When Tamara Ingram took over for the outgoing Gustavo Martinez as global CEO/chairman of JWT, she wasted no time in stating, “diversity and inclusion will be at the top of my agenda.”
We had a chance to interview her at Cannes, and she was very straightforward about her belief that this problem will persist within the agency world for some time. When discussing potential approaches (not to use the misleading word “solutions”), she mentioned blind hiring.
Today Campaign ran a piece by Omar Oakes detailing what that means, at least for would-be employees of JWT’s London office participating in a recruitment program called JWT Pioneers. The program previously targeted new graduates but has now expanded to target all with an interest in working at JWT as account managers, planners or producers.
In short, don’t worry about your resume.
“Applicants will be still be asked to submit a CV, but the agency said this will no longer be looked at until the candidates are whittled down to a much later stage. Instead, applicants will now be asked to answer six questions which will be used to assess them for interview selection. JWT said submitting a CV limits diversity of opportunity to enter the advertising industry.”
The nature of those six questions is not clear, nor are the stages that will facilitate that whittling down. The office’s co-director of talent Kate Bruges told Campaign, “We really don’t mind what your background is and whether your interest is in analytics, PR or film – what matters to us is that you are curious, courageous, capable and collaborative.”
Will this work? We should know by January, when the new crop of JWT employees goes to work in London.