DEI PLAN
2024–2025
DEI Plan
2024 & 2025
As we launch our latest plan in September 2024, just one month after the racist and religious attacks in the UK, I feel it’s important to acknowledge how sad it is that so little progress has been made in society. If anything, we are witnessing deeper division and exclusion within our communities than ever before, fuelled by hateful narratives and the spread of misinformation.
These moments of crisis require quick and meaningful action to support our employees, but DEI must not be something we just do in these moments. Now more than ever, we’re living in an increasingly unpredictable and volatile world that means staying the course and ongoing and continuous DEI work is more important than ever.
This long term commitment has been front and centre for us since 2022, when we set out to reinvigorate our inclusive culture in London. The hook for this was opening our new office space post-pandemic. Fast forward to the present, we have achieved a lot but know there is so much more to do, including addressing the lack of senior diverse representation in our leadership.
I am so proud of the big strides forward we’ve made, but the fact is the more we do, the more we learn where our gaps are.
DEI is always a work in progress and we are committed and invested in addressing these gaps to build a more inclusive and fair future.
I feel a great sense of responsibility for building a workplace that feels open and welcoming. Creating an environment where people feel voices matter is key to ensuring everyone thrives. Leaders hold accountability for this, but so we can realise our potential, inclusion needs to feel championed by everyone, a common thread, relevant to all departments and baked into business decisions. I’m so grateful to our people and partners who helped get us to this point, enabling us to embark on the next phase. We’re excited to share our DEI Plan for 24/25 with you!
Ondine Whittington President, Golin London and Virgo UK
The Story So Far...
In 2023 we renewed our DEI commitments, with a focus on strengthening existing foundations and localising Global DEI ambitions. Moving to a new workspace in Shoreditch in early 2023 we began our new hybrid set up, which meant we were together much more in person. This big reset moment provided an opportunity to inject more energy into creating an environment and culture where everyone thrives. Our mantra quickly became “progress, not perfection”, realising we can only up our game, learn and adapt if we’re honest about our mistakes.
So welcome to our DEI Plan for 2024–2025: a candid reflection on our progress, learnings and the gaps we’ll be addressing in the next phase. Openness will keep us on track, ensuring we grow.
Since I joined 2 years ago, I’ve been enriched by conversations about how DEI can be “done” more dynamically. Colleagues told us jargon heavy DEI language is a barrier, slowing progress and engagement. We listened, which is why we’ve tried to avoid cliches, simplifying language throughout this Plan.
JANUARY 23 MARCH 23
JUNE 23
NOVEMBER 23
Benchmarking inclusion through three surveys. Sharing findings at an All Staff Leaders coaching from The Unmistakables’ on leading diverse teams Renewing DEI Commitments
Opening our new office with an “Our Culture” reset moment
In the current climate, we know differing POVs can become increasingly polarised in a heartbeat. Meaning, more than ever we need to move towards differences. I contend being inclusive is “difficult” —it’s not about harmony and ease. It takes ongoing effort, energy and flexibility to understand where others are coming from.
So, for our 24/25 Plan, we’ve doubled down on the consistency of our efforts. We want to be more 360°, infusing DEI into all facets of agency life. Likewise, we’ve upped resourcing for our Global DEI priorities of Wellbeing and Neuro Inclusion.
Embarking on the next phase, I wanted to thank colleagues, partners and external stakeholders, our critical friends who’ve helped us consider different perspectives.
Thank you for holding us to account.
MARCH 24
Launching Self-ID to track our diversity dimensions in real-time
APRIL 24 MAY 24
Co-creating DEI principles, AKA our Inclusion Ambition
Bringing our Inclusion Ambition to life in our Turning Words into Actions workshop
Nina Bhagwat Global Group Executive Director, DEI
The People That Bring Our Plan To Life
There are so many people across the agency that breathe life into our DEI Plan. It is a 360, co-owned approach.
Our UK DEI leader, Nina, is a dedicated resource, while the wider ecosystem includes the UK HR team, Learning & Development Director and the leadership team.
Our new, self-nominated DEI Leads are a critical bridge to the business, shaping and amplifying our Plan at a grass roots level.
Their voices and input ensure DEI is relevant to Golin and Virgo Health teams every day.
Our global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) provide a safe space for underrepresented talent to create community and a professional network. Members meet bi-monthly for conversation and also deliver incredible heritage events for everyone to join.
To join an ERG, contact Yanira ygonzalez@golin.com
Rebecca Hall
Group HR Director
Tinashe Sithole
Learning and Development Director
“As the diversity of our workforce grows, understanding our differences becomes ever more important. The HR team and DEI work hand in glove to empower everyone to have their own voice, be themselves and ask for what they need to be their best.”
“We made a conscious choice to both focus on DEI independently and also embed the principles into all our L&D programmes, feedback processes, line management, wellbeing packages etc. We’re educating all managers to on how to lead teams with difference.”
Rajpreet Varaitch
Associate Director, DEI Lead — Virgo
“I have worked at Virgo Health since Sept 2019. Working in partnership with Nina and Hannah, we’re building on the excellent foundations already in place. We’ve started strong but it doesn’t end here. As DEI Lead I am focused on continuing to create a workplace that’s diverse, accountable and open to change.”
Giles
Director, Consumer, DEI Lead — Golin
“I’m looking forward to supercharging our UK DEI agenda, ensuring we’re all working towards being the inclusive and diverse agency we want to be. I’d love to invite colleagues to reach out and get involved.”
Hannah
Our ERGs
Director VP — Risk & Reputation Executive Sponsor, Go All Out
“I’m delighted to play a role in backing Go All Out. The expertise and lived experiences across the LGBTQ+ community here is essential to continue to guide the business, demonstrate cultural insight and create a secure and supportive environment. I’m looking forward to working with colleagues in the UK and Globally to push this even further.”
Senior Account Executive, API Unite, Co-chair — Virgo
“I’ve had the great opportunity to be co-chair of the API Unite ERG. Bringing colleagues together and seeing the great UK engagement for API events has been immensely rewarding. Together, we have been able to build a safe space for sharing experiences, anecdotes and just banter!”
Jack Thompson
Ushashi Basu
Our vision
Building Our Inclusion Ambition Together
What was the biggest DEI learning from 2022 and 2023? We needed unifying principles to clearly define why inclusion is important to us here in London. We call this our “Inclusion Ambition”. More than slogans on a page, this vision of inclusion is a number of shared beliefs we can all get behind. It influences what you hear, see and feel in the office.
And yes, we know how ambitious this is. Holding ourselves to all of these equally important principles in today’s complicated world is going to be challenging. We also recognise our Inclusion Ambition is a work in progress and may evolve as we change.
How we created our Inclusion Ambition
We began the process by collectively finding words to describe what Inclusion means to us. We held workshops across every practice to refine these into our Inclusion Ambition. It was messy, lively and hard work. Most importantly, it was an opportunity to listen and to harness different points of view, an exercise in inclusion. After masses of discussion and debate we agreed five principles to inform how we behave day-to-day.
Be Yourself
We want everyone to feel welcome, find space and be empowered to have a voice. We actively address exclusion; it has no place in our workplace.
Interested
When we take the time to go beyond the surface and understand each other’s differences, we create teams that flow and do great work together.
Proactive
Inclusion is a muscle we flex every day. Always in progress. Always something new to learn. We won’t always get things right, but with active feedback, we can improve.
Limitless
We believe our differences drive us forward in limitless ways. They fuel our creativity, our workplace experience, and make for much better decision making.
Artist: Julia Miranda
Challenge
When harnessing difference, you can’t always expect consensus. We embrace the challenge of working through differing perspectives to help us grow as people and as a business.
Our behaviours
Turning Words Into Actions
Collectively landing on DEI principles was just the start. Our behaviours bring them to life. To make sure our Inclusion Ambition plays out every day, in both the small and big work moments, we stress-tested them by using real-life scenarios.
Cue our first “Turning Words Into Actions” All Staff Workshop in May 2024. We invited the whole team to identify the behaviours that underpin our Inclusion Ambition. Asking: “How does our Inclusive Ambition influence our actions when we: onboard new talent? Run team meetings? Disagree on a creative direction? Organise a team lunch? Figure out who attends awards? Procure new suppliers? And so on…
What did we learn? Clearly, it’s not a case of “one and done”. In 24/25 we will use the outputs from our first session to inform where we prioritise our energy and resource into changing day-to-day behaviours.
Our ‘Turning Words into Actions’ sessions will run twice a year. We’ll continue to stress-test our Inclusion Ambition, to make sure it’s always much more than words on a page.
Artist: Julia Miranda
“These sessions communicated that ‘diversity’ is not simply a goal to be achieved, but instead a journey that we all, as both individuals and as a group, must progress along every single day.
Sam — Senior Producer, Golin
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“It was truly insightful. As a collective, we explored many scenarios and discussed the best approaches to each...everyone was involved in the conversation: it got us thinking about how we behave in the workplace impacts on our colleagues.
Blessing — Talent Acquisition Team
Our DEI Plan 2024/2025
When everything’s a priority, nothing is. We’ve all seen DEI strategies that look more like laundry lists, but being busy doesn’t necessarily translate into progress. Our people’s time is precious, so we prioritise and focus our Plan on highimpact actions and track progress against them.
Our priority focus areas are represented as a stool; each leg supporting our commitment to transparency and measuring our progress. Over the next five sections we’ll breakdown each priority, to clearly show what we’ve done, what we’ve learnt and what we’re doing against each pillar.
1
Recruitment & Retention
2
5 Education & Awareness Employee Engagement Client Work Measuring Outcomes
3 4
Recruitment & Retention
Education & Awareness
Reflecting the world around us is vital for our success. Attracting, hiring and retaining the brightest candidates from the widest possible talent pool is a priority. The guiding principle of our hiring ethos is “Culture Add” not “Culture Fit”.
We don’t do DEI as a training, compliance or a tickbox exercise. We do focus on learning, understanding and personal growth. No-one knows it all when it comes to DEI, so we’ve made a long-term commitment and investment to deepen our learning together.
Pillar 1
Pillar 2
Employee Engagement
We want everyone to feel welcomed, valued and respected. We create opportunities, events and spaces to grow a sense of community and connection— particularly for our underrepresented talent.
Client Work
We are all well-versed in the data that demonstrates the ROI on inclusion. Our DEI ambitions extend to how we work with our clients, show up in the world, and how we engage diverse suppliers.
Measuring Outcomes
What gets measured gets done. We track and share progress and learnings, so we’re held accountable. We measure and publish our diversity data through Self-ID, and we track how inclusive our culture is through BELONG, our annual Inclusion survey.
Pillar 4
Pillar 5
Pillar 3
Pillar 1
Recruitment & Retention
What we did
Introduced salary transparency internally and externally to enhance equity. Internally, it’s aligned to career path competencies so people can see pay brackets and competency requirements for each level.
Made sure DEI was part of the conversation during recruitment and onboarding , with every new starter meeting our DEI Director, Nina.
“Since I joined Golin, I was taken back by just how inclusive the agency works to be. From the transparent frameworks around DEI, all the way down to people management, a very safe and welcoming environment has been fostered. I can’t wait to see its continued growth.
Dean — Senior Manager, Golin
“
Partnered with Your Game Plan to deliver an entry level, 6-week programme for five socially mobile talents. Two trainees secured permanent roles. Senior leaders also supported YGP’s Side Hustle initiative for budding entrepreneurs.
What we learnt
To address retention effectively we need to join the dots on DEI, across all moments in the employee life cycle.
Further focus is needed on broadening the talent pool we attract, particularly at a mid and senior level.
What we’re doing
Embedding DEI principles into all learning and development programmes, feedback processes, line management, and wellbeing programmes.
Introducing an inclusion question for all candidates as part of the interview process , asking ‘How will you contribute to our Inclusion Ambition?’ We’ll use this to score commitment and alignment to our values.
Nadia — Group Head Talent Acquisition “
These initiatives represent a vital part of our ongoing journey in Talent Acquisition. We’re evolving our practices to attract and nurture a diverse workforce. In addition to applying blind CVs, structured interviews, and skill-based assessments, we’re exploring new methodologies to ensure more equitable recruitment processes. This is a foundation, not a finish line.”
We collaborate with a diverse network of talent and recruitment partners helping us achieve our DEI objectives. Their expertise allows us to attract a wide range of candidates from various backgrounds. Partners include Your Game Plan, Braver and Brixton Finishing School.
Education & Awareness
“Learning with The Unmistakables has been an interesting and challenging journey. We automatically think of ourselves as inclusive and kind, so accepting that aspects of our ingrained behaviour may not support inclusivity continually meets with resistance.
Jelena — Head of Health Education, Virgo
“
What we did
Opened the new office in 2023 with ‘Our Culture’ all agency sessions, themed around creating an inclusive environment together.
Celebrated Pride in style with our very own in-house drag talent and learnt about the history of Pride in the UK at a special screening of a C4 documentary.
To ensure we have the skills to lead teams with difference, we invested in an Inclusive Leadership programme with The Unmistakables, challenging our thinking and helping us drive an inclusive leadership style. Mandatory for the 25 most senior leaders in the business.
What we learnt
Bringing a UK focus to Heritage events like Pride drives engagement massively. Now we want to think more proactively about what we can do for the local community around these DEI moments.
Connecting inclusion to our office move resonated with all of our people and created a shared goal. We need to extend inclusive leadership learning across the wider business.
What we’re doing
Introducing measurable DEI objectives —a minimum of eight hours of DEI learning annually for everyone. Extending The Unmistakables Inclusive Leadership sessions to our next level of associate directors and directors.
To ensure senior ownership of our Plan and consistency of DEI understanding across our leadership team, we introduced additional personal DEI objectives for all Senior Leaders.
Our Elevate leadership sessions helped me realise as I get more senior, delivery isn’t the only focus for my role. It’s my job to pull the best out of all my team, using their skills and different POVs to deliver our work.”
Liz — Associate Director, Virgo
We commission external partners to run compulsory in-person learning for leaders every two months. Named “Action Learning Sets”, content ranges from neuro-inclusion for leaders, through to the importance of diversity data.
In the UK we have an established wellbeing programme. This year we’re also getting behind our two Global DEI themes—Advancing Wellbeing & Neuro-inclusion by investing in workshops and panel discussions with thought leaders at Mindset Matters and Uptimize.
Pillar 3
Employee Engagement
“The Global Majority Lunch has evolved, growing from humble beginnings to an impressive gathering across IPG and the wider Comms sector. More than a lunch, it’s a vital platform for fostering community. It’s a safe space for professionals to network and connect.
Ari — Office Experience Team “
What
we did
Created touchpoints for people to speak up and be heard in spaces with psychological safety at their heart, e.g., lived-experience group discussions , drop-ins with our head of DEI, and externally facilitated spaces of care.
Created a UK-based community for our UK Global Majority * colleagues, hosting dinners and networking events.
Advanced UK engagement in our six Global ERGs , with colleagues taking part as panellists and allies at Heritage Events.
* Global Majority is the terminology our Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority colleagues reached consensus on using as an alternative to POC and BAME.
What we learnt
Global Majority events needed a spark to get the conversation going, so for 2024 we introduced guest speakers and extended the invite to the IPG wider network and diverse comms talent.
Employees needed time and encouragement from the business to take part. Leaders and DEI Leads now signpost and prioritise DEI events to help their teams to attend.
What we’re doing
Getting even closer to employee sentiment regarding the impact of world events and delivering real-time interventions. e.g., commissioning externally facilitated “safe spaces” for employees to access support following incidents of far right violence in the UK.
With our new DEI leads now on board, they’ll build more excitement and attendance for DEI moments, such as our ASICS-inspired Move Her Mind wellbeing event and ERG heritage celebrations.
Joyful celebration of DEI moments that matter to our people throughout the year, such as awareness days, festivals and anniversaries. We’re always open for new suggestions.
Here’s what our people say about our Employee Engagement
“Move Her Mind” is an ASICS campaign highlighting barriers to exercise faced by women. Inspired by this, we hosted an internal sports and wellbeing event, bringing the whole team together.
Kate — Sr Associate, Consumer
Lydia — Sr Account Executive, Virgo
“The ERGs are not just a tick box exercise— they’ve really helped to develop cohesive communities. Heritage events have created a safe space for open discussions and have really fostered a sense of belonging.
Laura — Director, Virgo
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Client Work Pillar
It’s vital to our performance that we build a culture in which differences are celebrated, as building a diverse and inclusive culture fuels creative momentum.
Alongside this, we are very aware of data bias, something our Strategy team challenge ourselves to address. Kat Arnull, Group Chief Strategy Officer, outlines, “We constantly consider how we supplement our data sets with extra insight to address the imbalance. This can range from working with specialist organisations who connect us to different communities to mining specific data sets and forums.”
We are conscious of the ambassadors we use, building strong relationships with agencies that specifically represent diverse talent. We also work with diverseowned suppliers for internal and external projects and look to formalise the way we engage diverse suppliers further in 24/25.
ASICS
Sound mind. Sound body.
Over the last three years, Golin has been ASICS’ lead creative agency, developing earned-led integrated campaigns to help the brand champion the mental health benefits of movement and tackle the visual representation of what healthy exercise looks like.
Nurofen
Gender pain gap
We were integral to building Nurofen’s commitments and brand platform, See My Pain, showing the true scale of women’s pain for the first time with the Gender Pain Gap Index, that brought to life how women’s pain is dismissed and educating healthcare providers.
Ashoka
x Golin
We partnered with Ashoka, a global organisation supporting social entrepreneurship, to deliver comms ideas to answer key business challenges. We continue to work pro bono with Foundation for Change, a post-rehabilitation learning programme and London Bubble, youth theatre company.
Magnum Pride
Golin advise and support Magnum on their partnerships within the LGBTQ+ community, including supporting the Attitude Pride Icon Award and ensuring queer representation across talent campaigns such as Troye Sivan, Kiddy Smile, Barbara Butch, Je t’Aime Party and Stella Maxwell.
Pillar 5
Measuring Outcomes
“I was struck by the honesty and candour in presenting the results back. Agency leadership clearly cared about what they’d heard, and were committed to addressing the findings.
Bex — Creative Director
What we did
In 2023 we launched our “Summer of Surveys”, a crucial pillar in our DEI roadmap and overarching business Plan. It was about understanding and exploring different employee experiences across levels, departments and lived experience. For us to identify laser focused priorities, we invested in three key pieces of research: an indepth culture diagnostic, externally facilitated lived experience focus groups with Metis, and our inclusion survey, BELONG.
What we learnt
We had high engagement in all our surveys. Overall people told us they feel motivated by the work. They love the people and teams they work with and feel a great deal of pride in working here. But the picture isn’t universally rosy. The surveys told us we needed address issues around inclusion, resource/time and consistency around feedback, development, reward and recognition.
Whilst uncomfortable listening, people appreciated the honesty and transparency of sharing survey insights, and most importantly, the concrete actions we put in place. These insights informed actions in our Business Plan 2024 and we’ll continue to commission externally facilitated lived experience focus groups, so we can understand experiences across protected characteristics 1 and beyond.
What we are measuring from now
We aren’t interested in vanity metrics that undermine our progress and the credibility of the work. Transparency, honesty and clarity are the guiding principles when it comes to publishing our DEI data. For consistency, clarity, and to set a benchmark to measure our impact, we’re focusing on two key metrics from now on:
1.
Self-ID measures our representation across priority “protected characteristics*” and beyond. i.e., the diversity of our workforce.
2.
BELONG (Building Equity, Leveraging Opportunities, and Nurturing Growth) is our annual culture survey. i.e., the inclusiveness of our culture
It is best practice to look at these together as Self-ID data shows representation of different groups, but without BELONG we won’t know if these colleagues feel valued and included. Our holistic approach helps us address the recruitment of diverse talent and focus on creating an inclusive environment supporting retention and engagement.
“I was interested in finding out how our voices are heard and how the company would use feedback (good and bad) to determine our path forward and how we overcome issues as a team.
“
Employee — Golin, Participant in two lived experience focus groups
Self-ID And Our Diversity Data
We launched Self-ID in March 2024 with a mandatory all staff panel discussion featuring subject matter experts on diversity data including Chief Inclusion Officers, IPG HR and People Like Us.
Self-ID is our new voluntary disclosure survey to help us understand the diversity of our workforce, which in turn will help us create more nuanced programmes to help our employees thrive. Self-ID is built into our secure HR system with care and rigour, prioritising colleagues’ privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. Because it is linked to our HR system, this means we can understand our data in real time.
Data is always published in the aggregate, and as a percentage of the workforce. Six months since the SelfID launch, we want to be transparent and show where we are, but you’ll see from the sections in grey, our data is not complete. Voluntarily reported diversity datasets take time to build and mature and while participation rate is the highest across the entire IPG network, you’ll see we still have a long way to go.
To ensure we protect the anonymity and confidentiality of participants we need to achieve a 5% threshold in order to report data against the different dimensions of diversity. Anything below this threshold we are not reporting.
September 17 2024—First Cut Self-ID Data — Headcount 180
Religions we are unable to report against
Prefer not to say Not completed
Our Initial Observations
We have a partial picture. We are committed to transparency and want to achieve a higher participation so we can report in more granularity against Disability and Health, Race and Ethnicity and Religious Affiliation, for example.
We know that different ethnic groups face difference challenges, but we do not currently have a high enough participation rate to disaggregate our data in this way. We are working hard to achieve this in the next phase of our engagement campaign. As we build our dataset, we commit to report race and ethnicity data in greater granularity.
We recognise participation is very low for Sexual Orientation, Gender ID and Pronouns. We need to understand this more by working even more closely with our Global Go All Out ERG. With a newly appointed UK Executive Sponsor for the group, Jack Thompson, we have a home-grown empowered champion to help us bring focus to this agenda.
“We hold ourselves accountable for moving the dial on DEI. To truly advance our DEI efforts we have to establish clear metrics and we need to regularly assess our progress and evaluate our performance against industry standards.
Sarah — Group MD Health, Virgo and Golin
What next?
In 24/25 driving engagement in Self ID is a priority and we are committed to build our data the right way, in line with best practice and with trust of our people. We are dedicating time and resource to help colleagues understand how a fuller data set can supercharge DEI efforts.
Our target for September 2025 is 80% participation. This takes time, but once we reach higher participation, we’ll then establish stretch targets for underrepresented groups, publish our Ethnicity and Disability Pay Gaps 8 in line with forthcoming legislation, and understand data by level (because driving senior diverse representation is already a priority for us). We’ll publish our updated data annually every September with insights informing our Business Planning and DEI priorities for the year ahead
When people opt for “prefer not to say”, that in itself is an important data point for us to dig into, so in our next phase of engagement we’ll get curious about the different barriers to participation to address any questions and concerns. We will do this through
conversations at a team level, as well as in partnership with our 6 ERGs and our Summer of Survey Lived Experience focus groups. As an immediate step we are delivering a second Self-ID engagement intervention in partnership with Kristianah Fasunloye and Shaline Manhertz co-founders of Black Girls Booked and board members of People Like Us.
Measuring Outcomes is Pillar 5 of our DEI plan, as building this data set is key to better understanding our workforce and progress. This is crucial if we are to keep delivering upon Recruitment, Education, Engagement and in our Client Work (Pillars 1 to 4). We will use this data to understand the challenges that different groups face, whether it be in recruitment, retention or promotion/progression. We will keep designing targeted policies and interventions to address the specific issues we uncover and regularly monitor their performance. We know that not every new policy or measure we take will be effective, but we promise to fail fast, ditching ineffective initiatives and implement new ideas.
Appendix
1. Protected characteristics | EHRC (https:// equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equality-act-2010/ protected-characteristics)
2. Unlike all other diversity dimensions, the data for binary gender is sourced from new starter information collected in line with HMRC legislation.
3. Carer for children or adults
4. Includes those who answered yes to both of the Disability and Health questions.
Do you have any physical or mental health condition lasting or expected to last 12 months or more?
Do any of your conditions or illnesses reduce or affect your ability to carry out day to day activities?
5. Global Majority includes those identifying as Black, Asian, minority ethnic, mixed multiple ethnic groups, other ethnic groups.
6. Unaffiliated includes those who identified as agnostic, atheist, or nothing in particular.
7. To calculate our Social Mobility representation we used the Social Mobility Commission methodology and terminology. Cross Industry Toolkit Social Mobility Commission (https://socialmobility.independentcommission.uk/resources/socio-economic-diversity-andinclusion-employers-toolkit/)
As a starting point, for our First Cut of Self ID data we have focused on responses to the parental occupation question recommended by the Bridge Group. For our Second Cut of data in September 2025 we will work to drive higher participation in Self-ID so we can also dig into other determinants of social mobility (university education, private school attendance, free school meals.) Being the first in the family to attend university gives a nuanced form of cultural advantage, private schooling is a marker for extreme advantage, free school meals is a marker for extreme disadvantage.
8. Pay gaps calculated from incomplete datasets can give misleading impressions of representation. We are striving for 100% response rates in all fields,but recognise this is a significant challenge. We want greater transparency and so have taken the decision to calculate and report ethnicity and disability pay gaps once we are able to achieve 80% response rates (and we have set a target of doing this by September 2025), notwithstanding that there may still be issues in calculating gaps from incomplete datasets.
BELONG And Our Inclusion Data 73
The BELONG* annual survey was designed to measure and monitor employee inclusion and belonging. Built to help us understand our workforce better and address key issues affecting employee morale and productivity. With anonymity assured, we encourage colleagues to feel safe to be honest. The questions and methodology allow us to dig into employee experience and provides us with an overall score on Inclusion (out of 100), as well as identifying strengths and opportunities that fuel actionable insights. In 2023 when BELONG launched, we saw 77% take part. This figure increased in 2024 to 83% participation, giving us an even more robust data set.
It’s great to see we have increased our scores across every BELONG question year-on-year, as well as increasing our overall BELONG score by +5 points. This is a good indication that the commitments already in train for Pillars 1 to 4 are moving the dial on the inclusiveness of our culture. But we are never complacent and know quantitative data doesn’t tell the whole story. In 2025, we will continue to run lived experience focus groups to understand the unique experience of under-represented talent.
OVERALL SCORE
Our overall BELONG score for 2024. +5 points since 2023.
*BELONG was commissioned by IPG DEI in 2023, from leading inclusion survey provider, Glint. Now part of Microsoft, and known as Viva Glint, it is used across the IPG global network.
Our team has a climate in which diverse perspectives are valued
My opinions seem to count
I have confidence in the executive leadership team
I understand how my agency plans to achieve its goals
The work I do at my agency is meaningful to me
Leaders at my agency value different perspectives
I have a sense of belonging at my agency
I have good opportunities at my organisation
I feel satisfied with the recognition or praise I receive for my work
Participant agreement (%)
Thank Yous
Thank you to partners, talent and friends who’ve helped us on our DEI journey.
We wanted to shine a light on the brilliant colleagues, partners, and businesses we have worked with, and who are helping us do better. Thank you for feeding our minds, bodies and souls.
BLACK GIRLS BOOKED
BRAVER
CAROL WATSTON
AMY KEAN
ALASTAIR PROCTER
BIG MUM’S SAMOSA
PEOPLE LIKE US
SMASHING PLATES
THE UNMISTAKABLES
YOUR GAME PLAN
SOUL DELICIOUZ
TIM GOLDSTEIN
JADE ECOBICHON GRAY
NELS ABBEY
JACQUI WILMHURST
JULIA MIRANDA
MAXINE HURLEY
ELLEN STOTHART
How We Created This Plan
You’ll know by now DEI isn’t a top-down exercise for us. Creating these pages has given us an opportunity to put 360 Inclusion to practice, by asking our people what to include and what they think.
We set up a steering group and incorporated editorial feedback throughout the creation of this Plan. We elevated employee voices to paint a picture of what DEI means to everyone at Golin and Virgo Health. Being honest and true to ourselves was the ambition, rather than grandstanding and creating a sleek corporate “show and tell” DEI Plan.
We wanted this Plan to be user friendly, relatable and easy to understand. We’ve tried our best to use everyday language and avoid “DEI jargonese”, which you’ve told us is clumsy and a barrier to engagement.
Let us know if we’ve hit the mark! And where the gaps are.
We also wanted to demonstrate tangible actions we have in place and coming down the line—so you can hold us to account. We’ve been honest about where our gaps are, and the things we’ve learnt along the way. Mistakes aren’t failures, they’re opportunities to grow.
In our year of Advancing Neuroinclusion, we have thought carefully about accessibility and how the actual
design can support this. This DEI Plan is for everyone, so design choices considered those with dyslexia using the British Dyslexia Association guides, colours have have been chosen to meet WCAG AA contrast standards for those with low vision, and the PDF has been optimised for screen readers.
And to support diverse creatives, we commissioned our brilliant cover illustration from Baraka Carberry, AKA Bokiba, a Midlands-based British Guyanese artist. The brief was ambitious. We wanted the cover to honestly represent who we are now, no diversity-washing allowed. We wanted colleagues to recognise themselves, and for the image to resonate and bring a bit of joy. We wanted to point to our ambitions for achieving deeper representation in the future. We worked closely with Baraka to try and realise this lofty goal. Did we achieve it? Let us know. It’s sparked a big conversation for us here on our current representation, the talent we are missing, and who we want to be in the future.
You’ll know by now we’re big fans of feedback. And we’d love to hear from you… please get in touch.
UK DEI CONTACT
Nina Bhagwat Global Group Director, DEI, Golin & Virgo Health nbhagwat@golin.com
I worked closely with Nina and the team to authentically ensure my artwork is reflective of where Golin and Virgo are now and where they aspire to get to in terms of representation.”
With thanks to our cover artist
Baraka Carberry
Baraka is a multidisciplinary, UK based artist of Guyanese heritage. She loves working digitally using bright vibrant colours, rich palettes and playful shapes. Iconic illustrations grounded in the natural world via floral representations all characterise her work.
Her background in textiles inspires the rich tapestry-like backdrop of colour. Through her art, Baraka wants to convey the message that anything is possible, regardless of your background or where you come from. She wants her work to represent and uplift everyone.
