VCCP’s DEI Collective have won Campaign magazine’s Talent Management Team of the Year for the second year running.

Judges said that VCCP offered “initiatives that contribute to the industry, not just the company: strategically well thought through, creative and magnetic”.

The DEI Collective was set up by Sonia Gilchrist in 2020 when she was appointed into the role of Head of DE&I for the VCCP Group. The purpose of the Collective is to ensure a joined up approach to DE&I across VCCP’s global network, with the key objective of encouraging a culture of inclusivity at its heart.

In 2022, the team set out to change the narrative surrounding conversations on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. The fact that it can often become a tick box exercise or something that is avoided for fear of people getting it wrong needed to be addressed and that’s when Different, Exciting & Interesting was born. With this new approach, the VCCP DEI Collective has proved that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is exciting. It’s about embracing the world around us and the differences which make life interesting, encouraging people to also think about the various exciting possibilities that can come with acknowledging and celebrating these differences.

To help reframe the conversation internally and launch their new approach, the DEI Collective worked with talent right across the Group to create a spoken word film. Written and performed by Samira Seini, the film sets out the BRG’s mission statement and heroes people from every department right across the global network.

In the last three years, the DEI Collective have been responsible for delivering multiple events, bespoke training, new recruitment principles and changes to production processes.

Some of the initiatives that the DEI Collective has led within the Partnership include: diversifying entry level schemes, with members of the Collective integral parts of the VCCP Stoke Academy work, establishing a new approach to education through the ‘Celebrate’ series that focuses on different cultures, which help to foster a happy, integrated and understanding agency culture, and continuing to embed DE&I into staff development.

Julian Douglas, International CEO at VCCP Group said: “We are incredibly proud of the work that Sonia and The DEI Collective have done and continue to do. They are relentless in their passion and drive to change the narrative, and the way we do business and the industry as a whole.”

Sonia Gilchrist,  Head of DE&I at VCCP added: “We want the agency to live and breathe DE&I in everything we do and ensure that our principles are baked into all of our talent management initiatives from recruitment, retention, learning and development, to agency culture, and the work we produce. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have been recognised for a second year running.”