- GMMB named Micheline Kennedy as its first Black partner after current and former employees criticized the PR and ad agency for having a racism and inequity problem and called for a list of reforms.
- GMMB faced criticism after launching a campaign to raise funds for racial justice organizations amid Black Lives Matter protests.
- The agency made other commitments such as hiring a growth and diversity officer, working with a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant, and working to hire and retain people of color.
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GMMB, a longtime favorite PR and ad agency for the Democratic party, named its first Black partner, Micheline Kennedy, and pledged other steps after employees called for reforms and an "honest conversation" about "systematic racism and inequity."
Owned by Omnicom Group's FleishmanHillard, GMMB works for political figures like presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and organizations like Emily's List, the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Naming Kennedy a partner and committing to hiring a growth and diversity officer are among GMMB's first steps toward addressing employee concerns, the agency said in a statement.
On June 11, staff at GMMB sent a letter with more than 130 signatures asking their leaders to address "systemic racism and inequity" at the company. The letter was written in response to a campaign GMMB launched, #TogetherAgainstRacism, to raise funds for racial justice organizations and which received backlash from former and current employees.
GMMB said in a statement it also would continue working with a Black-owned external diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant, and seek to hire and retain people of color, among other steps.
Kennedy has been with the company since 2012 and co-leads GMMB's diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, the company said.
Before Kennedy was promoted, all but one of its partners is white and half are women. Three of its SVPs are Latinx, one is Black, and one is Asian. Of its VP-level staff, the agency has three Black executives and one is two or more races, GMMB told Business Insider.
The agency also told Business Insider it would also devote 30% of content on its social channels to people of color, establish an internal group for people of color, redouble its partnerships with and source work to "qualified minority business enterprises," and redouble its focus on making D&I a substantive part of every manager's training, day-to-day responsibility, and performance assessment.
"Today we announced specific measures, with more to come, as we listen, take action and re-double our efforts to look at every aspect of our business — hiring and retention, promotion, working with minority contractors, using our social channels to lift up voices of color, and improving the firm's culture," the agency said in a statement.
One former employee said they felt GMMB was taking the issue seriously but that other Black employees were deserving of a promotion, as entry-level positions in some offices like Seattle and San Francisco lack proper mentors for BIPOC employees.
"What they're doing is a result of all of this," the former employee told Business Insider. "So I feel good about that. They needed this pressure to take action they should have a long time ago."
Read the full statement from GMMB below:
We have spent our existence as a firm working to address a wide range of social inequities, and we take the issues of diversity and inclusion very seriously. We are listening and working internally with our staff. Today we announced specific measures, with more to come, as we listen, take action and re-double our efforts to look at every aspect of our business - hiring and retention, promotion, working with minority contractors, using our social channels to lift up voices of color, and improving the firm's culture.
We are committed to getting it right through focused, intentional and inclusive specific steps that make a difference for GMMB staff. As a firm that has had over (1500) employees over the years, we have tried to create a culture where people of diverse backgrounds feel valued, respected, and see a path toward promotion and leadership.
While we are far from perfect, our efforts have included ongoing unconscious bias training for all staff and senior leadership, an active internal diversity and inclusion working group, an outside diversity and inclusion consultant, ongoing outreach and recruitment efforts at HCBUs, a paid intern program that seeks to include diverse students, a team structure that attempts to provide a closer relationship between senior staff and junior staff, and partnerships with professional organizations like ColorComm that works to expand networks for people of color.
We are determined to listen, act and do more. The steps announced today are outlined below.
GMMB will:
Got more information about this story or another tip about the PR industry? Contact Sean Czarnecki on Signal at 734-249-1166, via email at sczarnecki@businessinsider.com, or on Twitter @SeanMCzarnecki.
- Hire a full-time Growth & Diversity Officer, a senior level professional whose responsibilities will include the shepherding of our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion in a manner that ensures our intent always translates into action and permanent result;
- Continue its work with an outside diversity equity and inclusion consultant – a black-owned business with extensive experience in this field – to assess all GMMB's internal systems and structures and help foster an even more equitable and inclusive workplace for all of our colleagues;
- Redouble outreach to communications professionals of color and announce specific recruitment and retention goals to ensure that we significantly improve the representation and retention of people of color at all levels of our firm;
- Step up partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) to help increase participation by people of color in both our internship program and our permanent employee candidate pools.
- Devote 30% of the content on our social channels to elevating the voices of people of color;
- Establish in-house Employee Resource Groups for GMMB colleagues who are people of color;
- Redouble our efforts to partner with and source work to qualified Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs);
- And redouble our focus on making diversity and inclusion a substantive part of every manager's training, day-to-day responsibility and performance assessment.
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