Supporting Ethnic Minority Leaders: IDM's New Training Programme

To continue our commitment to drive greater diversity and inclusion in our industry, our world-class training institute, the Institute of Data & Marketing (IDM), has partnered with Culture Heroes to develop a new leadership programme. Funded by the DM Trust, the programme supports ethnic minorities, helping individuals get access to leadership training and coaching.

For the past two years, the DMA has been working with Culture Heroes, a UK-based non-profit initiative that seeks to create more ethnic minority representation in leadership roles across the creative industries. Recently, we’ve joined together to understand why there’s a lack of ethnic minority leaders in data and marketing, and how we can develop and implement strategies to encourage more inclusive work environments.

The 2020 Marketing Week’s Career and Salary Survey revealed an entrenched lack of ethnic, socio-economic, and gender diversity within the wider marketing industry. It reported 88% of respondents identify as ‘White,’ only 5% identify as ‘Asian,’ 4% as ‘Mixed race,’ and 2% as ‘Black.’ In senior roles, 38.3% of marketers are ‘White’ and 49.5% are male.

Recent research conducted by Culture Heroes with support from the DMA found that:

• 9 out of 10 respondents would like to be in a leadership position in the future – 43% of those are aiming to achieve this in the next couple of years
• When respondents were asked if they think there’s opportunity to grow within their companies, responses were divided: 46% expressed negativity about career progressions with their current employers

A section on possible help identified that:

• ‘In work training’ (51%) and ‘Mentorship’ (49%) are found most useful, but even more agree they’d like to have available (but don’t already) ‘Formal leadership training’ (59%), ‘Mentorship’ (53%), and ‘Formal coaching’ (50%)
• Furthermore, those identifying as ‘Black, African, Caribbean’ (28%) and ‘Asian’ (26%) report not having ‘Mentorship’ available to them, but they believe it would have helped their professional growth
• Looking to the future, most say they would like to receive ‘Mentorship’ (73%), ‘Leadership training’ (70%), and ‘Coaching’ (57%) – interest is higher for ‘Coaching’ and ‘Leadership training’ among ‘Black, African, Caribbean’ respondents

As a result of this research, the IDM has partnered with Culture Heroes to develop a new training programme, helping to push our diversity and inclusion initiatives forward and create measurable, meaningful change.

The programme is delivered by a collective of senior leaders at Hack Yourself. Hack Yourself focus on the new competencies that leaders need to thrive. Founded by Jack Lowman, the Hack Yourself collective of modern leaders is committed to changing the way leadership is taught, experienced and acted upon with particular focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

If you would like to apply for this programme please click here.

Discover more research on key challenges in data and marketing around ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, disability, and health.