The new agenda positions staff wellbeing and talent as top priority
New IPA President, Josh Krichefski, is launching a new ‘People First’ agenda designed to better attract, retain and support the wellbeing of existing and potential employees in the creative industries.
The ‘People First’ agenda, which will launch today, will be laid out by Krichefski in his first speech to support his new agenda. The move reflects a growing concern across the industry around burnout and staff morale. While there may not have been as many headlines on the ‘great resignation’ in recent weeks, industry experts agree the talent crunch is far from over.
Krichefski explained: “We don’t have factories, trucks, or manufactured goods. Our people are everything. It’s their brilliance and imagination which is what makes us who and what we are. And that’s why we have to look after them. Let’s take the steps needed to create the most inclusive workplaces imaginable. And let’s support a resilient, thriving and mentally healthy workforce and empower them to write the future of advertising.”
Krichefski’s agenda focuses on three key goals: Opening eyes (attracting talent), opening hearts (retaining talent) and opening minds (supporting wellbeing and positive mental health).
With ‘opening eyes’ Krichesfski aims to ‘re-frame advertising’s cultural and societal relevance in modern Britain to attract the best talent. Initiatives to support this will include working with the Advertising Association to get industry talent to promote the advertising industry. As well as shining a light on the breadth and range of specialisms within advertising and demonstrating how the industry has evolved and the role of advertising in economic renewal.
Additionally, the IPA has partnered with TikTok to match specific TikTok content creators with five agencies to demonstrate the variety of roles in the industry and promote a nationwide agency open day for schools; Advertising Unlocked.
The agenda also includes a plan to amplify purpose-driven work through Advertising Unlocked and its agency-representative IPA Talent Taskforce.
Let’s take the steps needed to create the most inclusive workplaces imaginable. And let’s support a resilient, thriving and mentally healthy workforce and empower them to write the future of advertising.
Josh Krichefski, President of the IPA
The agenda also includes a clear roadmap for supporting industry talent through the ‘messy middle’ of their careers.
To help retain and nurture advertising talent, Krichefski is a passionate believer that “everyone within the ad agency business must feel that they belong, that they’re seen, and they’re safe”. The agenda will continue to build on its action-orientated approach to diversity, equity and inclusion overseen by Leila Siddiqi, Associate Director of Diversity at the IPA.
Building on the IPA’s Talent & Diversity Hub, the IPA will create an Inclusivity Resource Hub which will highlight the very best training courses and practices to create inclusive working cultures across the industry.
The agenda also aims for IPA member agencies to commit to a minimum of 15% of their staff completing the IPA Diversity & Inclusion Certificate. In addition, all IPA member agencies should commit to encouraging all their people to enter the cross-industry All In survey. The IPA is also creating a programme inviting the IPA iList role models to be public industry ambassadors for change.
Prioritising mental health in the workplace not only benefits workers, but employers through increased productivity, retention, and innovation, and society as a whole through improved family and community wellbeing, social cohesion, and economic performance.
Josh Krichefski, President of the IPA
Krichefski’s agenda also includes a significant commitment to improving mental health in the industry with a new framework designed to empower and support employees and prevent future issues by creating inclusive workplace cultures, not toxic ones.
The framework is informed by recent research from Deloitte which has found that the estimated total annual cost of poor mental health to employers has increased by 25% since 2019, reaching close to £56 billion in 2021 (2022). The issue is vital to the industry, with recent research showing that mental health calls to advertising and media charity NABS rose year-on-year by 31%.
Krichefski explained: “Prioritising mental health in the workplace not only benefits workers, but employers through increased productivity, retention, and innovation, and society as a whole through improved family and community wellbeing, social cohesion, and economic performance.”
He continued: “By providing employers with an effective, feasible, and flexible framework to implement within their organisations that supports worker mental health and in turn, fosters a healthy and productive workforce, I believe we will all win.”
The framework will be developed over the coming months and housed, and supported by, a dedicated IPA Mental Health Resource Hub.
The three-point mental health framework can be broken down as: 1. Empower, 2. Support and 3. Prevent:
By implementing proven evidenced-based interventions
By making appropriate accommodations for those who are struggling
Looks like you need to create a Creativebrief account to perform this action.
Create account Sign inLooks like you need to create a Creativebrief account to perform this action.
Create account Sign in
