Our Commitment to DEI

The past month has seen the Black Lives Matter movement dominate international news agendas, social media feeds, and conversations both online and offline. The Black community is fighting not only for equality and fair opportunities in society and the workplace, but as the devastating death of George Floyd and many others has shown, often for their lives.

Petitions have been signed and shared, peaceful protests have been attended, local MP’s have been written to, books by Black writers are rightly making book chart history, and thought-provoking TV shows and podcasts have been processed. But what now? Radical change needs to happen to help fight against systemic racism once and for all. 

Having had time to reflect ourselves and listen, we admit we have not been doing enough to support the Black community, which has undoubtedly inspired and influenced Full Fat since we started out eight years ago. Lack of diversity is an industry-wide issue and change needs to happen to ensure that we are not only supporting those affected by racism, but being actively anti-racist. 

We have taken the time to better understand where we have got it wrong in the past and we are committed to doing better. Today marks the launch of our anti-racism commitments to implement now and in the future. 

These are a starting point and by no means a finite list of actions, however they are the start of work that will ensure Full Fat is an actively anti-racist agency and stands in allyship with the Black community. This is not a standalone blog post and we will be coming back here to update on our commitments.

We stand in solidarity with the fight for equality, and will continue to invest in the Black community to provide opportunities and ensure voices are heard. 

Our commitments

Right now we’re going to:

Create a more diverse team

HOW: 

  • Updating our recruitment policy to proactively seek out Black candidates for all positions available at the agency

  • Working with BAME recruiters and inclusive organisations such as The Other Box, Supa Talent, Taylor Bennett Foundation, Social Fixt and LGBTJobs  

  • Implementing anonymous CV submissions

  • Enhancing our current referral scheme for our employees who put forward candidates of different backgrounds from their own

Foster a more diverse and inclusive network of media + influencers 

HOW:

  • Expanding our media and influencer lists to ensure diversity is at the forefront of our communications network and strategies

  • Committing to a 50/50 split of BAME and white influencer targets for every campaign, inclusive of sex, gender, age and disabilities  

  • Reviewing our network of media and influencers on a quarterly basis

  • Building a dedicated Black media library and resource list accessible to all staff at all times 

  • Increase subscriptions to BAME publications including Gal Dem, Pride Magazine and others

  • Revise all audience profiles within our proposals and comms strategies ensuring we are being truly diverse and inclusive

Receiving Feedback  

  • Overhauling our exit interview process to capture more quantitative data, as well as anecdotal experiences and questions around diversity, equity and inclusivity

Open up the conversation across our team, our clients, our network and our platform in supporting the Black community, discussing racism and being actively anti-racist

HOW:

  • Commiting to discussing the issue of racism within our team, our clients and across our platforms in order to be actively anti-racist 

    • These discussions will range from team training to anonymous bi-annual surveys to sharing of our policies 

  • Commiting to increasing resources around equality, diversity and inclusivity including a paid subscription to Rachel Cargle's 'The Great Unlearn'

  • An essential reading list shared by each person in the team

  • Our bi-annual survey to include questions around diversity, equality and inclusivity

Increase training around equality, diversity and inclusivity at Full Fat

HOW

  • Commit to quarterly training around equality, diversity and inclusivity, beginning with a training session on Allyship In The Workplace led by The Other Box

  • Commit to one hour per month for our team to research and read on the subjects of equality, diversity and inclusivity 

Champion diversity across our platforms

HOW:

  • Creating and championing diverse content on our Full Fat social channels aiming for a 50/50 split of BAME to white representation across all content 

  • Engaging with and following a more diverse pool of media, influencers and brands 

  • Implementing inclusivity guidelines to ensure diversity across our social channels 

Pledge a financial commitment to anti-racism

HOW:

  • Full Fat will increase its donation to £500 to an anti racism charity as chosen by the team

  • Full Fat commits to an annual budget to encourage and increase diversity learning and knowledge across the agency 

  • This will include quarterly training, increased resources such as books and subscriptions, as well an annual financial charitable commitment

Update our Policies & Staff Handbook to ensure we are actively anti-racist 

HOW:

  • Reviewing all diversity policies at Full Fat to ensure we are actively anti-racist in all that we do, being accountable for our actions 

  • Revising our Staff Handbook to include all updated policies, and shared company values

  • We will share the Policies with all clients and our network giving full transparency on how we operate at Full Fat and our expectations of those whom we work alongside

Next we will:

Have an honest and open conversation with our clients around the issue of racism

HOW:

  • Being actively anti-racist and inclusive, holding ourselves to account and actively talking to ourour clients, our team and our network around the issues of racism, equality, diversity and inclusivity 

  • Delivering inclusive communication campaigns, always. Full Fat has a responsibility to speak to diverse audiences, be critical of imagery used and ensure we are outreaching and engaging with diverse media and influencers

Work with a diverse network of creatives and suppliers

HOW:

  • Assessing our current suppliers and working with more diverse suppliers 

  • Working with more Black creatives, freelancers and influencers

  • Ensure we operate in a sustainable way, reflecting our ethos and values

  • Follow, support and champion more Black influencers and businesses across our own channels and events via our Full Fat socials, newsletter, podcast, blog and Source events

  • Ensuring continued diversity across our podcast guests, panelist and moderator speakers under our division, Full Fat Source

  • Inviting a diverse group of speakers from all backgrounds, abilities and orientation to speak to Full Fat team members in quarterly sessions on their profession

Proactively discuss the issue of racism with our industry 

HOW:

  • Approach and open up a conversation around diversity with official PR & Comms bodies, and other communications agencies

  • Seek out diversity policies and actions from our network and other business owners to collaborate and deliver real change in our sector 

  • Calling for better representation of Black individuals within our sector and lobby for change 

IN THE FUTURE WE COMMIT TO:

Open up more opportunities within Full Fat for Black individuals 

HOW:

  • Develop a three month paid internship in collaboration with a London college/s

  • Explore a partnership with an organisations such as Taylor Bennett Foundation and Social Fixt

  • Open up two week work experiences to London college students and actively seek out Black candidates

  • Work with more University partners to ensure a diverse talent pool for all placements

  • Deliver a comprehensive plan on how Full Fat as an agency can support Black communities through a series of free online and in person workshops such as CV writing, interviewing tips, social media expertise and more 

Create a Full Fat Youth Board 

HOW:

  • Launching this year, the Full Fat Youth Board will be representative of BAME and white members, offering mentorship, business coaching, as well as opening up our network for good and payment for their time

  • Our goals are to be in partnership with one or more youth clubs in London. In light of Covid-19 we will explore an online Youth Board 

  • The Youth Board members will be representative of different backgrounds, race, sex, age, gender and disabilities 

  • All youth workers will be paid by the hour or day

Create an internal Diversity & Equality Committee

HOW:

  • All Full Fat team members able to apply for this voluntary role 

  • The Committee will be diverse in its members and inclusive of race, sex, gender, age and disabilities 

  • The Committee will steer the agency’s decision making on diversity, equality and inclusivity, raise key topics of focus and a reporting body for all team members to feed in to

  • Full Fat to deliver a strategy on how this will work and launch by 2021

Update our current HR systems offering more transparency on our processes

HOW:

  • Set up an internal reporting system for its team members to report any issues or raise any suggestions around diversity, inclusivity and equality within the workplace

  • Set up an external HR support system to support the internal HR when required  

  • Deliver a comprehensive breakdown of how this will work with clear lines of communications and how reports will be addressed and action delivered 

Proactively support anti-racism and equality outside of our organisation  

HOW:

  • Commit to 40 hours per year by 2021 of external support for local schools and colleges with Black students and minority groups, working with organisations like Get Into, Speakers For Schools

  • Senior Management Team mentoring for Black businesses, start ups or people looking to get into communications or progress in their career

Work with more Black-owned business and creatives

  • Develop a new business target across the Senior Management Team increasing working with Black owned businesses and creatives by 20% in 2021 

An annual charity commitment through our time and money

HOW:

  • Committing to an annual financial charity donation ensuring we support anti-racism charities as one of our charity partners

  • Committing to one day a year for the team to a charitable cause and being inclusive of Black charities 

Ensure diversity across Full Fat’s cultural programme

HOW

  • Actively support cultural experiences created by Black individuals through team attendance of events, exhibitions, tickets shows, virtual or in person

  • Follow and support  more Black influencers, writers and businesses across our social media channels 

Be open about our progress to our commitments outlined above 

HOW:

  • Regular blog posts on our progress to our commitments outlined above

  • An annual internal report measuring our progress and drive future policy

Full Fat