WPP Media

Inclusion in practice

At WPP Media, inclusion is how we unlock our limitless potential – creating an environment where every individual can show up as their full self, contribute meaningfully, and grow without barriers.

In partnership with Amaze and through our A-Plus Program, we are actively shifting from “awareness” to “action.” Inclusion is embedded into how we hire, work, communicate, and support our people every day. We focus on creating an environment where everyone can access opportunity, feel a sense of belonging, and succeed.

Recruitment and Onboarding

We actively work to remove systemic barriers to entry by broadening access to careers in media and reducing bias in hiring.

• The A-Plus recruitment pathway: In partnership with Amaze, we have redesigned our recruitment process to be accessible and anxiety-free for neurodivergent candidates. In practice, this means we:
  • Rewrite job descriptions to remove confusing corporate jargon and focus purely on essential skills.
  • Provide interview questions and profiles of the interview panel 48 hours in advance, allowing candidates to prepare rather than forcing them to perform on the spot.
  • Offer alternative assessment formats (such as work trials or portfolio reviews) instead of traditional, socially demanding interviews.

• The ‘Enboarder’ Experience: When new starters join, they are matched with an onboarding buddy through our Enboarder program. This ensures everyone has a dedicated, friendly peer to answer questions – big or small – helping to familiarise them with the workplace environments during their crucial first weeks.

• Foundational Learning: All new hires complete dedicated DE&I modules as a core part of their induction.

Day-to-Day Team Practices

Inclusion is brought to life through everyday team behaviours, psychological safety, and policies that celebrate cognitive diversity.

• A-Game mindset: We rolled out A-Game mindset training with performance coach Emma Murray. This framework helps our people recognise when they are in their “A-Game” (high-energy, clear-focus) versus their “B-Game” (stressed, looping behaviours). By training teams together, we’ve created a shared vocabulary. Colleagues can openly say, “I’m in a B-Game loop today and need some quiet time to reset,” completely free of stigma.

• Sensory and workplace adjustments: Recognising that open-plan offices can be sensory-heavy, we provide quiet focus zones and flexible desk setups to support different sensory profiles.

• Empowered Action (ERGs): Our Employee Resource Groups empower our people to turn ideas into policy. For example, employee Karolina Bidermann pitched providing sustainable period products in our bathrooms; this was trialled and rolled out nationally, proving that grassroots ideas drive business-wide change.

• Rest & cultural flexibility: To prevent burnout, we encourage regular rest. We provide an extra 5 days of “festive leave” in January for those who manage their leave balances sustainably. Additionally, our Flexible Public Holidays policy enables employees to swap traditional public holidays for days of personal, cultural, or religious significance (such as Eid, Lunar New Year, or Orthodox Easter).

Communication and ways of working

Clear, predictable and regular communication sets the tone for an inclusive culture.

• Thrive: Our future-of-work program allows individuals and teams to co-create custom working agreements. A neurodivergent employee can structure their week around their energy peaks (e.g., working from home on high-focus days and coming in for collaborative sessions), balanced against client and team outcomes.

• Explicit and transparent communication: We reduce cognitive load and workplace anxiety by being incredibly clear. We have championed Salary Transparency across the business to eliminate the anxiety of “the unknown” regarding career progression. During the rollout, we held over a dozen consultations, live presentations, and open Q&As to ensure the framework was crystal clear to everyone.

• Inclusion in Governance (nCo): Our Young Leaders Committee, ‘nCo’, acts as a shadow board to our Executive Committee. Tasked with solving real business challenges, this group was instrumental in co-creating the ‘Thrive’ program and leading the development of our industry-first Disability Action Plan.

Support and Adjustments

We believe that equity means providing the specific tools individuals need to thrive at different life stages and in different ways.

• Neuroinclusive adjustment plans: We normalise the use of “Workplace Adjustment Plans” to allow neurodivergent employees to detail how they work best, how they prefer to receive feedback and what sensory adjustments they need, ensuring they don’t have to re-explain their needs when switching teams or managers.

• Staggered re-entry (Bridge): For employees returning from extended leave (including mental health leave or parental leave), our ‘Bridge’ program provides a supported, staggered return to work on full salary, easing the transition back into the workplace.

• Life-stage policies: We actively support physical and hormonal transitions through our dedicated Menopause Policy, recognising how physical health deeply intersects with performance.

Learning and Development

We invest in development programs that build confidence, psychological safety, and leadership capability

• A-Game mindset program: Outlining practical tools to help individuals shift out of stressful “B-Game” loops, build consistent high-performance habits and perform with clarity and accountability.

• Illuminate leadership program: Our client leadership program trains current and future leaders to manage diverse teams. A core component of Illuminate is teaching leaders how to flex their management styles to support different cognitive profiles, ensuring every team member is led in a way that suits their strengths.

• Psychosocial safety: All of our leaders have completed the Media Federation of Australia’s (MFA) psychosocial safety training. We are currently rolling out a ‘train the trainer’ initiative to ensure our entire workforce feels safe to speak up, challenge ideas and express their unique perspectives without fear of negative consequences.