The role of marketing, and therefore, marketers, has been evolving in the last few years. From being another department in the organisation meant to increase sales, marketing today plays an increasingly important role in achieving core business targets – right from hiring to customer engagement. The 2017 Career and Salary Survey conducted by Marketing Weekly unearthed a lot of interesting, worrying and startling data. The survey of 3,435 marketing and digital professionals in UK looks at career and salary in the context of varied demographics and sectors, and tries to quantify how inclusive, diverse and fair marketers in the industry are. Following are some of the highlights of the survey:

Diversity and Inclusion:

• 31.1% of the respondents said that disabled people were under-represented in their workforce, as opposed to 28% last year. Similarly, the number of respondents who said that disabled people are not at all represented in their organisation was 24.6% as opposed to nearly 22% in 2016.
• More marketers in UK also believe that the LGTB community is under-represented (12.5% as compared to 11% last year), whereas 8.7% of the respondents feel that people from the community are not represented in their business at all.
• Ethnic minorities are also believed to be under-represented (29.6%), and so are older people (21.1%). Furthermore, 10.6% said that religious groups are not at all represented in their business, whereas 10.2% admit that single parents are not represented. 

Gender Parity:

• The pay gap between male and female marketers has widened to 22.4% this year, as compared to 20.8% in 2016. Other than the position of junior assistant position, women were paid less in every role, especially in the role of partner or business owner – which saw the biggest pay gap.
• A female senior marketing executive, on an average, earned 34% less than a male, and a senior female marketing manager made 12% less than a male on the same position. Female marketers were paid less than men in every sector; the biggest gap was in health and pharmaceuticals (45%), and the smallest gap was in the education sector (12%). 
• 63.2% of the women marketers surveyed were ready to change their job for better salary, as receiving a financial reward was considered important by 98.1% of female marketers, but nearly half the respondents – 49.6% were of the view that their organisation is giving them a fair compensation. 
• Gender pay gap was considered a possible contributing factor for 27.7% of female marketers who were not at all happy or quite unhappy with their jobs, as opposed to 15.8% who felt indifferent. 

Marketers’ Insights:

• 61.8% of the marketers surveyed said that marketing is only somewhat understood, or not understood at all, by their businesses as a whole. 53% of marketers in financial services said that marketing is viewed as a cost (the highest), followed by consumer electronics (51.8%) and public sector (51.5%). Furthermore, marketers in the education sector were least positive about their organisations’ view of marketing, but those in travel and transportation were upbeat about aligning marketing with their core businesses. 
• Marketers’ top priority was a good working environment (69.9%), career advancement opportunities (67.8%), fair financial rewards (65.7%) and job security (48.4%). However, only 29% of the respondents felt that their employers were providing a good working environment. 
• Nearly 40% of the marketers said that training is very important to them, but only 15.9% of them believe that their employers conduct effective trainings.
• Despite feeling increasingly dissatisfied, marketers are sticking on longer in their jobs. Those who have been in their jobs for zero to six months were 13.5% (19.6% in 2016), those between seven to 12 months were 14.4% (17.6% in 2016), those who have been working for one to three years rose from 43.9% last year to 49.3%, and those in their jobs for four to six years also rose to 13.4% from 11.6% in 2016.

The survey shows that instead of progressing in fields of gender parity, inclusiveness and diversity, there is a reversal. Although the marketers are located in UK, the information is relevant for Indian employers as well, and in all fields no less. The discourse in India has barely started making whispers about gender pay parity, sexual harassment and diversity, and these findings suggest that one needs to brace for a long and challenging path ahead. With the global social sentiment threatening to retrace the steps taken by minority communities in the last few years, the role of employers is more important than ever – for they need to stand up for the values that they believe in, and make sure that concepts of inclusiveness, diversity, pay parity are actually implemented in their culture and work ethic. Do you think the same survey conducted with marketers from India would show similar results? Let us know what you think.