Salary Survey 2018: The most diverse and inclusive places to work

Alongside working environment, opportunities for progression and fair pay, the creation of inclusive and diverse teams is a further crucial element in determining the best industries for marketers, according to Marketing Week’s Career and Salary Survey 2018.

Single parents, for example, are underrepresented or not represented in the fashion industry, according to 36.6% of marketers, while retail and wholesale is the best performing sector (21.1%) in this regard.

Some 65.8% of those marketers working at agencies and consultancies say that disabled people are under or not represented, the worst performing sector, whereas the health and pharmaceuticals industry emerges as the best (48.1%)

The health and pharmaceuticals sector also appears to be the most diverse in terms of employing people from different religious backgrounds (17.6%). By comparison, the beauty industry has the highest number of marketers (38.5%) saying religious groups are under/not represented.

READ MORE: How marketing salaries stack up in 2019

Nearly half (46.9%) of respondents in the beauty industry also say older people are under represented in their business, the highest level of any industry. The lowest level is reported by marketers in the public sector (24.3%).

Rather than being focused on age, Benefit prides itself on targeting an attitude, a value which filters through from the customer to the staff, according to marketing director Natasha Curtin, who explains that the way the organisation recruits is focused on bringing in as much diversity as possible.

The travel and leisure industry scores worse with marketers for the representation of ethnic minorities, with over half (52.2%) saying ethnic minority groups are underrepresented or not represented in their business. Health and pharmaceuticals is the best performing industry (34.9%), by contrast.

These statistics come as a surprise to Ryanair CMO Kenny Jacobs, who reports that of the 200 people working in his function at Ryanair’s Dublin headquarters, more than 50% are non-Irish and more than 60% are female.

“I’m not hitting a KPI, there’s not a quota of what you should hit,” he explains. “If I go over to our digital team, the brand team, the PR team, social team, any part of the marketing organisation here in Dublin you will have Brits, Irish, French, Spanish, German, Scandinavian, Americans, and people from Africa and Asia.”

Looking specifically at the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people, construction and property emerges as the least diverse sector, with 31.9% of marketers saying LGBT employees are under/not represented. The most diverse industry, by contrast, is the gaming and gambling sector (16.3%).

Kristof Fahy, the former CMO and chief customer officer at the Ladbrokes Coral Group, believes that the pace of change and level of disruption in gambling has created a working environment which is more akin to a startup than a legacy retail business. However, there remains a perception gap between the young, vibrant workplaces in reality and the image of old fashioned, male-dominated betting shops of the past.

“The view is that it’s mahogany and there are pictures of racehorses everywhere and blokes with personalised licence plates, it’s just not [like that] anymore,” says Fahy.

“You look at the CEOs and none of them represent that anymore, so gambling and gaming has gone through a massive change. Frankly, it’s had to because disruptors came in and it has been fighting for talent so the model has completely changed.”

• The 2018 Marketing Week Career and Salary Survey analysed the responses of 4,154 marketers from 24 different industries including agencies and consultancies, the automotive sector, entertainment, FMCG, financial, telecoms, sport and travel. The seniority of the respondents ranged from graduates and marketing assistants to senior managers, board directors and partners. This is a nationwide sample of UK marketers, including digital specialists. In all cases relating to pay marketers were asked to give their basic wage, excluding bonuses and benefits.