Zenith shines spotlight on the need to #BalanceForBetter on International Women’s Day

Zenith yesterday welcomed International Women’s Day ahead of the official day (March 8), with an inspiring event featuring leaders from Australia’s media and marketing industry.

The agency’s staff, clients and media partners came together in Sydney to celebrate this year’s global theme #BalanceForBetter, with Zenith CEO Nickie Scriven presenting a lively panel discussion featuring speakers Luxottica’s VP marketing, Milena Cavicchioli; Nine’s chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson; and SBS’s director of marketing, Jane Palfreyman.

Key issues discussed included the challenges of gender balance in the media and marketing sectors, how to change workplace cultures and people’s mindsets, and addressing diversity and female stereotypes in advertising and the media.

Says Scriven: “The theme #BalanceforBetter is about exploring how we can build a gender-balanced world – at leadership levels, in our workplaces and society in general.

“At Zenith Australia, 63 per cent of our national executive leadership team are women, and we have over 14 nationalities represented within our national workforce. We take a progressive approach in how we ensure there is equity, diversity and overall respect for our co-workers, contractors, job candidates, clients and associates, as well as visitors to our workplaces.”

Last year, Zenith’s parent company, Publicis Groupe, launched the VivaWomen! program in Australia, to support and enable the 1,000+ women within the Groupe to thrive within the businesses through programs that encourages both personal and career development.

Other Australian initiatives promoting diversity in the Groupe’s workforce includes participating in an annual gender report, the planned introduction of unconscious bias training at induction, and maternity and paternity leave policies.