The Talent Manager is committed to supporting those companies who want to ensure their TV and film production teams are as diverse and representative as the audiences they serve.
To do this we ask freelancers to complete diversity and inclusion data so recruiters can better understand who they work with and who they know, and to support equal opportunities and prevent discrimination.
What does this mean in practice?
Specifically, when completing your personal profile we ask about 6 Protected Characteristics – age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability and religion – plus socio-economic background and geographic location.
Although we do ask everyone to make the effort to fill out the monitoring form (it really doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes), you are completely at liberty to answer ‘Prefer not to say’ for each question. You can choose to answer some questions and not others, and you can edit or amend your answers at any time.
So how is the information used?
First, we use the data to provide recruiters with anonymised reporting on the ‘make-up’ of their talent networks. This enables them to see how representative their productions teams or talent pools are. For example, it might show that Company X’s pool of Production Coordinators in the Glasgow-area is overwhelmingly Female and Able Bodied. The company can then make informed decisions about if, and how, it wants to address that.
To reiterate: the reporting information is anonymous so no one will know about you specifically. Here’s a picture of what a company might see:
Second, if specific conditions are met, recruiters have the option to broaden their search to ensure they are including talent from under-represented group, such as people from a BAME background or with a disability.
These specific conditions might include that having that particular Protected Characteristic was a requirement of the job (eg - they are making a film about FGM in East Africa and need someone from a specific ethnic background as a researcher), or that they believe certain groups are under-represented in their production team and want to cast the net wider.
Obviously, when this ‘Diversity Search Engine’ is used, a recruiter would be able to know if you had that particular characteristic. That’s why we ask you to give a specific consent if you’re happy to appear in a ‘diverse’ search. You can choose ‘Yes’ for some of your characteristics and ‘No’ for others, it’s completely up to you. And again, you can edit or change your answers at any time. You can also choose whether once you’ve come up a ‘Diverse Search’ you want your personal data actually to appear on your published profile.
Remember too, this ‘Diverse Search’ tool is supplementary to the main TM search that employers use. Indeed, recruiters cannot access the Diverse Search results unless they have already searched the wider database in which everyone features. So even if you are from an under-represented group – but don’t want to feature in applicable ‘Diverse Search’ results – you will still be included in the primary search results.
All of the information we collect is processed in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and any other applicable data protection legislation in the UK. For more information explaining how we use your data please see the privacy policy, cookies policy and website terms and conditions. All data will be held on a secure database, treated confidentially, and accessed only by staff involved in recruitment or diversity initiatives. No third parties will be given access to the personal information unless we are required by law to do so. We will ask you to renew your consent on an annual basis.
We hope all our users support the goal of helping paint a more comprehensive picture of our industry. We can only change what we measure and we believe that by completing our diversity monitoring together we can make our industry a better, fairer and more inclusive place to work and thrive.
Click here to complete your profile. For more detail on how the info is used click here or email us
