Singapore’s all female PR firm AKA hosts MAN Day to address severe gender imbalance

Independent Singapore based public relations firm AKA is launching a male recruitment drive to address the company’s severe gender imbalance. The company currently comprises of 25 women and 0 men. To encourage more male applicants, the company will be hosting its first MAN (Male Applicants Needed) Day at its offices on Pickering Street.

On MAN Day, attendees will be given tours of the AKA office and have the chance to speak candidly with members of the AKA team. Throughout the day, panel discussions and workshops will be held to cover topics such as “Public relations – confronting the gender bias”, “Making the workplace more man friendly” and “View from the middle – being a man in PR”. Free chicken wings and beer will be served.

Interested applicants will be given the opportunity to compete in a series of challenges designed to test key PR skills. The challenges will include a Battlefield 4 showdown to evaluate strategic planning capability and team management skills, a speed sandwich making competition to measure the applicant’s ability to work under pressure and finally, the dealmaker test, measuring the applicant’s ability to drive new business growth.

“We are seeing a bigger push to address gender equality across the globe. More and more companies are putting gender equality at the top of the agenda. At AKA, we are committed to promoting equal opportunity, and while for a majority of companies this means hiring more women, our commitment is to hire more men. Currently, only 1% of AKA’s total job applications are from men. MAN Day is our first step to help close this gap”, said Amy Wright, Partner, AKA Asia.

“Given that we work in an industry that often requires us to put on many hats for our clients, we recognize the tremendous value that different perspectives and experiences can bring. The low male application rate is quite baffling to us. We have a roster of global brands – many of which are considered to be quite masculine, and our work culture is fast paced, bold, and independent, an environment which men traditionally thrive in.”

AKA clients’ Johnnie Walker, Movember, jobsDB, McLaren and Bentley will also lend their support to MAN Day.