Dimensions of difference

Laying the foundation and forming strategies to achieve health equity

When I joined Ketchum, one of the things I was most excited about was joining a team that puts doing work that matters front and centre of its business strategy, while also placing diversity, equity and inclusivity (DE&I) as the number one priority.

Doing work that matters is what drives many of us who work in health every day. It’s brave I think for a commercial company to wear its heart so clearly on its sleeve.
You can only really do work that matters if you believe that people matter first. So being part of our Diversity and Inclusion Council and leading on our mental health strategy were both important to me.

I’d already unintentionally tested our approach to supporting families when I had to breastfeed my daughter through two of my interviews. Not exactly how I’d planned to meet my new boss, but a reality of hybrid working for many of us.

Ensuring DE&I is embedded throughout our culture, values and work is an ongoing priority for our team at Ketchum. It’s something we think about, talk about and work on every day.

As we continue to increase our own focus on DE&I and supporting our people – who work often in many different geographies with different lived experiences – we’re seeing our clients do the same. We’re helping brands and businesses understand how they connect with the communities they serve, so that they can create communications that make a difference.

In the last few weeks, I’ve had discussions with people about the importance of DE&I communications and the key to talking about their work in health equity. This includes how they can make a real difference to people living with infertility and how we can ensure our approach to media communications truly reflects the communities they are supporting.

More broadly our team at Ketchum has been discussing looking at how we can support our clients as they tackle global health equity issues, such as the lack of diversity in clinical trials, which became more apparent during the recent COVID-19 crisis.

Recent research from Omnicom Public Relations Group found that most healthcare workers believe pharmaceutical companies should play a central role in solving the widespread gaps in care impacting at-risk populations globally. As the research showed, however, to do this it will take more than business alone to close the healthcare gaps.

It takes effort, empathy and understanding to be part of the solution. The heart of this work is truly listening and hearing communities globally, understanding lived experiences and elevating voices and knowledge from communities that lay the foundation for innovative business strategies to achieve steps to health equity.
This year, I truly believe we’ll see even more private and public partnerships, co-creativity and data – all combining to reduce health inequities.

Katy Davidson is Managing Director, Health at Ketchum UK.
Go to ketchum.com