The Responsible Resourcing Agency (RRA), a newly formed recruitment and HR partner focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), launches today under female co-founders Adele Bridgeman and Alison Filkin.With pressure mounting on the industry over DE&I, the Responsible Resourcing Agency takes aim at the media’s people problem, putting a focus on better representation and equality in the industry. The agency aims to help large and small media, marketing and advertising companies to tap into a richer talent pool and build welcoming and inclusive work environments that better reflect our diverse society.Its launch is a timely one, coming amid the broader media industry’s increasingly urgent struggle to meet its DE&I responsibilities and a rising clamour for employers to do far more to promote broader representation, retain talent and improve potential and existing employees’ sense of belonging in our industry.
A new survey this month identified DE&I as the issue that would make the single greatest impact on young media professionals if leaders were to make it their top priority in 2024. Meanwhile, almost one in seven global marketing and advertising staff say they would potentially leave the industry due to a lack of diversity, equity and inclusion [source: 2023 World Federation of Advertisers Global DEI Census] – a figure that rises to one in six among women and LGBTQIA respondents, and one in five for ethnic minorities.
Industry leader Elizabeth Anyaegbuna, co-founder of independent media agency 16x9media, Join Our Table and Bloom in Colour, and President of Bloom UK, agrees representation in advertising is critically important, commercially and culturally. “If brands want to authentically connect with the UK’s full spectrum of people, those diverse communities need representation on their teams,” she says.
This requires going beyond recruitment to retain and advance diversity by adopting new approaches to widening talent pools and fostering an inclusive culture. Anyaegbuna emphasises: “It’s not enough to just hire diversely if those employees then leave due to lack of belonging. We must create an equitable environment focused on inclusion and advancement.”
As well as recruitment services, RRA sets out with a mission to drive positive people practices across the whole employment experience – advising on employee relations, policy and procedure, well-being, employee engagement, training and development, and compliance.“It’s proven that companies who are diverse and support inclusivity with the right programmes and equitable solutions will outperform their peers,” says Adele. “RRA is a team of experts who help clients hire specialist and diverse talent across the media, marketing, digital, production, creative and sustainability sectors.”
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Adele is a seasoned media recruitment professional, with over ten years’ industry experience. Prior to co-founding RRA, she spent three years at multimedia publisher, LADbible as Talent Business Partner, heading up the recruitment and DE&I strategy globally, and previously held senior recruitment positions at The Marketing Store and GroupM where she helped launch their first and largest diversity and inclusion initiative and a UK-wide apprenticeship programme.
Alison is a multi-sector HR Director with more than 20 years’ experience in HR, both as a consultant to small and large clients and as a corporate leader in global organisations such as Adecco and the worldwide team of planning and buying powerhouse Mindshare.
Both Alison and Adele passionately believe the industry needs new approaches to a persistent, complex problem.
“We understand that the expectations of our clients as employers, partners and suppliers are significant,” says Alison. “They are expected to have a legally compliant, happy and diverse workforce, an inclusive environment, a sustainable business model and a purposeful business strategy, all whilst being commercially successful. That is a lot to deal with. We are here to uncomplicate the complicated, strengthening diversity, making business fit for progress and allowing them to focus on what they do best.”
Clients can hire RRA’s expertise on a fractional basis and support the needs of both large and smaller businesses by offering flexible pricing where clients can choose to drive individual projects in partnership with their current Talent and HR teams or, for smaller clients, scope as many days per month as they need.
Adele adds: “Responsible resourcing is what sets us apart. It’s a broad set of criteria, from finding the right talent and onboarding them to your business, through to essential endeavours to ensure their HR and duty of care needs are met by your business. We love people and we are excited about creating and enabling teams that are fit for progress.”