Provide in depth information about you and your current job role.
○ I have the privilege of being Head of Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) at Kantar – representing and building an inclusive organisation for our 25,000 people in over 100 different countries.
○ In my role, I am also part of our global People Leadership Team – partnering with our most senior HR leaders to ensure that I&D is a core component of how we attract, recruit and promote talent at Kantar.
○ I have always been passionate and committed to Inclusion & Diversity. My career began in a socioeconomically disadvantaged secondary school with the Teach First programme – where I trained to be an English teacher in an extremely challenging environment for two years. I made the decision to come out when I was a teacher so the students had a visible LGBTQ+ role model; it was there that I saw first-hand the power of visibility. I remain committed to social mobility and the power of education today; I am now a Teach First Ambassador and am also a school governor for my local school in South East London.
○ I then spent several years at Accenture, where I led their Pride network for LGBTQ+ employees.
Outside of Kantar, I am also part of the Market Research Society’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Council – contributing towards creating an industry that is truly representative of the societies we serve and that we include marginalised and underrepresented communities in our research.
Why do you feel you have been selected for the Head of Diversity & Inclusion Award?
○ Within my first months in post, I created and launched Kantar’s first Global Inclusion & Diversity Policy and have formed the organisations very first I&D team – recruiting an additional two full-time employees.
○ My first priority was to re-launch and expand Kantar’s six global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), making sure that Kantar provided a community and a platform for underrepresented voices. Under the new model, each ERG is supported by a sponsor from Kantar’s Executive Team, ensuring their access to and support from the organisation’s most senior leaders. As a result, the ERGs have evolved into groups who are shaping Kantar’s culture and are driving change in the business.
○ For example, I drove the creation of Kantar’s first global Employee Resource Group dedicated to culture, race and ethnicity (CREW), which has rapidly grown across national chapters and begun efforts to strengthen Kantar’s staff training. Across the board, the ERGs’ have led highly impactful plans and initiatives for Black History Month, Pride Month, and International Day of Persons with Disabilities, to name a few, with me working across the groups to ensure Kantar’s activities reflect the diversity and intersectionality of its workforce.
○ I am committed to finding the balance between Kantar using its platform to champion Inclusion and Diversity, while also taking concrete steps to drive progress within the organisation. For example, Kantar changed its logo to the Pride colours for the first time this year but has also been able to deliver a 2% increase in women in director-level roles (now at 41%).
○ I am passionate about transparency. I have made sure that all Kantar employees can access the organisation’s aggregated global gender data and ethnicity data for the UK and US. I have also introduced the opportunity for employees to share sexual orientation and gender identity data in the UK and US, so the organisation can better understand its workforce population, barriers that may exist, and provide the support required for anyone to succeed at Kantar. I am committed to expanding this diversity data campaign to other markets and across other dimensions of diversity later this year.
○ I have also established a quarterly session called ‘I&D Update Live’, which I have made open to all Kantar employees, where I will share our progress (and sometimes lack of progress) transparently with the organisation and invite people to share their feedback and questions
○ Since starting in post, I have worked with Kantar’s Qualitative Research Team to conduct focus groups dedicated to Kantar’s new I&D strategy all over the world – ensuring that Kantar’s employees have a say in the new strategy. I&D-related questions has also integrated into Kantar’s annual employee survey for the first time, ensuring staff feedback on I&D is central to the organisation’s broader business and people strategies.
○ I&D is now also part of Kantar’s senior leaders’ objectives. Kantar’s commitment to I&D and the Executive Team’s close working with our I&D team is reflected in the organisation rising from #33 to #16 in the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers list.
As a queer woman, I am so incredibly passionate about this work and using my position to be an ally to others. I’m incredibly grateful to have been provided with this platform and I am wholeheartedly committed to doing everything that I can to build a more equitable, inclusive and diverse organisation.
What diversity initiatives have you implemented within your workplace across the following diversity strands?:
Age | Disability | Gender | LGBT | Race | Religion & Faith
○ In my role as Head of I&D, I re-launched ERGs to cover all 6 of the diversity strands in this question. In the first half of this year, the membership for each of the ERGs has increased by over 30%, as a result of the initiatives created by myself and the wonderful colleagues who I work with who drive much of the work in this space. I see my role as being able to provide the platform, support, funding and sponsorship for marginalised and underrepresented people to feel empowered to lead the initiatives themselves – so they are front and centre of our I&D conversations.
○ There are too many initiatives to list, so I will provide a couple of impactful examples for each diversity strand.
§ Religion & Faith:
□ We hosted an intersectional webinar in between World Hijab Day and International Women’s Day to debunk stereotypes and false assumptions around women who wear the hijab, with the objective of empowerment and sharing stories.
□ We created a ’employee guide’ for Ramadan and Eid – this guide was accessible to all but was primarily targeted at managers and leaders. The guide provided the basics around ‘What is Ramadan and Eid?’ but, crucially, it provided tips on how to be inclusive and considerate to Kantar colleagues observing the month of Ramadan (e.g. to provide flexible working where possible, avoid scheduling meetings in the morning)
§ LGBTQ:
□ Kantar UK marched in London Pride for the very first time – providing a wonderful opportunity for 50 of our colleagues. We also changed our Kantar logo to the Pride colours and our Executive Team all changed their email signatures to this logo and wore a Kantar Pride lanyard during Pride Month this year.
□ Our Pride UK ERG hosted an art auction, where Kantar colleagues donated their own creations and employees were encouraged to bid. The event raised over £2000 for an LGBTQ+ charity dedicated to tackling abuse, Galop.
□ We launched the DIVA Survey in collaboration with DIVA and Stonewall, which was the largest ever survey of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people. This was a wonderful example of how we dedicated our expertise and capabilities to shine a light on underrepresented groups and validate people’s lived experience with data.
§ Age:
□ We launched an ‘Age Brave’ poster campaign in offices around the world – from India, Singapore, UK and US. These posters showed Kantar colleagues defying age-related stereotypes, such as a woman in her 50s being a champion kickboxer. The posters were also displayed with QR codes for people to join our No Limits ERG, dedicated to the inclusion of different ages and generations
□ I have worked alongside our No Limits ERG to create a toolkit for Kantar market leaders to form their own ‘shadow boards’ – providing leadership exposure and a platform to younger colleagues, whilst creating a channel for our Executive Teams to learn from different generations
§ Gender:
□ We have launched a menopause policy and fertility treatment guidance to ensure that our colleagues are supported during these major life events, e.g. by providing paid time off and enhancing our benefits policy to include professional and external menopause support. We have hosted multiple sessions around the menopause to dismantle the taboo surrounding menopause.
□ We have set an ambitious target of 50% women in our director-level positions by the end of 2025, and I have made our CEO and Executive Team accountable for us achieving this target. This has led to an increase in promotions, sponsorship and representation of women in our senior leadership roles.
§ Race:
□ We have had a successful ethnicity data disclosure campaign in the UK and US – with over 90% disclosure into our HR system in both markets. This data has now been shared with our Executive Team members, who have been actioned with improving the ethnic diversity of our managerial and leadership populations in the UK and US.
□ We ran a series of highly successful events for Black History Month – bringing external speakers into the organisation to provide an education session on Black history to our Kantar colleagues, and we provided African and Caribbean food in our office. During Black History Month, we also hosted a well-attended safe space session to explore micro-aggressions and language.
§ Disability:
□ We have undertaken a significant amount of work this year so Kantar surveys are increasingly accessible for a variety of different disabilities – ensuring that I&D is part of everything that we do, including our products and services. This includes providing accessible question types, such as making sure all graphics are accompanied with alternative text.
We have also collaborated with Microsoft to educate Kantar colleagues around the accessibility functionality that exists in Microsoft 365 and Teams, such as using PowerPoint Live rather than sharing screens so it is compatible with screen readers, how to use closed captioning functionality when on a Teams call, and how to check the accessibility of your PowerPoint slides before sharing them more widely.
What impact have these initiatives had on your workplace?
○ ERGs have increased by over 30% so far this year.
○ Over 90% disclosure of ethnicity data in UK and US – meaning we can identify and dismantle barriers for progression and set targets.
○ Raised money for meaningful causes, e.g. over £2000 for Galop.
○ I&D questions in our annual engagement survey were our second-highest scoring category.
○ Glassdoor I&D rating increased to 4.0 – which is our highest scoring metric on Glassdoor and also puts us in the top 10% of companies.
○ Increase in gender balance in our senior leadership roles – with a 2% increase over the last year.
Our Executive Teams are now much more aware and accountable for driving progress on I&D, which will lead to even greater impact in the future.
Have you or your company received any accolades as a result of your work surrounding equality, diversity & inclusion?
○ I was awarded ‘Rising Star in Professional Services’ by WeAreTheCity in 2019 for my work on LGBTQ+ inclusion whilst at Accenture
○ Since becoming Head of Inclusion & Diversity at Kantar, I was shortlisted in the ‘Head of Diversity’ category in the DIVA Awards, British Diversity Awards and Rainbow Honours in 2023. I was honoured to have received a ‘Highly Commended’ recognition in the DIVA Awards (2nd place)
○ Kantar was awarded Company of the Year at the British Diversity Awards in 2023
○ The Economic Times in India recognised Kantar as one of the ‘Best Organisations for Women’
○ Kantar Colombia was named one of the country’s best ‘Employers of Youth Female Talent’
○ We have had several colleagues be recognised in the following lists: Empower (ethnic minority leaders), Heroes (women leaders) and Outstanding (LGBTQ+ leaders)
○ I was recognised by Hive Learning as one of the Top 75 Most Influential DE&I Leaders in EMEA.
I am also incredibly proud that we have risen from #33 in the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers awards to #16 in 2023
Please provide a name and contact details of a person we can contact to make this evidence credible.
Name
Caroline Frankum
Email Address
Caroline.Frankum@kantar.com
