Gate One’s diversity, equity and inclusion journey

At Gate One, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) are huge priorities for us and we are committed to inclusive growth especially as we expand internationally. In order to create meaningful change for our clients, our people and our communities, we need diverse talent and diverse ways of working. It’s imperative that we attract, retain and develop our diverse team to spur innovation, drive growth and sustain competitive advantage.

To ensure we continue to improve, we have committed to the following DE&I actions:

• Our managing partner at Gate One, Tim Phillips, is the partner sponsor for DE&I, highlighting the importance of this for us.
• Our DE&I journey is one of our eight strategic priorities for 2021. To meet our goals, we are assessed against quarterly objectives that are reported to our board.
• Last year we engaged an external DE&I specialist to lead an inclusion survey and focus groups to learn from our team where we can improve.
• Our parent company, the global Havas group, has a 10-point DE&I charter for all its UK agencies to achieve by 2025. We report progress against the charter. In early 2021, Gate One is tracking well and we still have so much more we want to do throughout this year.

We’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far but we want to continue to foster an even more diverse and inclusive culture. In December 2019, we dedicated the quarterly Gateaway to celebrate diversity and raise awareness of how we can be more inclusive. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 was a spur to action. As a result, our whole team engaged in an ‘All In’ DE&I training session from Havas, including a focused session for our senior leaders on the executive committee. These discussions prompted us to seek external DE&I specialist support for the inclusion survey and confidential listening sessions. Our journey is not complete, and it never will be as we promise to continually improve.

The Gate One team supports our DE&I plan with an active internal community that drive these priorities. Our internal community exemplifies inclusive behaviours and creates meaningful change both internally and externally with our clients and communities.