What you need to know:

• The Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA) has launched a new Diversity Council, which will benchmark and educate the industry’s diversity and inclusion progress.
• The council will create resources and training programs, while surveying members on diversity and salary changes.
• The Media Store COO Jacquie Alley will be the council’s first Chair.

The Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA) will carry out regular anonymous surveys to measure and benchmark diversity and salaries in the indie agency sector, as part of a new Diversity Council announced today.

The IMAA Diversity Council will be a 11-member panel, chaired by The Media Store Chief Operating Officer Jacquie Alley, that will aim to provide resources, education and training for indie media agencies – while also measuring progress. Members have been selected on an initial, two-year term, after which it’s expected members will change annually.

The Council will survey members of the IMAA, a national, not-for-profit industry association for indie agencies, to benchmark where they are from a D&I perspective. There are 120 agency members now.

“It’s a difficult space, diversity and inclusion. Smaller businesses find it hard to navigate – let alone put a spotlight on it to celebrate culture and diversity,” IMAA’s Sam Buchanan said.

“The more diverse we are, the stronger and more powerful a sector we can be.”

There won’t be a public ranking of indie agencies, with the survey instead representing a temperature check. “We’re not going to be the police," said Buchanan, "we want to educate, guide and help".

The council will have four pillars: cultural diversity, age, gender, LGBTQI+ and ability and accessibility. Through industry surveys, Buchanan said the organisation will aim to improve employee satisfaction regardless of age, cultural background, sexual orientation, gender, or disability.

"Our mission is to demonstrate the value of embracing a diverse and inclusive workplace with the goal of taking D&I from niche to normal within IMAA agencies," Alley said in a statement.

The IMAA has also become a member of the Diversity Council of Australia.

After the Council is set up, the IMAA will launch a Reconciliation Action Plan through Reconciliation Australia.

The first members of the Diversity Council are:

• [Chair] The Media Store’s Jacquie Alley
• The Media Store’s Aliya Hasan
• Half Dome’s Tom Curtain
• Affinity’s Angela Smith
• Impetus’s Janet Boey
• Kaimera’s Stewart Gurney
• MediaSmith’s Angela Smith
• In Marketing We Trust’s Selina Gough
• Customedia’s Jacqui Ollevou
• IMAA Business Manager Bec Coulson
• IMAA General Manager Sam Buchanan.