A Los Angeles creative collective named Three’s a Crowd has released a two-year report examining its participating agencies' progress toward increasing the number of Black leaders in the industry—and the findings show both progress and regression.

The In for 13 Initiative, launched in 2020, is composed of 23 agencies and has a goal to boost Black leadership within its membership to 13% by 2023. In that, there has been significant progress. Among agencies within the group are Stagwell's 72andSunny, WPP's AKQA, Interpublic Group of Cos. Deutsch LA and Huge and independent Zambezi.

According to the report, Black executives consist of 6.1% of total leadership across the agencies—a 96% increase from 3.1% in 2020. In addition, 8.9% of total agency employees in 2022 are Black, a 34% increase from the 6.7% in 2020, the report found.

Now for the bad news: The volume of Black leadership has shrunk compared to 2021. Last year, total Black leadership within the group sat at 6.5%, slightly higher than the number in 2022. Only one-third of all surveyed agencies are “satisfied or somewhat satisfied” with their progress in promoting diversity. In 2021, the number of satisfied agencies was 50%.

The report attributes the setback to agencies’ trouble with retention. In 2022, 40% of all participating agencies reported that retaining talent is their biggest challenge. This number jumped from 23% in 2021, before what the report calls the “Great Resignation."

Read more: How agencies are hiring and retaining talent amid the 'Great Resignation'

In 2022, only 6% of the agencies reported they "can't find Black talent," a big improvement from 44% last year. The latest report finds 6% of respondents citing a "lack of interest in open roles from Black talent"—also an improvement from 12% in 2021.

As the effort to build Black leadership, in the language of the report, moves beyond being “transactional,” agencies are starting to see success in the impact of Black talent beyond the professional world. Half of the agencies have reported a “change in culture” in their workspace, a 9% increase from 2021. More significantly, 25% of the agencies have reported they have contributed to an “impact in [the] Black community,” a 100% increase from the previous year.

Addressing the future of Black talent development, the report observes that “agencies are moving to more sponsorship programs and continued focus on finding talent outside the industry.” In addition, the priority for agencies has shifted from providing direct guidance to being “part of something bigger.” In 2022, 27% of the agencies value being “part of larger industry change,” an increase from last year’s number of 22%.

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