Latest news with #inclusion
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Issas' petrol station giant drops diversity goals before £13bn US listing
The Issa brothers' petrol station empire is rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) targets as it gears up for a £13bn listing in the US. EG Group said it was no longer pursuing a goal to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles in the US, saying its diversity initiatives only applied 'in regions where legally permissible'. It previously had set a company-wide goal to increase the proportion of women in top roles to 40pc by 2025, from 20pc in 2021. However, the US – which is EG Group's largest market – has since been excluded from that objective. EG Group said it was also reviewing gender targets for the rest of the business, which includes operations in Australia and Europe. The UK arm of the company was sold last year. The retreat from diversity goals comes as EG appeared to fall short of its 40pc gender goal for 2025. By 2024, just 27pc of senior leadership roles were held by women, according to its latest filings, with the company admitting that this was 'some way off achieving [its] target'. The diversity shake-up comes as the billionaire Issa brothers push ahead with plans to list Blackburn-based EG Group in the US for as much as £13bn. EG Group is jointly owned by the Issa brothers and private equity firm TDR. TDR owns 50pc of the company, while Mohsin and Zuber hold 25pc each. The brothers have both stepped back from running the business over the past year. Meanwhile, the move to pull the US female representation target comes as more companies start to roll back their inclusivity programmes amid a crackdown by Donald Trump. The US president has banned companies with federal contracts from operating 'illegal' DEI programmes. It has meant a wave of UK businesses have started to ditch diversity efforts, including drug giant GSK and consulting giant Accenture. When addressing diversity in its latest report, EG said it wanted to ensure its targets 'are fit for purpose going forward and focused on the areas that matter most to our colleagues and customers, but also to our investors, regulators and wider society'. A spokesman said: 'EG Group complies with all relevant laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate. 'We remain committed to being an equitable and inclusive business, reflecting the diversity of our colleagues, customers and wider communities.'
Wall Street Journal
9 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
How DEI Investing Has Changed Under Trump
While companies such as Target have blamed DEI backlash for lower sales, others, such as Costco , are seeing boosts to foot traffic. So how can companies' DEI commitments affect investors with a socially conscious approach to investing? In this bonus episode of WSJ's Take On the Week, we are joined by Rachel Robasciotti, founder of investment firm Adasina Social Capital. She discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion efforts, particularly in light of the Trump administration's crackdown. 🎧 Listen to the podcast here, or watch the video above.
BBC News
13 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Special educational needs school leavers working as classroom assistants
Classroom assistants Dan McKee and Savanna Presho are both aged 20 and have Down's with 22-year-old Ben McCreight, who has a learning disability, they are working hard to make a positive difference to pupils at two primary schools in Bangor, County and Ben work as classroom assistants in Clandeboye Primary School, while Savanna works in Bloomfield Primary principal of Bloomfield PS, Rebecca Bishop, told BBC News NI that Savanna "brings out the best in our pupils." BBC News NI visited the school to see her at work in the school's polytunnel, helping the pupils learn about how to grow flowers, plants and also works with pupils in the school's nurture unit and P1, supporting the teacher."She's fitted in here like she's part of the furniture," Ms Bishop told BBC News NI."Savanna comes in here and just enjoys being part of our everyday."She brings that natural empathy which all children have within them, and that willingness to engage and to work with new people."It's nice for them to see somebody different coming into school and have that opportunity to shine with their own personalities." Just over a third of people with disabilities in Northern Ireland are in work, compared with more than half in the rest of the to the Department for the Economy (DfE), adults with disabilities in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be unemployed as those without a disability. Making a difference At Clandeboye Primary School, principal Julie Thomas says Dan and Ben working in the school every Monday had made a difference to said he loved the children and staff in the school and looked forward to work every Monday."We help the kids doing PE and after that doing some work," he Thomas added: "Dan and Ben have been working with P1 and in our nurture room, The Nest, to help support the children with their practical activities and their social activities and also their time outside in the playground."Within a very short time, we've seen their confidence grow."They have grown in how they're seen within the building."They've made really good relationships with the staff as well as the children and we just see them as part of our staff now in Clandeboye Primary School." At Clandeboye, Dan and Ben were role models, Ms Thomas said."With us working now fully with children who have additional needs, I think it's important for the families of those children to see that there are other experiences once the children go beyond school life themselves and on into adulthood," she said. SEN support Parents and school principals have highlighted how support for young people with special educational needs (SEN) ends when they leave have campaigned for to change that and introduce statutory support until the age of is a situation that Robert McGowan runs Strides Day Opportunity Service in Bangor, which provides work experience and other classes for young adults who have come through special education. Mr McGowan arranged Dan, Ben and Savanna's placements as classroom assistants with the two primary schools."Dan started in special education as a boy of maybe five or six, so he's had 13 or 14 years in special education," he said."Then the provision stops. Once they reach the adult sector, there seems to be a gap there."All that effort, all that consistency, all that time that's been spent that can ease off and almost dry up."Mr McGowan also said it was important to provide "meaningful" work experience for young adults with disabilities.
BBC News
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Warwick arts and crafts day for residents and refugees
A community arts day is being held to bring residents and refugees together in programme of workshops, performances, storytelling, poetry, art and food is being held on Friday to mark World Refugee Day. Warwickshire County Council said the event, part of International Refugee Week, would shine "a spotlight on the powerful role of community in creating a welcoming and inclusive place for all".As part of the event, a "unity quilt" stitched by people who have recently arrived in the UK will be on display. People can also try out Brazilian and Ukrainian crafts. "Refugee dream boards", showcasing the hopes and aspirations of displaced people, will also be included in the exhibition and activities will include a language laboratory where visitors can try out greetings in multiple living in Warwickshire will lead crafts include Fuxico flower-making, which involves sewing fabric circles into puffs and making flower-like can also try Ukrainian Vinok wreath-making and workshops will look at the meaning behind the floral get under way at 10:00 BST at the Old Shire Hall and continue until 16:00 BST. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
How the culture war is remaking advertising
During this year's Super Bowl, American viewers were given a blast from the past when food chain Carl's Jr once again rolled out an ad featuring scantily clad women, having ditched its long-time 'burgers and bikinis' approach in 2017. Bud Light, which attracted boycotts after working with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023, put out a campaign featuring guys drinking beer and barbecuing big steaks for a lawn party in a stereotypical US suburban cul-de-sac. For many marketers, these sort of ads were the latest signs that big US and international brands, after years of talk about purpose and inclusion in their corporate messaging, are now playing to the Maga crowd. Some have gone even farther; restaurant chain Steak 'n Shake, for example, sponsored a recent bitcoin conference, and tweeted posts appealing to Tesla Cybertruck drivers. Its pinned post on X features US health secretary Robert F Kennedy jnr . READ MORE Yet at the same time, senior advertising bosses say campaigns featuring themes of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are now being blocked by some brand owners, who are nervous of a backlash from anti-woke campaigners and Republican politicians. 'We've had a lot of ideas that were pro-LGBTQ, or pro for the black community, pulled back on because of what's happening with the Trump administration,' says one senior advertising boss who, like many of the executives that the Financial Times spoke to, did not want to be named for fear of sparking a further negative response. The election of Donald Trump has brought added fears of legal action against DEI initiatives in the US and scrutiny by regulators and Christian faith shareholders over perceived bias in advertising. Top marketers in the US say the increased nervousness about being attacked for being 'woke' by conservatives on platforms such as Elon Musk 's X is changing how they approach spending often constrained budgets to reach consumers. Consumer behaviour is becoming more polarised. A new report from FCB, the advertising agency, and Angus Reid, the Canadian pollster, found that political leaning had a clear impact on consumer choices. FCB's Global chief executive Tyler Turnbull says that brands are now political, and it was 'really no longer viable for marketers to ignore the political perspective of their target audiences'. It is not only an American phenomenon. Flora Joll, strategy director at creative agency JOAN London, says she has seen 'campaigns get diluted across the board' in part owing to 'increasing nervousness about attracting the wrong kind of public attention'. She adds: 'The woke wars in the UK are far behind where the US have been for a while, but it is starting to bite here and a [possible] recession would only have an exacerbating effect.' It adds up to an unusually complicated time for marketers as they congregated in the south of France for the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival this week. In a poll of global chief marketing officers by the World Federation of Advertisers published this week, more than four-fifths of respondents said the operating environment was now riskier for brands. A similar number said they were taking more time to 'agree what they stand for and how they articulate positions and values externally in their marketing communications'. PR agency executives say their big workload now is advising brands on how to react to Trump's unpredictable salvos on anything from DEI to tariffs. 'Most of the time they just want to say nothing,' says a senior PR executive. The nervousness means advertising is shying away from the role it has played for decades in expanding mainstream culture to include historically less-represented people, including those marginalised by their race, sexuality or disabilities. Often this was ahead of its time; in 1994, the year a gay couple appeared in a US TV commercial for the first time, more than a dozen US states still had laws that prohibited gay men from having consensual sex. The risk for an industry that still celebrates diversity in its own ranks is that the sort of free thinking that can underpin creativity will be unduly muted at a time when the traditional industry roles are under assault from the emergence of AI. 'There's been a shift towards the more reassuring, more run of the mill. That's what's going to happen until things settle. It's very, very uncertain,' says one agency boss. 'You're seeing a lot less purpose-led ideas around DEI – not because they don't exist but because clients are getting nervous. You don't want to be targeted.' To a certain extent, advertising has become the battleground for broader culture war conflicts in the corporate world. Shareholder activists, for example, are now using their clout to influence companies to reverse their positions on matters of diversity and inclusion, following the lead of the White House. The Alliance Defending Freedom – an organisation set up to protect Christian values – has backed shareholders who have filed more than 60 resolutions for the 2025 proxy season. It claims to have helped push a number of the world's largest advertisers into enshrining 'viewpoint neutrality' when it comes to their creative work. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and its shareholder partners most recently claimed victory after IBM moved to 'viewpoint neutrality' in its advertising policies last month, adding to a list that they say includes PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson . These companies did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement to the FT, the Alliance Defending Freedom said that IBM was the latest company to take steps to 'prevent future viewpoint-based discrimination', adding: 'No corporation should be involved in or allow for censorship at any level. We hope every company ... recommits to doing its part to protect freedom of speech and thought in our nation and throughout the world.' An antitrust lawsuit filed last year by X against Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a brand safety initiative backed by advertisers and ad agencies, as well as some companies, accused them of co-ordinating an 'illegal boycott' of the site. The initiative, which was part of the World Federation of Advertisers, has since shut down. The coalition of advertisers, including Nestlé and Shell , last month asked a federal judge in Texas to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that their decisions to suspend advertising on X were made independently and reflected concerns over the platform's content moderation practices. 'There is a genuine fear of reprisal, based on not just opinion, but actually some real fear of legal ramifications at some point down the line which people have to take seriously,' says a UK marketing head. 'Because they have a duty of care to ensure that they're not creating an illegal jeopardy by doing some of these things.' Musk – although now out of the White House – is still seen to have considerable sway over the direction taken by regulators in the US. The US Congress has held hearings looking at potential collusion among advertising firms, while the Federal Trade Commission is also looking at whether advertising and advocacy groups have colluded in working with brands to boycott platforms such as X. Turnbull says that brands now needed to consider the choice of marketing platform as a political act. 'Where you're advertising is as much of a statement now about what your brand is and what you stand for as it's ever been before. What message are you sending? Should you be on Joe Rogan or Michelle Obama's podcast?' The trend is also affecting M&A in the industry. In December, Jim Jordan, a Republican who chairs the House judiciary committee, wrote to Omnicom boss John Wren to say that they were looking at the takeover of rival Interpublic in relation to their work with Global Alliance for Responsible Media, adding that the proposed merger raises potential anticompetitive concerns. Even if there is yet to be any tangible impact from these threats, the combination of lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny has had a chilling effect on brands and DEI, ad bosses say. Richard Exon, co-founder of independent creative advertising agency Joint, says that commitment to DEI 'has recently become a politicised position' in the US. Larger businesses were facing the challenge of achieving broad appeal in a highly polarised media landscape, he adds. 'It's not surprising if these larger businesses proceed more cautiously on social justice issues.' Some marketers say they are being more closely monitored by their boards about delivery, with the focus now on effectiveness of campaigns that can yield tangible sales. Brands are often working with tightened budgets, says one UK advertising boss, meaning that 'anything unrelated to pure growth, including purpose, could be seen as a distraction and therefore harder to gain traction within a business'. But the move in the cultural landscape has also shifted marketing budgets, with organisers of Pride marches and other LGBT+ events saying that there has been a retreat from corporate sponsors this year in the US and the UK. In New York, a number of sponsors such as Mastercard did not renew their top-tier corporate sponsorships of Pride. Mastercard said that, this year, it was 'proudly participating in the NYC Pride March and related events with a strong employee-led presence and a community engagement programme'. [ A quarter of major US corporate backers pull out of Dublin Pride over Trump fears Opens in new window ] Polly Shute, founder of Out & Wild, the UK's largest LGBT+ festival and former board member of Pride in London, says that corporate sponsors have been less keen to back events. Plymouth and Liverpool have both pulled their Pride march events – the latter blaming 'significant financial and organisational challenges' at a time of rising costs. Shute says that, in 2017, Pride 'was turning brands away as they did not meet criteria' but 'it's very different now'. She notes that some brands and companies had stopped changing their logos to Pride colours on social media such as LinkedIn. In the UK, these include firms that have extensive operations in the US such as WPP, Linklaters and Freshfields. Linklaters said its 'commitment remains unchanged. We are proud to be celebrating Pride at Linklaters ... with events and activities taking place across our global offices'. Freshfields has used other Pride branding this year, including a Pride banner across its LinkedIn page. Shute says that demand for influencers to be used in external marketing, and for speakers for internal corporate events, has also been more muted this year. 'It used to be that the social media was really positive but now the reaction has scared off sponsorship as they don't want to be associated with the negativity.' However, dog treats company BarkBox showed there are dangers in shifting positions. Matt Meeker, the group's chief executive, was forced to apologise after a leaked Slack message suggested the company would pause paid advertising for its Pride kit, with the 'current climate' making such promotions 'feel like a political statement'. Target, the US retailer, has also been boycotted by some customers since February owing to its decision to scale back DEI initiatives. 'Target is another example recently where a changed policy has resulted in people voting with their wallets and from a purchase perspective,' says FCB's Turnbull. The People's Union USA, a grassroots consumer-led group, has organised 'economic blackouts' against other companies such as Amazon, Walmart and General Mills. [ Meta introduces advertising to WhatsApp in push for new revenues Opens in new window ] 'This blackout isn't symbolic. It's strategic. We are the economy. We are the machine they profit off of. And it's time to show them what happens when the machine stops,' it says. These shifting cultural sands – and the now ever present risk of alienating customers on any side of a political or societal divide – means that it is in brands' interest to play it safe, according to marketers. 'People are just leaning back, particularly our big clients,' says one ad boss. 'There's just less of a focus on purposeful, super-targeted work right now.' Some point to a focus on humour or universal themes as risk-free ways to get to the biggest audiences. The shift is particularly sensitive at the Cannes Lions festival, which for several years was seen by some as having moved potentially too far towards social issues in the sorts of advertising work it celebrated and rewarded. In Cannes, much of the talk was about how AI would replace a lot of the work carried out by creative teams, resulting in unoriginal and bland advertising campaigns, exacerbating the shift to safety-first approaches. But some are hopeful that the industry can withstand external pressures, finding new and clever ways to reach audiences irrespective of political allegiances. And they point out that Cannes Lions still has an award for work that addresses inequality and prejudice by representing and empowering marginalised communities. 'Purpose always has a place,' says Karen Martin, boss of BBH and president of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. 'Cannes may have become too purposeful for a while, but getting different creative voices in the room, and making sure you are addressing all audiences, will always be the centre of what we do.' – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
