Major advertising agencies have made baby steps toward improving their diversity numbers but still have a long way to go, according to a report by the New York City Human Rights Commission released Tuesday.

The study monitored the hiring practices of managers and professionals, such as artists and copywriters, at 15 major agencies and found that while agencies have improved their hiring percentages, they still don't reflect the demographics of New York City, where most of these agencies are housed.  Blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans are 55 percent of the population of New York City, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

These 15 agencies agreed to have their hiring practices monitored for three years by the New York City Human Rights Commission after they were sharply criticized for their lack of racial/ethnic diversity.

Eleven of the agencies reported increases in the percentages of Blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans hired to management roles, but others fell far from the 18 percent goal the 15 agencies had hoped to reach. Two agencies, Merkley+ Partners and DDB, both owned by Omnicom, reported that they hired no Blacks, Latinos or Asian Americans to management roles last year.  Omnicom said this was because those agencies made no management hires at all last year. The Kaplan Thaler Group was third from the bottom, reporting 2 percent of its new management hires last year were from a traditionally underrepresented group.

"They [Omnicom] set aggressive goals and they didn't make them," Weldon Latham, senior partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, and a noted discrimination attorney, told The New York Times. He also said the firm would have to "be more effective in reaching the goals."  Latham is a regular contributor to DiversityInc magazine. For his tips on recruitment, see the April issue, available now.

As a part of the agreement with the commission, agencies that fail to meet their goals must hire outside consultants.

Although some of the agencies reported significant percentage increases of Blacks, Asian Americans and Latinos in management hiring, those figures are meaningless without the raw numbers to show how many were actually hired. That raw data was not available in the study. A source close to the study admitted there is a possibility that some of numbers aren't accurate.

The source also said that because some of the agencies reported shortcomings, the commission believed most of the companies were honest in their reports.    

Overall, Blacks, Latinos or Asian Americans accounted for 16 percent of new hires among the participating advertising agencies. For an example of excellence in management demographics, look at  The 2008 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Recruitment & Retention, which reported that Blacks, Asians, Latinos and Native Americans accounted for 42 percent of promotions to management positions.