The Asian Communications Community (ACN) is celebrating its first anniversary with the announcement of a brand new company partnership with Lloyds Banking Group to assist sort out the persistent lack of ethnic variety at senior ranges throughout monetary companies communications.
Lloyds Banking Group has recognized two key priorities for the collaboration: constructing a extra inclusive recruitment pipeline that draws senior-level expertise from a variety of backgrounds and enhancing inclusive management throughout its Company Affairs operate.
Shaped in 2024 by Advita Patel, Farzana Baduel, and Shayoni Lynn, ACN has shortly grown right into a trusted voice for change, with a neighborhood of almost 500 throughout communications, media, and advertising and marketing sectors within the UK.
“Partnerships like this transfer us from dialog to transformation,” mentioned Shayoni Lynn, Chair of the ACN Advisory Board. “Management in monetary companies and communications has lengthy lacked variety of voice, expertise, and perspective. Collectively, we’re dedicated to altering that – creating area, alternative, and visibility for expertise that has too usually been neglected.”
The dimensions of the variety problem in our sector is simple. In England and Wales, 87% of PR practitioners are White and solely 5% are Asian (CIPR PR Inhabitants Report, 2024).
The ethnicity pay hole in UK PR stands at 25.6%, with solely 14% of senior in-house roles and 9% in businesses held by non-White professionals (PRCA, 2024). At board degree, solely 6% of FTSE 100 Chairs come from these backgrounds (Honest Play Talks, 2025).
“With out intentional motion, the variety hole will persist and nothing will change, and that merely can not occur. That is why partnerships like this are so important,” mentioned co-founder Advita Patel.
By this 12-month partnership, Asian staff at Lloyds Banking Group will grow to be a part of ACN’s Founding Circle and could have entry to a variety of occasions and workshops held inside the enterprise, and throughout the broader business. The management workforce at Lloyds Banking Group will work carefully with ACN co-founders to make sure they’re reflecting related insights and lived experiences from the Asian Group into their inside and exterior methods as they embark on a big transformation programme throughout the enterprise.
“We’re dedicated to constructing a extra inclusive tradition and attracting expertise from the widest vary of backgrounds,” mentioned Andrew Walton, Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Company Affairs Officer for Lloyds Banking Group. “Partnerships like this are very important to sustaining progress and delivering significant change. Collaborating with ACN helps our Race Motion Plan, serving to us study, adapt, and act – creating an surroundings the place numerous voices are empowered to guide with confidence.”
The Asian Communications Community (ACN) is devoted to energising, empowering, and elevating Asian professionals within the PR and communications industries. Its mission is to construct a powerful, inclusive community that fosters a way of belonging and mutual assist, facilitates partnerships and collaborative efforts, and sparks curiosity and engagement within the communications subject amongst Asian professionals. For extra data go to https://asiancommsnetwork.com
Lloyds Banking Group is the most important UK retail and business monetary companies supplier with round 27 million prospects and a presence in almost each neighborhood. Its essential enterprise actions embody retail and business banking, insurance coverage and long-term financial savings, supplied by way of nicely recognised manufacturers together with Lloyds, Halifax, Financial institution of Scotland and Scottish Widows. Lloyds has set an ambition to extend illustration of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues to between 19% and 22% in government roles by the tip of 2030. Particulars could be discovered at https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com with details about variety and inclusion at https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/sustainability/folks/diversity-and-inclusion.html
