Cultivating our culture
Throughout 2022, there continued to be a core focus on cultivating a culture at PPL where all individuals feel welcome and supported in their personal and career development.
Committing to equity, diversity and inclusion
We launched our landmark five-year equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, which sets out PPL’s vision for change along with targets which act as milestones to measure our progress. The roadmap defines our commitments in employee engagement, wellbeing, recruitment, training and development, all with a view to ensuring PPL’s culture is as inclusive and progressive as possible.
Closing the gender and ethnicity pay gaps
We published our gender and ethnicity pay gap statistics voluntarily, both of which are available on the PPL website. We welcome transparency and accountability in this area and remain committed to ensuring we hire, develop and promote the best people, regardless of any protected characteristic, and that our talent pool is as wide as possible.
Driving change from within
PPL’s Diversity Forum entered its third year and established a number of working groups to review and enhance internal initiatives on training, development and recruitment. A Black employee network group was also relaunched to advocate for and support our Black employees, while work on our social mobility strategy, outreach efforts, and collation of diversity data all progressed positively.
Supporting the next generation of talent
We welcomed six interns from the Leonard Cheshire graduate programme, working with the charity to support and open up opportunities for people with disabilities. PPL was also one of the first supporters of the Music Leaders Network, a programme designed to boost the next generation of female leaders in the music industry.
Influencing change across the music industry
In support of the wider industry’s efforts on EDI, we worked with UK Music on the development and launch of its 2022 Diversity Report. The report set out a new music industry framework ― The Five Ps ― which comprise people, policy, partnerships, purchase and progress to help deliver enduring results for diversity and inclusion. This was well received by the industry, and we are actively involved in ensuring this is progressed.
Empowering those without a voice
We partnered with Action for Diversity & Development and the Human Library Organisation to support their efforts in championing equality and the under-represented in the music and creative industries. We also donated monies to UK Youth to support bursaries for 50 young people to attend the Avon Tyrrell outdoor learning facility.
Renewing our focus on health and wellbeing
We continued to support hybrid working following our return to the office post-pandemic, and established an employee working group to explore how PPL can be a leader in fully supporting the health and wellbeing of its talented teams. We launched a new wellness campaign, ‘Get PeoPLe Talking’, focused on encouraging employees to be aware of their wellness, providing guidance on how to manage wellness, promoting positive work/life balances and encouraging individuals to talk to someone if they feel they are struggling.
Sharing our deep expertise
We continued to provide important external HR support to our friends across the industry who may not have this expertise available internally, including the Musicians’ Union, the Royal Society of Musicians and the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM).
Plotting a pathway towards net zero
We commissioned a full audit of PPL’s carbon footprint to feed into our first-ever sustainability strategy, which was published in early 2023. We are deeply committed to integrating environmental best practice into our operations and have ambitious targets to reach net zero by 2050.