Many and One 2023

Diversity and belonging data

Welcome to our second Many and One report.

With this report we continue our commitment to transparency. This time around, we present even more data on the evolving landscape of diversity and inclusion at Manyone.

We delve deeper into the progress we have made, identify areas where improvement is needed, and outline the changes we commit to implementing.

This year, we also share data and insights on the gender pay gap at Manyone.

As we write in our DE&I principles, we know that to build a better tomorrow, we can’t be afraid to confront our weaknesses today. This report does precisely that.

If you want to compare our progress from last year, check out the first Many and One report.

Generations

We may be getting older, but we're still fresh as ever. Our teams are home to many generations, but the vast majority are Millenials.

The average age at Manyone is 38 years. In other words, most Manyones spent their teenage years with Britney, Outkast and Eminem on high-rotation on their mp3 players.

Internationality

We are a global company with Nordic roots. But how global are we anyway?

We started in Denmark four years ago, and we are now 38 nationalities representing six continents.

Danish citizens still comprise the largest group of employees, but today, most Manyones are non-Danish.

We speak 30 languages, but our company-wide language is English.

What's next?

Our Nordic roots are part of who we are as a company, but as we grow, we aim to be 'global first' and internationally diverse.

• We are currently focused on streamlining our remote hiring process to facilitate recruitment in countries where we do not have a physical presence

• We will continue to expand our brand to attract talent outside of Nordic countries

Gender representation

Almost as many women as men work at Manyone. Unfortunately, we are (still) heavily skewed towards men in Director, Partner, and other leadership positions.

The reason is the same as last year: Two out of three of the teams we have acquired have had an all-male or male-majority ownership. This translates into many male Partners at Manyone today.

Manyone's Board of Directors mainly consists of our major shareholders, which are all men.

What's next?

Manyone's gender representation on director level and up reflects the situation in most of the creative consultancy industry. This is not an excuse, but something we need to address.

We commit to the following actions:

• We will seek external counsel to learn what actions other companies faced by similar issues of gender representation have taken and how we might fast track change

• We will continue our work towards more equal gender representation on Director level and up – in the way we hire and promote

Pay transparency

This year, we are sharing information on our mean hourly pay* across employee levels and genders. This allows us to calculate the gender pay gap, which shows the difference between women's and men’s average pay at Manyone. It is a first, important step towards more pay transparency at Manyone.

We know that not everyone identifies as gender binary, but for now, we are using the most commonly used way of calculating and reporting the data, which is binary.

In this section, we are specifically focused on the pay gap and not the topic of equal pay, i.e. whether women and men at Manyone earn equal pay for the same – or similar – work. However, our current data does not reveal systemic discrimination in pay due to gender.

* Mean hourly pay = total earnings / total number of hours worked.

What's next?

The pay gap needs to be closed by bringing more women into more senior positions, mainly at the leadership level, and by continuing to ensure that women are fairly compensated at all levels.

• We will create a clearer career progression framework to ensure that gender does not play a role in promotions

• We will identify and fix potential pitfalls in our current performance and salary reviews from a gender bias perspective

Culture communities

The Culture Communities of Manyone are employee-led interest groups that foster diversity and inclusion within our organisation. Our first Culture Community, Pride at Manyone, was launched in 2022. In 2023, we launched our second community: Women at Manyone.

What's next?

We are continuously working on our efforts towards better representation through all-year initiatives and communication.

• Next year, we will strengthen our DE&I efforts by running internal events to educate, raise awareness, and continue building a safe space for LGBTQIA+ employees

• We will widen our impact in local communities, including hiring efforts, by running externally facing events that include the local LGBTQIA+ communities, serving as an educational and inspirational platform for all allies

• We will launch a female mentorship programme with the purpose of providing professional and personal sparring, ensuring representation by having female role models and support with challenges unique to women

Culture assessment

Every year, we do a culture assessment to make sure we are growing gracefully. We use it as a voice for all employees and to find blind spots and areas to improve. Culture is everyone's responsibility at Manyone.

Here are some of the results from the latest survey in September 2023:

What's next?

We still have work to do regarding gender- and age-related bias.

It might be that the overrepresentation of men at leadership levels leads to a lot of gender bias observed or experienced. If so, it's part of a larger issue, and we need to approach it as such.

• We will continue to track bias through our annual Culture Assessment with an extra focus on gender and age-related bias

• With the new Culture Community, Women at Manyone, we aim to learn more about the observed or experienced gender bias and work together to change this

A brief overview of Diversity and Belonging initiatives at Manyone since going live:

• We anonymise unsolicited applications and provide guidelines to prevent unconscious bias in our recruitment processes

• We launch a dedicated postbox to guide LGBTQIA+ applicants through the application process

• Revised parental leave guidelines (initially only in Denmark) to ensure gender-neutral policies that support all parents in their personal and professional lives

• We hold our first Pride event and joined a cross-industry LGBTQIA+ network

• We reach a 26% female representation (the aim was 25%) at the Global Managing Partner level

• We start a Culture Community for women

• We track and publish data on our gender pay gap

• We launch a neurodiversity design toolkit

• The % of female Partners increase from 26% to 36%

• The first woman on the Board of Directors and in the Global Management team

• Leadership training with a psychological safety focus

• The Pride at Manyone culture community launches

• We publish the first edition of our diversity and belonging data

• We conduct yet another culture assessment. This time increasing focus on bias involving gender, race, and more

• Manyone reaches 200 employees with new locations in Israel, Norway, the US and Brazil

• We conduct our first culture assessment, Manyone's company-wide, culture-focused well-being survey

• We launch The Manyone Way, including our diversity and inclusion principles

• Despite COVID-19, lock-downs and turbulent times, Manyone crosses the 100-person mark with new teams in Germany and the UK

• We collaborate with Emma Holten, Danish feminist activist, and gender policy consultant, on developing our diversity and inclusion principles and safe reporting processes

• Manyone launches in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the first three companies onboard. Welcome to the strategy-design hybrid

• We take the first steps toward global expansion with pop-up studios in Helsinki and Rotterdam and a partnership with Boris Design in Hong Kong and Stockholm