At Hope&Glory, we’ve always been open about our diversity data. We’ve shared the numbers annually on our website because we believe that transparency matters. That said, we also know that the numbers can only tell you so much. It can show you who makes up our agency, but it can’t quite capture what it feels like to work here. This report is our first attempt at a much fuller picture.
Our view on inclusivity is pretty simple: it’s about the big moves and the small moments.
We believe in taking significant, business-wide actions that we hope will move the needle. Actions that are designed to support and champion specific communities, but also make us a better business across the board. A more inclusive environment isn’t just “better” for some, it should be more creative, more energetic, and more effective for everyone.
At the same time, we know that a sense of belonging isn’t just created by a grand gesture or a polished policy. It’s a "sum of its parts" experience. It’s built on the ground through the tiny details and the everyday habits that make someone feel like they can truly show up as themselves. We make no apologies for the detail in this report. While we are committed to systemic, businesswide changes, we know that "belonging" is often felt in the small moments the everyday actions and policies that, when added up, create the Hope&Glory culture.
Because of that, you’ll find that we’ve gone into a fair amount of detail in the pages that follow. I hope you’ll forgive us for getting into the weeds a bit, but we’re doing it because we believe those details are where the real culture lives. We wanted to be thorough because, to us, every small step counts toward the bigger goal.
This report isn’t us saying we’ve crossed the finish line— far from it. It’s a way for us to check our progress, stay accountable, and be clear about where we’re heading. It’s our way of saying "this is where we are, and this is where we intend to go.“
Thank you for reading.
Jo Carr, Co-founder and Chief Client Officer
Introduction
In 2024 we set out a new three-year Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) strategy.
This report (inspired by others in the industry who have paved the way, and with particular thanks to VCCP Roar – formerly Harvard – whose structure we have appropriated and adapted) is our way of holding ourselves accountable and being transparent with our team and clients about our progress.
DE&I has always been a core part of the Hope&Glory culture – we were the first agency to publish our parental leave policies on our website back in 2016, and since then we have sought to become an agency where everyone feels included. We remain committed to continual improvement and to measuring our progress.
We address DE&I through the lens of 7 pillars –Disability and Neurodivergence; Gender; LGBTQIA+; Mental Health; Parenting; Race and Ethnicity; Socioeconomic factors – while at the same time we seek to acknowledge intersectionality and the impact if can have on an individual’s lived experience.
As a way of holding ourselves to account on these areas, we intend to write a full report every two years and to update it with a briefer summary of core statistics and focus areas in between. This is so that we allow time for meaningful change to bed in (rather than creating performative annual updates or feeling a pressure to create initiatives simply to fill the pages of a report, which is otherwise a risk).
The Numbers
While reporting the numbers is only part of the challenge – we believe as much in inclusion as we do representation – it is important that we hold ourselves accountable as an employer that is representative of the population and of the city we are proud to call home.
N.B. While we track intersectional data and data regarding specific groups (for example members of the team who identify as of Black African or Black Caribbean or Asian heritage), our team size sometimes means these data sets are too small to report on publicly without risk of identifying individuals. However, we do use these insights internally to shape our policy changes.
Representation across our team
20% Representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic talent across the team as a whole is 20% at the end of 2025. The industry average is 14%.*
18% Representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic talent in client-facing roles is 18%.
71% Across the agency as a whole (all roles), we are 71% female. The industry average is 67%.**
11% Across the agency as a whole (all roles) 11% self-identify as LGBTQIA+
16% Across the agency as a whole (all roles) 16% have disclosed a disability
12% of our board is of Black, Asian and minority ethnic heritage (relative to 8% industry-wide*), 56% are female (relative to 54% industry-wide**), 12% identify as LGBTQIA+, and 25% have disclosed a disability.
We have submitted our Gender Pay Gap and Ethnicity Pay Gap Data to PRWeek’s Pay Gap Project, run in conjunction with People Like Us. We know that we have work to do in addressing the gaps for both groups.
We know statistically that we have parity across the whole of the business – people doing the same role are paid the same regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or disability.
Relative to the average salary in the agency we have an 8% Gender Pay Gap which is an issue we seek continually to address (as at August 2025). This is relative to 3% industry-wide.*
There is an under-representation of senior women in the business relative to those at more junior levels. We have continued to put in place policies to support women to rise to the very top levels of our business.
Relative to the average salary in the agency we have a 18% Ethnic Pay Gap (as at August 2025). This is the same as the industry-wide average.* We need to continue to take steps to address this as it remains a focus for the business.
We are committed to ensuring that people from a wider range of ethnic backgrounds and heritage stay with the business and rise through it and have put a number of policies and support in place to address this.
Retention
While we are committed to using recruitment to increase the diversity of our team, we are even more committed to ensuring that people stay with us.
As our Ethnic Pay Gap data shows, we need to ensure that people from across different underrepresented groups (as well as women) are promoted to the top tiers of our business. Furthermore, because we prefer to promote from within rather than hire-in senior talent, the need to see people rise through the business is all-the-more pressing.
23% During our 2025/26 financial year, 23% of people left the agency. This was unusually high relative to previous years (that said, it was in-line with industry data which suggests a 20% churn is the norm in agencies). Based on our data the average tenure across the team is 5.5 years across the full staff.
78% of client-facing team leavers were women (slightly higher than representation across the agency) and 22% of client-facing team leavers were men
17% of client-facing team leavers were of Black, Asian and minority ethnic heritage (a slightly lower proportion relative to representation across the agency)
6% of client-facing team leavers identified themselves as having a mental or physical disability and 6% of client-facing team leavers identified themselves as members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Of all those that left us during the course of the year, five went to other agencies (28%), six moved into other industries (33%), one moved in-house (6%), one went freelance (6%) and five left to travel or to live overseas (28%).
Team Survey Results
There is always more that we can do and we will continue to measure our performance and progress over time. But we are proud that our team feel they would recommend us, they feel a sense of belonging and that they feel comfortable being themselves in the environment that we have created.
86% of our team score 8, 9 or 10 to the extent they would recommend Hope&Glory as an employer
82% say they feel a “strong sense of belonging” at Hope&Glory
93% of team members feel comfortable being their authentic selves at work
CrossPillar Activity
While we address specific axes of diversity and inclusion pillar-by-pillar, we also seek to introduce policy and practice that will benefit the team as a whole - regardless of their background or lived experience. We have undertaken a number of key initiatives this year and will continue to assess their contribution to achieving our wider goals.
Allyship training
A critical component to creating an inclusive culture is ensuring we embed active allyship across the agency. To help the team understand what being an ally entails, and the supportive behaviours we expect to see at Hope&Glory, we put the entire team through allyship training in 2025. The training was run by DEI consultant Antoinette Willcocks, founder of River Road.
Introducing and expanding TIGs
In 2024 we introduced three Team Impact Groups (or TIGs) made up of people who share a common interest in a specific area of our DE&I work.
We did so to bring together communities within the team to tackle the issues as they perceive them, to educate the team and to advocate within the agency. Following the success of the Race & Religion TIG, Parenting TIG and LGBTQIA+ TIG we introduced two more TIGs this year – the Gender TIG and the Neurodiversity TIG.
There are now 29 members of TIGs across the agency (c. 35% of the team), made up of those who identify as members of a specific community and those who are allies. They have become a driving force within the business for education and advocacy – with the Parenting TIG advocating for changes to our Paternity policies this year for example.
Beyond Your Bubble
Our Beyond Your Bubble speaker programme continued this year with another 6 paid speakers invited into the agency to address the team.
Over the course of 2025 we heard the experiences and perspectives of Charlotte Mia who is co-author of How Not To Fit In and spoke about her experiences of navigating autism and ADHD in the workplace. We hosted Michael Mitchell and Dotun Ogunbayo, founders of purpose-driven social enterprise Beyond Your Hood who talked about their work empowering disadvantaged young talent to think beyond their circumstances. And we heard Katy Schnitzler from MIST Workshops who drew on her academic background to sensitively address the topic of childlessness at work.
They were as ever enlightening and thoughtprovoking in equal measure.
Alongside, the TIGs combined to arrange outings for the team to better understand the world beyond their own sphere of experience and these included trips to the Queer Britain Museum, Gay’s the Word and Housman Books and a group went to the Jennie Baptiste Rhythm & Roots exhibition during Black History Month.
Equality of Opportunities
We want to create opportunities for everyone to do the kinds of work that will give them greatest satisfaction.
We have instituted regular reviews across the team to increase the equality of opportunity to work on high-profile, potentially award-winning clients and campaigns.
In the last 12 months we have regularly reviewed accounts so each team member has a balance between “press office” and day-to-day activity and brand campaigns across the business.
We have sought to “play to strengths,” for example finding greater opportunity to work on projectbased clients and pitches for those who find repetitive tasks a challenge.
At the same time we have sought to accommodate individuals’ career aspirations for example moving one team member from the core PR team into a specialist influencer relations role and enabling two members of the team to transition into creative roles
Progress and Skills Mapping
The senior team have created two initiatives that we believe will ensure that everyone in the team is supported to progress within the agency.
We have put in place Progress Mapping, assessing the length of time that team members have been at a specific level within the agency so we can better understand where someone may be falling behind or overlooked.
This, combined with Skills Mapping, where each team member’s Personal Manager assesses their capabilities against the full range of core skills to identify areas where they may need additional support and to understand why people may be held back in their development.
These combined have enabled us to have open conversations with team members about their career aspirations, to change their portfolios or to change their roles within the business. It has also led to development plans and training for those we identify need additional skills support so they continue to progress within the business.
Inclusive campaigns training
Alongside making our recruitment, on-boarding and personal development processes more inclusive and equitable, we have rolled-out training across the senior team to ensure that we are being inclusive in our work for clients.
This includes guidance on the core elements for embedding inclusivity into all the work that goes out the agency doors, including how to ensure it is representative, authentic and accessible. This guidance is being used to create an Inclusive Campaigns Checklist, co-created by the senior client leads team and with consultation from People Like Us.
As part of this initiative, we have also sought to celebrate work within the agency and the wider industry that is inclusive - for example that work included in newsletters and publications is representative and that we are learning from the widest range of organisations.
Bringing in new talent
Recruitment
We have sought to refine and improve our recruitment processes over the last five years. This year we reviewed our processes following a 12 month period when we didn’t recruit beyond intern additions.
We have continued our commitment to sharing salary information publicly, to share clear job descriptions, to maintain “minimum criteria” for roles with a commitment that we will interview all candidates that meet these.
Working with People Like Us in 2025 we introduced recruitment “scorecards” and a more structured and objective approach to the interview process. We seek to remove unconscious bias from the process and ensure that we are assessing candidates fairly.
Onboarding
We conducted a thorough overhaul of our onboarding process, to ensure we are showing up in the right way for new joiners to the agency, and making their introduction to the agency as supportive and welcoming as possible. This encompasses everything from assigning a “buddy” for new joiners to be a friendly face (and someone to ask the niggling questions that might feel small, but have a big impact), to arranging a welcome lunch with their peer group on day one.
We also have a long-running initiative called “Book of Me”, which is completed by everyone in the agency, sharing their work style, communication preferences and how colleagues can help them do their best work. This compendium is designed to foster greater understanding and create a more inclusive and supportive workplace, and is reshared with the whole agency every time someone new joins.
Work experience
We are aware that many work experience opportunities go to “friends and family” and that this form of nepotism is rife across the industry.
From summer 2026 we will work with the Taylor Bennett Foundation Summer Stars programme to host a four-week summer placement from within their cohort. Our intention is that the application process for this will be as transparent as our other recruitment practices. This will be paid.
We will offer two additional work experience opportunities of two weeks each. These will be paid. The intention is that the opportunities will be openly and widely promoted across our own and partners’ channels to attract as wide a range of candidates as possible.
We will have a more inclusive approach to application – requesting short video submissions rather than CVs or written tests. For those joining us we will have a structured programme that means they will leave with clear skills and experience of the industry.
Addressing intersectionality
We track intersectional data across the business. However, our team size sometimes means these data sets are too small to report on in ways that are statistically meaningful.
We understand that a neurodivergent parent may require different support structures than a neurotypical one. We appreciate that people of colour who identify as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community will have had a different lived experience to those who are white.
This year, we have moved toward a more nuanced understanding of these overlaps.
Our Skills Mapping initiative seeks to identify if specific intersections of identity are disproportionately affecting career progression. We will continue and deepen this approach in the year to come. Meanwhile, our Gender and LGBTQIA+ TIGs collaborated to educate the agency on nonbinary identities, for example.
At the same time we take an individual approach to inclusivity across the business and this is particularly the case for those who experience intersectionality. These are some things two members of the team had to say about their experience.
I tick many of the boxes that are on paper a disadvantage. At Hope&Glory I have never felt that to be the case.
I lead the creative team as Board Creative Director, a role I worked towards as previously one of the few women in the industry. It’s a role that works well for a neurodivergent person: I’m able to work at my own pace and double-down on projects and clients I find interesting while the things I struggle with (admin, time blindness) are worked around with kindness. I also solo-parent a disabled child, which requires a lot of trust from my employers that I am committed and will get the job done – even if I have weeks with appointments to work around and need child-care flexibility.
On paper, the “boxes” do not make me the most employable person … but the reality is different. Hope&Glory has helped me develop my strengths and work around the things that might have held me back. It’s a supportive environment and as a result they get a loyal and hardworking employee.
Amy Jones, Board Creative Director
Intersectionality often feels like standing at a crossroads of different systemic barriers. My experience at Hope&Glory has been defined by the fact that I don’t have to leave my neurodivergence or my background at the door to be heard. As a neurodivergent, mixed-race woman from a lower socioeconomic background, my lived experience provides a multi-layered perspective that informs everything I do.
I’ve found a rare level of psychological safety where I don’t feel the need to “pick a lane” or prioritise one part of my identity over the other here. There is an effort to recognise that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to inclusion doesn't work, and that flexibility is key to ensuring people from all walks of life can thrive here. The agency’s approach feels less like “performing” inclusion and more like an open dialogue where the layers of our backgrounds are viewed as an asset.
Sabrina Coogan, Senior Account Director
The Belong Pillars
While we strive to ensure that our DE&I work supports the whole team – because an inclusive workplace is a better workplace for everyone – we have also undertaken a number of initiatives focused on specific communities within the agency.
There are different needs for each of these groups and so the work undertaken is as diverse as the groups represented. However, there are a number of things we’ve done that we hope will have impact which we have detailed here.
Disability & Neurodivergence
In 2025
Supporting our team
Since 2023 we have offered funded Neurodiversity screening through Do It Profiles. While not a diagnosis, we use the results of these tests to offer support and reasonable adjustments (supported with bridging interviews with Neurodiversity Specialists) to those who feel they want to explore whether they are neurodivergent. In 2025 two people undertook these screens.
Neurosparkly TIG
We established a Neurodiversity Team Impact Group. It has already been responsible for hosting speakers, reiterating our practical support for neurodivergent team members (so they don’t have to answer the question “how can we help?”).
Training
As part of our training programme we have undertaken a new disability training course which will over time be rolled out to the whole agency. We are committed to having a team that understands the challenges this community faces, and we can be supporters and allies.
What’s next?
We will undertake regular account reviews so that those who are neurodivergent are being offered opportunities where their strengths can be utilised.
We’re firm believers in the idea that neurodivergent people can contribute hugely to our business, but we are also aware that will only ever be the case if the right conditions are created for them to be able to do so.
We are also planning a Neurodivergence Networking group enabling people from across the industry to meet others who experience a wide range of neurodiversity. We’re aware that Hope&Glory is relatively unique in its approach so we hope we can create a wider platform.
Gender
In 2025
Gender TIG
We created our Gender TIG, a group of individuals who seek to reframe and celebrate what it means to exist across the full spectrum of gender. One of their first initiatives was a period product donation drive, encouraging colleagues to donate products to those experiencing period poverty - matching this with an agency donation to local non-profit, The Hygiene Bank.
WIPR
We have continued our work with Women in PR and Jo – our founder and CCO – has undertaken her final year as its president. We have supported the organisation financially and through sponsorship and have driven a variety of its initiatives over the last twelve months. Rayo Yusuf was selected as part of the 2025 Shadow Board, a programme for emerging talent.
Keep Working for Change
Over the last two years, we have backed both Stop Working for Change and now Keep Working for Change. We teamed up with Canela in Spain to mark International Women’s Day. We close our offices for half a day to highlight the gender and ethnic pay gaps in the UK and around the world. We use this time to support feminist causes and learn together. We plan to support this initiative again in 2026
Break the Silence
We encouraged our team to participate in a grassroots research project led by the Break the Silence collective. The findings were revealed at an event in June 2025, with Jo Carr on the panel giving a perspective on what agencies need to do to retain senior female talent.
What’s next?
We will continue to support Women in PR across 2026 via our corporate membership. We are participating again in the 2026 Keep Working for Change campaign that runs in March with agencywide education and awareness raising. Our founder Jo will continue to use her platform to speak out on issues such as the menopause and ageism.
In the year ahead, we will also be focusing on educating ourselves on the spectrum of gender identity and building awareness of the importance of inclusive language and practices. This might take the form of hosting a trans activist to educate allies and empower them to drive change in and beyond the workplace, or inviting an expert in exploring issues of masculinity, gender, and identity to educate us on the dangers of toxic masculinity.
LGBTQIA+
In 2025
Supporting queer-owned business
We have incorporated products from Proud Drinks, LuvJus and Queer Brewing into our Thursday Bar line-up, ensuring that we are spending agency money on businesses that are making a difference in the community.
Education
The LGBTQIA+ TIG has supported cultural education efforts across the business taking the opportunity to mark awareness days to create greater knowledge around Pride Month, Bisexual Awareness Week and International Non-Binary People’s Day (in collaboration with the Gender TIG). The team also organised a trip to Gays the Word and Housman Books.
Inclusive campaigns
We have a (roughly) quarterly magazine which celebrates our favourite work from the creative industries and beyond and the TIG has contributed with LGBTQIA+-relevant campaigns to ensure we’re spotlighting work made by and for the community.
What’s next?
We are planning to step-up our education and awareness work in the form of a partnership scoped with Queerbox Training. As they put it … “if you are not an active part of the community yourself then it can be challenging to understand where prejudice is still a part of your business practices and culture”.
Alongside this formal training, the LGBTQIA+ TIG has plans for a group visit to the Queer Britain exhibition during LGBTQIA+ History Month and we will invite Queer Muslim Project to address the wider team about their work and experiences.
Mental Health
In 2025
Mental Health First Aiders
This year saw us (re)train our Mental Health First Aiders (team members dedicated to being the first port-of-call for those experiencing challenges in their mental health). A core team of seven are now certified by the Association of Mental Health First Aiders, having been trained to listen, offer guidance, and help signpost the proper support to those in need.
EAP
At a time when colleagues tell us support with their mental health is more important than ever, we’ve doubled down on providing support within our team, investing in external resources such as our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
State of Us
We are proud to be part of State of Us, a network of communications professionals working together to tackle mental health across the industry. We contributed to the State of Us 2025 industry survey, which found that 64% had experienced extreme stress or burnout in the past year, up from 51% in 2022. We have used the research insights to refine our approach, focusing on prevention rather than reactive initiatives and training to further build psychological safety. This includes setting clear workload and communication boundaries both internally and with clients, as well as reducing unnecessary urgency to protect work-life balance.
What’s next?
Our 2026 strategy represents a decisive deepening of our prevention-first philosophy. We will continue to move mental health support upstream by improving the day-to-day conditions people work within, not only providing support once someone is already struggling. We will be prioritising four areas: sustainable workloads and capacity management; clearer boundaries on pace and always-on communication; manager capability and consistent support; and wellbeing resources and support.
Parenting
In 2025
Parental Leave
Our most significant shift this year has been to change our paternity policy (which also applies to non-birth parents). We now allow six weeks for nonbirth parents (taken in two tranches) paid at 100% of salary. Research shows that enhanced leave for fathers boosts maternal employment, reduces gender pay gaps, improves mental health, enhances family bonds and supports child development.
Growth Spurt
To support returning parents we have joined Growth Spurt. It’s a community and resource for those who are pregnant, on parental leave or who have recently returned to work. For both parents it provides access to a host of coaching sessions and live workshops, as well as events and peer-to-peer support with others going through similar experiences – all designed to support growth, wellbeing, and confidence at work at every stage of any parenting journey.
Understanding Childless and Childfree people
Based on feedback from our own team the Parenting TIG organised a session by Katy Schnitzler from MIST Workshops to talk about Childless (mainly people unable to have children) and Childfree (people who choose not to have children) people. It was an enlightening session and caused us to reflect on some of our behaviours and language across the business.
DadStrike
We took part in the DadStrike 2025 to show solidarity with Dad Shift to call for better paternity leave policies in the UK.
What’s next?
The Parenting TIG will have a focus this year on supporting parents who have children with specific needs so that we can better understand their experiences and the ways in which we can support. We will also – following the work in 2025 –continue to look at our policies and practices for our Childless and Childfree community.
Race & Ethnicity
In 2025
The Pros Collective
We have been Blueprinted since 2021 and currently hold Ally status. For the fourth year, we supported The Xec leadership scheme, delivering a day-long workshop to the cohort to demystify business and campaign strategy. We also continue to support the Make Comms Great Again conference and The Pros Awards, sponsoring the event and taking our team to celebrate BME talent and campaign success.
People Like Us
In 2025 we became one of the sponsors of People Like Us and have supported their work during the course of the year. Significantly, we worked closely with them to review our recruitment approach, introducing new ways to be as objective as possible in our approach.
Black Comms Network
We have strengthened our partnership with the Black Comms Network this year, attending key events like their research launch and supporting their inaugural awards. To further invest in our people, we provide free memberships to our Black team members, giving them direct access to mentoring and networking opportunities.
Race & Religion TIG
As one of our longest-standing TIGs, the Race & Religion TIG was highly active this year arranging awareness, education and social moments around events including Passover, Vesak Night, the Dragon Boat Festival, Notting Hill Carnival, Rosh Hashanah and Diwali. These have enabled team members to share aspects of their cultures with the wider team and share their personal experiences, we hope ensuing that everyone feels more included within our culture.
What’s next?
Our principle next step will be to work with Taylor Bennett Foundation in a more meaningful way in 2026, incorporating their Summer Stars programme into our work experience offer. While we have strong representation in our internship programme, we are keen to ensure we are giving more young people an opportunity to experience PR.
Social Mobility
In 2025
Common People “Common Break” Fund
We led a consortium of agencies contributing to Common People’s urgently-needed funding. The organisation offers small-scale funding to those from lower socio-economic groups where required to either get into or remain in the creative industries.
Interns for All Principles
The PRCA previously ran an “Internships for All” scheme. While the scheme itself is no longer in place, Hope&Glory has continued to follow the same principles. We offer a nine-month internship programme, pay London Living Wage, cover settling-in costs, and recruit interns from a wide range of backgrounds and universities. This approach has helped ensure internships are genuinely accessible and has resulted in a diverse group of early-career talent joining the business.
STEP Programme
We have taken part in the STEP Programme for the last five years offering roles to young people from South East London who would perhaps not otherwise have considered a career in public relations. Our work continued in 2025 and we intend that it will continue into 2026.
What’s next?
Annual reports are a moment for reflection as well as reporting. We have done much to address social mobility across the business – from paying London Living Wage to paying for internships and work experience. We have a settling-in fund for new joiners, we offer hardship loans where required. We have done much to level the recruitment playing field and to address unconscious bias. We also have mentoring and a robust Personal Manager system. However, what writing this report has demonstrated is that we have not addressed social mobility headon as a territory and, while we hope that everyone would say Hope&Glory is an inclusive employer, it’s a topic that we will address more closely and specifically in the year to come.
