EquALL is H+K London’s framework, started to create a louder culture of equity at our company, a culture where you can achieve and belong.
Our EquALL movement was born two years ago out of a desire to look deeply at equality, diversity, and inclusivity in the agency across a broad definition that included ability, age, gender, and background.
In true H+K fashion, we kicked it off with a workshop so oversubscribed that we had to take over the entire 4th floor café space to accommodate everyone – a neon rainbow of post its and dynamic ideas butterflying the glass walls.
We did internal, in-depth research and listened. We listened hard. From these insights came a manifesto and clear identity to signal this meant more than business. We created a programme with three pillars – Creativity, Culture, People – to align our thinking.
We knew success would be born from focus, so we started purposefully with gender. We designed a suite of interventions that included our gender pay gap commitments and our EquALL Woman programme. All of which have helped move the needle on gender diversity in London.
We always knew from the start that we would focus on other important aspects of diversity too. Fast forward to 2020, a year like no other, and the killings of George Floyd and others in the USA, and BLM here in the UK prompted us to examine our record on race.
As an agency we talked, shared, and learned. In the first weeks of June, over 200 of our colleagues showed up to five, open and honest conversations in which we sought to understand our experiences with racism, injustice, privilege, trauma, and accepted truths.
We educated ourselves and committed to change.
Since then, a smaller group has worked to bring together the ideas generated by our colleagues, our own expertise, and looked at best practice to develop a bold plan to make that change, from immediate, tactical interventions to longer-term structural reforms.
Race and justice had become the ‘fourth pillar’ of our EquALL framework. In doing so, we identified our objectives in 2020/21 to be as follows:
- Make structural change
- Foster a culture of equality, equity, allyship and active anti-racism to create a real sense of belonging.
We know that the changes required are hard and will take time, not least because of the broader economic climate. Our ambition is that one day our agency ultimately and sustainably reflects the representation of London. But we will only be successful in building an inclusive culture in which everyone feels they belong when every one of us works at it.
That’s why today we announced three main levers for change and invited everyone at H+K London to personally commit to these. They are
- Diversity and inclusion G+Os for staff at all levels
- Training in anti-racism and allyship to support this new G+O
- All of us playing our part in identifying, nurturing, and supporting more diverse people into H+K
We look forward to sharing more of our journey and story with you. If you have a question about our EquALL programme please contact us at equall@hkstrategies.com.
Our EquALL Manifesto
