New Talent Manager initiative gives Indies "no excuse" for failing to improve diversity
Leading producers and diversity campaigners have welcomed this new initiative, which aims to help "transform" the recruitment of diverse talent within the TV industry.
Our new functionality gives recruiters a ‘one-stop shop’ to find and keep track of freelancers from BAME backgrounds and those with disabilities, while ensuring recruiters comply with the complexities of human rights law.
Simone Pennant, founder of the TV Collective, said the diverse workforce "want jobs, and the TM’s new diversity tools helps find them. That’s why we support it."
Jane Manning, director of production and operations at October Films, said hosting a diverse talent database within The Talent Manager was "a great idea."
"I strongly believe that getting diverse talent using the mainstream system, namely the TM, is crucial for the long run, rather than marginalised on a separate database," she said. "The Talent Manager has transformed how we recruit talent."
The new recruitment tool has received backing from other key stakeholders, including the RTS, and comes on the back of growing frustration at the slow pace of change within the industry.
Sarah Lee, founder of The Talent Manager, said producers often blamed the lack of diversity within their production teams on the difficulty of finding the right talent at the right time.
"This new functionality means they now have the tools to act – to recruit proactively and more broadly, to save and share information within their company, and to adopt a less closed-shop, knee-jerk approach to recruitment. There is now no excuse for failing to find and keep track of the best existing and emerging talent from under-represented groups," she said.
The system - which has been developed in consultation with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Information Commissioner’s Office, Bectu, the TUC as well as key stakeholders in the industry - also gives companies the safeguard of a ‘digital paper trail’ to ensure they conform with equal opportunities and human rights legislation when recruiting ‘diverse’ talent.
As well as making it easier for companies to find the best, and widest, array of talent, we'll soon be rolling out a new ‘Diversity Dashboard’ so Indies can better monitor how representative – in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, sexuality and social mobility – their existing ‘talent networks’ are.
Sarah Lee added: "we’ve made it easy for employers to monitor properly how representative their workforce is, to encourage them towards better search and recruitment practices."
Marcus Ryder, diversity chair at the Royal Television Society said: "Recruitment, finding your next job and managing your career are at the very core of how we create a more diverse workforce in broadcasting. It is great to see a company at the very front-line of the diversity in TV - talent management - not only taking the issue seriously but finding ways to solve it."
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To use the new diversity search, head to 'People' whilst logged in as a company member and enter your search criteria on the left as usual.
When your results appear, use the 'Diverse Matches' tab to show freelancers who match your search criteria and are also either from a BAME background or have a disability.
The Talent Manager