Creative Access partnered with Ogilvy UK, one of the world’s largest, most creative and awarded advertising networks, to develop and deliver the first cohort of the Borderless Mentoring Programme, aimed at boosting retention, confidence, and progression of Ogilvy UK’s mid-level colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds. A cohort of 20 eligible colleagues were encouraged to apply and matched with senior-level mentors from outside their sector.
Our interview with Yasmin Hemmings, Head of Thrive at Creative Access takes a closer look at the Creative Access & Ogilvy Borderless Mentoring Programme. A big part of Creative Access’ mission is to foster diversity and inclusion in the creative industries by supporting career progression beyond entry-level positions. Yasmin shared the motivations for building this programme with Ogilvy, the success stories it helped produce, and key advice for companies looking to deliver similar initiatives.
Why is it important to address EDI in Creative Access’ work?
Creative Access specialises in diversity and inclusion. We are a social enterprise that started in 2012 and the mission, even back in the beginning, was to build a creative economy which reflects the society it serves.
Creative Access acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve true equity in the sector and ensure that the creative industries are more reflective of society.
In an ideal world, Creative Access wouldn’t need to exist, but we’re still a little while away from that being the case. In the meantime, organisations like ours are making steps in the right direction.
How are your motivations for addressing EDI embedded within your organisation?
We have two core teams: Access and Thrive. A core principle for us is acknowledging that EDI isn’t just about getting people into roles, it’s also about supporting them to progress and reach positions of influence. Positions of influence don’t always have to be the CEO; they can look quite different depending on the person’s perspective.
We’ve grown from being primarily an entry-level internship recruiter to having a multitude of services for people at a wide range of levels in their careers. We work with employers to provide training to support building inclusive cultures, deliver mentoring programmes — like the one I’m going to talk about today — and run career development programmes that support people from historically underrepresented backgrounds in the creative industries. The goal is to help individuals thrive and equip them with increased confidence to advocate for new work opportunities, pay rises, promotions, and career progression.
What are your big picture aims for EDI in your work?
We already offer initiatives for aspiring, entry and mid-level career stages but a key focus of the organisation is to continue developing this area of work at the senior level; reaching individuals from historically underrepresented backgrounds who have eight or more years of experience.
Another important initiative for us is our mentoring programmes. We’re constantly looking to refresh and bring in more mentors with similar lived experiences to the mentees that we’re working with. It’s something that an increasing amount of people in our community are looking for — a role model that they can connect with.
What are the risks that you perceive for not addressing EDI in the creative industries?
We’re trying to get to a place where people — all people — feel a sense of belonging in their organisation. Where there is diversity of thought, there is diversity of perspective. The risk for not addressing EDI is that you’re creating a ceiling for people. Many employers that we talk to, particularly those wanting to develop talent at mid and senior levels, have a high drop-off rate of diverse talent as seniority increases.
These organisations are getting people through the doors, but people reach a point where, for whatever reason, they feel like they can’t continue. Organisations aren’t actively addressing that. The end goal is for organisations to be reflective of wider society but we have a long way to go until we reach that point.
Can you tell us more about the Borderless Mentoring Programme?
We ran a 6-month mentoring programme with Ogilvy UK which specifically supported mid-level employees from underrepresented backgrounds, pairing them with a senior mentor from outside of the business in other creative sectors from where they can grow their experience and perspectives.
The programme was designed as part of Ogilvy’s efforts to create greater equity in their organisation and support retention of underrepresented talent at mid-level while at the same time encouraging more creativity, which is what Ogilvy is famous for. The opportunity was aimed at colleagues who identified as coming from a group that is underrepresented in the creative industries. This included Black, Asian and ethnically diverse individuals, disabled or neurodivergent people, and individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Ogilvy aimed to put in place a programme that not only addressed retention but also showed their team that the organisation was really supportive of their career development, enabling them to connect with someone outside of the business who could offer a fresh perspective. The programme highlighted the benefits of having cross-sector expertise from a mentor who may not have the same role as you, but who can still enrich your career with learnings from their own creative background.
How have you reached the target groups to ensure they’re able to engage?
We worked very closely with Ogilvy, speaking to various stakeholders in the organisation to talk through which colleagues they wanted to target. The programme was limited to 20 people, so it needed to target the people who were at the right career stage. The consensus was that there were several creative roles where this support would be well-placed.
Additionally, Ogilvy also wanted to reach people from across their wider business units whose roles spanned events, operations, account management and more. Ogilvy created an internal campaign to promote the programme and attract eligible employees who would benefit the most from the engagement.
How did you recruit your mentors?
Our mentoring programmes are voluntary, and we find that there are lots of people who are willing to give back their time to support both the next and current generation of creative talent – we have network of nearly 500 volunteer mentors. We run numerous mentoring programmes throughout the year and are always looking for new mentors – we just ask that those who register with us are interested in and committed to meeting virtually with a mentee over the course of 6 months.
Sometimes we look for mentors from a specific sector. For example, we recently ran a scheme for composers and sound designers providing funded mentoring and training through our Thrive development programme. So we’ve recently done a specific call out to senior composers, sound designers, and people working in that industry who might be able to support underrepresented individuals on our programme.
What did the mentee selection process look like?
We took applications from individuals at Ogilvy who were interested in being allocated a mentor. It included a short application form where they shared with us:
- why they were looking to be mentored.
- what their goals and aspirations would be for mentoring.
- why they felt they could benefit from mentoring at this particular stage in their career.
We carefully reviewed each application form to create thoughtful matches based on individual skills, backgrounds, and professional interests. Mentees also had the option to indicate a preference for being matched with someone with similar lived experience. After identifying compatible matches, we hosted a meet and greet session for mentors and mentees that doubled as an orientation and training event. During this online session, participants had the opportunity to connect, understand the programme’s framework, and start building their mentoring relationships.
At the meet and greet session, each mentoring partnership collaboratively completed a mentoring agreement. This document outlines clear expectations and shared goals, ensuring expectations are managed from both sides.
Our guidance was that mentors and mentees meet once a month for one hour over the course of the six-month programme. Meetings often took place online, but some people were able to meet in person or go to each other's workplaces.
In your view, what’s made the initiative so successful?
A crucial factor in the programme’s success was being able to work closely with Ogilvy to establish their goals and the impact they wanted Borderless Mentoring to achieve. The employees who participated were chosen thoughtfully on a human level rather than purely using technology, and we made sure to evaluate if the matches were well made.
Another detail that contributed to its success was providing a structure for training, and a framework for the programme to make sure it ran smoothly. I also think the option of the mentees being able to specify a preference to be mentored by someone with similar lived experience was quite important. It meant that the mentors we had in the programme were from really diverse backgrounds themselves so that mentees could have role models they could relate to and expand their networks.
What do you think were Ogilvy’s key motivations?
Ogilvy has a very ambitious plan when it comes to EDI within their organisation. We were working with Matt Foster, the Director of DEI at Ogilvy UK, who ensured there was a focus and importance given to their overall creative mission and how this can be supported through EDI and equity programmes specifically. The programme was given the full support of the C-suite and was informed by members of Ogilvy’s Inclusion Board, so its importance to the organisation was clear.
Ogilvy genuinely wants to create an environment where all employees can thrive, and they understand that some of their colleagues, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, require different needs in order to do so. For them, this is not a one and done and they continue to lead the way in the advertising sector in flagship equity programmes. As part of this, Ogilvy has recently launched a separate career coaching programme with Coaches of Colour for Black male senior colleagues, because they recognise there’s a significant gap in the advertising industry when it comes to the representation of Black men and that supporting their growth and development is a priority for them.
Did you experience any challenges, barriers, or limitations around the work?
This programme is called Borderless Mentoring in acknowledgement of its cross-sector nature (all be it still within different creative industries), as Ogilvy were keen for their staff to gain insights from people outside of their industry. Feedback found that whilst there were clear benefits to this, it could affect the ability of the mentor to be able to advise on role-specific challenges.
Mentoring relationships operate self-sufficiently following initial meet and greet training, so while we oversee the programme and check in at key points during the partnership, there can be occasions when work priorities and deadlines limit meeting availability during busy periods.
Finally, it can be a challenge for us to make sure that we can match our mentees with someone with similar lived experience due to the lack of diverse representation at the most senior levels in the creative industries – it’s an active priority for us to build our mentor pool of senior professionals from an array backgrounds across the UK.
What would you do differently next time around?
Next time, we would build in more opportunities for all mentees and mentors to meet and share experiences during the programme. We were fortunate to have a celebration event at the end of this programme, which was a nice end point and great to see everyone come together in person.
In the future we’d also like to include a WhatsApp group for the mentees, so they can connect and potentially look for other training opportunities. We run leadership training and confidence training through our Thrive development programme, so that’s something we could potentially introduce to mentees who are looking to access further development opportunities.
What advice would you share with other organizations considering delivering similar initiatives?
I think it’s key to identify who you’re offering that activity for and why, in order to ensure the target group understands why it’s being offered and how it could benefit them. I think that was something that Ogilvy did really well. It is easy to tell if someone has been “forced” into signing up for a mentor but really that relationship has to be driven by the mentee who wants to learn and gain from someone else.
The mentors of course also learn a great deal from the mentees. However, there needs to be work done on the way that it is framed, and the reasons why someone could benefit from mentoring should be clear from the start.
We hope this conversation is the catalyst for your company to explore how it can improve its EDI practices so you can boost business performance, attract top talent, and increase employee retention as it did with Ogilvy. Visit Creative Access to learn more about how they can help the underrepresented communities at your organisation thrive.
With thanks to Literal Humans for their support with drafting this case study.
Explore other case studies today at diversity.wearecreative.uk/case-studies.
