Tracey Carey,  Managing Director

I’ve read a number of blog posts from agency heads recently announcing in rather a grandiose way that they have decided to develop new recruitment programmes to encourage greater diversity in their respective workplaces.

Personally I would feel highly insulted if I thought I was being hired because of my sex or the colour of my skin, and reading between the lines the fact that these bosses need to make such statements rather suggests they either aren’t getting it right or they haven’t really tried (after all, the proof is in the pudding). And some, I suspect, have decided to address the ‘issue’ as a tick box exercise to meet the requirements of RFIs rather than a genuine desire to change the status quo.

As it happens at Threepipe our talent is drawn from hugely diverse backgrounds, and having conducted a quick office poll out of 70 consultants we notch up 19 with native tongues from Finnish to Serbo-Croat, and Mandarin to Telugu, as well as the full spectrum of ‘more traditional’ European languages.

I need to stress however that these consultants weren’t hired for their language skills or ethnic origins; quite simply they were the best people for the job. And of course like everyone here they bring huge benefits: for our clients who have global business interests; a deeper understanding of the audiences we engage with through PR, social media and digital channels every day of the week; and a rich and diverse cultural mix that we all benefit from.

Right now we are reviewing our grad scheme in order to cast our net wider – some of our brightest talent has come through less traditional routes (and they aren’t always grads) – especially as we’ve found through trial and error that an Oxbridge degree doesn’t necessarily equate to common sense, emotional intelligence or a passion to succeed.

But one thing is for sure, we’ll continue to recruit the best and we don’t need a company programme to guide those decisions.