Agency: Ogilvy New York
Client: Ad Council / Opportunity@Work

Today, America faces a massive talent shortage —millions of open jobs are unfilled and companies are growing frustrated with their inability to hire talent. But they don’t realize they are part of the problem they are trying to solve. That’s because corporations heavily rely on automated hiring practices and unrealistic biases, like degree requirement, which causes them to overlook millions of qualified workers. Right now, nearly 70% of new job descriptions require a bachelor’s degree, yet fewer than 40% of job applicants hold that degree. The impact on minorities is outsized: 61% of Black workers and 55% of Hispanic workers are automatically screened out of opportunities regardless their in-demand skills. As a result, companies struggle to find talent and reach their DE&I goals. In fact, over 70 million STARs—workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes—have been shunned from higher paying job opportunities and upward economic mobility despite gaining valuable skills through on-the-job experience, community college, bootcamps, military service, apprenticeships, etc. To raise awareness and initiate a cultural shift on the hiring requirements, we needed a simple way for people to acknowledge the problem, question their perceptions, and rally cry to act against degree discrimination. To do that, we started by giving the problem a name: The Paper Ceiling; the invisible barrier that comes at every turn for workers without a bachelor’s degree. Along a nationwide PSA campaign, we set up a brand activation at CES, the tech mecca, for 100,000+ attendees and potential employers to grasp the scope of the problem and inspire them to take action.The campaign generated outstanding results and succeeded in getting both employers and workers impacted by the Paper Ceiling to come together to start building a more equitable labor market. Six U.S. states have already announced that they would no longer require a bachelor’s degree for hundreds of thousands of state government jobs, offering new opportunity for millions of skilled workers to get a fair chance at better paying jobs and access upward economic mobility.