a memo to employees, making Dentsu the second holding company to do so following a similar memo from IPG CEO Michael Roth. This year, the network is also including gender representation for Canada and Latin America, expanding beyond the limitations of binary gender identities and including a look at intersectional representation. In the Americas, 57.7% of all Dentsu employees are women—up from 53.6% last June—and 42.3% are men, with 0.6% identifying as nonbinary. Women accounted for 60% of Dentsu's hires in the Americas since last June. The biggest change was in Canada, which went from 47% to 59.2% women. Men still account for 64% of executive roles in the Americas, however, though women do hold over half (53.1%) of management roles, defined as department directors, vps and svps. In the U.S., 73% of Dentsu's workforce is white, while 27% is BIPOC or multicultural (defined as Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx and Hispanic, two or more races, or other). That reflects a 2.6% increase since last June, with multicultural employees accounting for a third of Dentsu's hires in the U.S. since last June. Black employees represent 6.7% of Dentsu's U.S. workforce, up from 5.3% last year. There was also an increase in the number of Black executives in the U.S. (from 1.8% last year to 3.8%), Black employees in management roles (from 2.5% to 3.4%) and Black employees in professional roles (entry-level through senior management and some account directors), from 6.9% to 7.8%. 'No such thing as a single-issue struggle' Looking at intersectionality across race and gender, Dentsu reported that multicultural women represent 15.9% of its workforce in the U.S. and multicultural men represent 11.1%, while Black women make up 4.4% of Dentsu U.S. employees and Black men account for 2.3%. In a note accompanying the report, Pyle quoted a 1982 address from author and activist Audre Lorde and highlighted the importance and promise of intersectionality, stressing Dentsu's goals to take a broader view of diversity, equity and inclusion "Despite the race to focus on race in the ad industry, we did not want to lose sight of the progress needed across all axes of identity—ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, ability, cognitive diversity, religion and other critical forms of identity—are fundamental to creating an inclusive, equitable culture," she wrote, expressing a desire for Dentsu to advance DEI goals across four pillars: "transparency and accountability, representation and sponsorship, education and continuous learning, and client and community impact." Driving accountability and architecting the future of work Dentsu is working on expanding a number of initiatives to enhance equity, opportunity and retention internally, including mentorship programs across Dentsu focused on preparing employees for executive and management roles. Dentsu is also examining diversity in its media investments and production and vendor partners, and working with partners including the 4As Foundation, Times Forward and the World Economic Forum on initiatives to advance equity and inclusion in the industry. Asked about accountability measures for leaders at Dentsu, Pyle said leaders are "strongly encouraged" to set goals around DEI measures which are evaluated as part of performance assessments tied to financial incentives. She acknowledged a need for enhanced accountability, and the report included a call for more robust leadership reviews as a next step for Dentsu. "We have a way go to hold leaders accountable," she conceded. Exclusive: Here’s What Dentsu’s Reorganization Actually Looks Like As pandemic restrictions relax and allow for a gradual return to offices, a more flexible approach to hybrid and remote work can help accelerative diversity and inclusion, something Pyle said Dentsu is taking into account in conversations about the future of work at the organization. "I'm passionate about building a workplace that works for everyone. Whoever is architecting the workplace right now can architect how we work for the next 50 years," she said, adding that she is having these conversations with Kai Deveraux Lawson, who joined Dentsu to lead DEI for its creative offering last month, and Kirt Morris, who leads DEI for its CXM solutions arm. "We are being considered in how to build the best-in-class return to office and work-from-wherever future," she said.