International Women's Day is one day of the year, but what about the other 364?
Women continue to face gender pay gaps, an underrepresentation in leadership and a lack of flexible working options.
Media agency Initiative is keeping women in focus, year-round.
Melissa Fein, CEO of Initiative Australia, spoke to AdNews about the long-term change for women, the market and the industry.
Fein said: “We’re focused on supporting the career progression of our female employees within Initiative. Years ago, we recognised women having to choose between work and family was a key driver of churn, so we pioneered a market leading people policy to empower them to continue their careers without sacrificing their commitment to their family.
“We have tackled two of the biggest gender pay gap contributors by extending parental leave to 16 weeks (8x higher than the AU average) and paying superannuation for the entire time a person is on parental leave.
“We have also introduced flexible working arrangements, with 100% flexibility contracts, allowing employees to work in a way that suits them best. We won’t be resting on our laurels though and will continue to look at what can be done.”
Fein knows that representative teams perform better, so has ensured the women she works with feel valued and supported in the workplace.
“We thoughtfully nurture our female stars to be managers and leaders of the future. We currently have over 30 strong, smart women in top level senior roles at Initiative and we’re also seeing our stars return to the workplace after parental leave feeling inspired and inspiring us all!”
Fein says that progress towards an inclusive culture for women goes well beyond one day a year, emphasising the importance of investing in women across all levels, and across agencies and clients.
“We now have specific fertility policies in place that were born out of my own personal experiences - initiatives that have turned choice from a benefit into a right. I think the great advantage of being a female leader is you can bring lived experiences and turn them into policies to help the next generation.
“These include offering fertility funding in family planning benefits for singles, LGBTQIA+, and those who wish to start or grow their families; establishing paid leave entitlements for those who experienced termination, miscarriage or still-birth; and funding accredited learning for new parents to continue building their CV while on parental leave.
“We continue to look at new ways to empower and celebrate women from within the industry – a great example of this is a quarterly fireside chat series that talks up advice and stories from remarkable women including client CMOs, creative agency trailblazers, and inspiring role models. They share their experiences to help engage, inspire, and inform our females (and not forgetting our genuinely supportive males at Initiative) in a more social setting.”
On the business side, Fein has seen a shift with more competition from the rise of new companies and navigating the talent crisis.
Fein: “I think there are some great changes being announced across agencies and holding groups around policies for staff that are truly accelerating positive change within the industry, which can only be a good thing.
“There’s the continued challenge of the talent crisis within the industry. But I think that challenge is a great opportunity for the industry to work out ways where we can change tack to attract talent to the industry and work out ways to keep them inspired, by fostering an amazing team environment and culture. It’s something we take very seriously at Initiative too.
“We’ve seen a trend of clients valuing the planning and strategy side of media and moving away from reliance on trading and pricing decisions which is very much welcomed. This isn’t always the case, but the pitches we want to win, and the clients we love working with, are the ones that value our thinking!
“Diversity and inclusion is a hot topic currently, and I am a huge advocate for pushing the agenda here and having the increasingly important conversations within this space to ultimately make the ambition here a reality, for both us as a company and the wider industry.”
Initiative won Employer of the Year (Headcount over 75) at the 2022 AdNews Agency of the Year Awards.
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