The Blueprint is an amazing piece of work. It’s been put together so mindfully, it’s so thorough and it forces you to really think hard about your agency’s commitment to diversity. In short, it’s doing precisely what it set out to do. It’s a proper commitment and every agency that decides to apply will become a better place to work – for everyone – as a result.
So we’ve been reviewing and workshopping our policies across the company, putting in place objective systems for promotions, training and development, ripping apart our job descriptions to remove unconscious bias etc, etc. But that’s just one side of the equation – internal.
We’ve also been challenging our suppliers on their commitment to diversity, asking our recruiter partners to commit to providing 33% diverse shortlists and making decisions about who we continue to work with and who we don’t. But that’s just two sides of the equation – internal and supplier.
What about our clients? Yes, we’ve been keeping them informed on all the changes we’re making to make CCgroup a better employer and partner, but what commitment have we asked from them? And what commitments are we making to them?
Well, over late summer and early autumn we’ve been co-creating a client/consultancy charter. Huge thanks to Roya Stephens, Danielle Middleton-Wren, Aron Kozak, Anushia Nair and Kim Cecchini (pictured in order) for their time, help and support..png?width=513&name=Blueprint%20blog%20(1).png)
The charter itself is quite a beast, but in summary the ten mutual commitments are around:
- Working together: mutual respect; two-way working processes; expectation-setting; commitment to sharing information; inclusion, equality & diversity
- Setting scopes of work: setting & responding to clear briefs; budgeting responsibly
- Agreeing timescales: reasonable timelines; hitting deadlines
- Managing budgets: respecting time; handling changing demands; cancellation; responsibility & transparency
- Communicating frankly: clear & timely feedback & advice; participation in client satisfaction surveys
- Taking an integrated approach: constructive co-operation with other partners
- Raising business awareness: ensuring awareness of CCgroup’s brief; understanding your business; communicating the value of our work
- Building stakeholder relationships: providing access to key individuals; acting courteously at all times
- Continuous improvement: insight on organisational strategy; changes to the business; keeping up-to-date
- Evaluating success: measuring success; demonstrating outcomes
Big thanks also to the PRCA who, in 2012, published a Client-Consultancy Partnership Charter that formed the basis for our charter.
If you’d like to see our charter, just drop me a line – always happy to share – and wish us luck with our Blueprint application!
