How measuring my DEI efforts is focusing urgency…
I'm into the fifth year of Curious Connections, inclusive methods are central to my recruitment process. It's not just a tick box exercise, it's not a "pledge," it's just part of what I think a headhunter's job is: ie, find new voices, perspectives and the best people for the job.
Having said that, though, tick boxes can help - otherwise, how do I know if I'm walking the walk? This is my second year of measuring the demographics of candidates I present to my clients. I fully understand that stats can be manipulated to tell all sorts of stories, but it genuinely helps me focus my efforts and ensure I am delivering the widest of talent pools.
Here's what the data for year ending 2024 shows:
What Story does this tell?
I'm exceeding targets in three key areas:
Female representation at 65.8% vs 50% target (slight decrease from 67% in 2023).
Ethnic diversity at 23.7% vs 20% target (decreased from 35% in 2023).
LGBTQ+ representation at 10.5% vs 8% target (decreased from 16% in 2023).
But what does that actually mean? I need to be my own critic and I can see things I want to improve on already:
Why so many female producers? Am I biased toward females because I'm female? Are there more women producers? If so, why is that?
I exceeded my "non-white" target again, which is 20% non-white - so is this the right target? (More on where I get my targets from below.)
Does my "success" in presenting ethnically diverse candidates have any relation to the seniority of the roles they are presented for?
I knew my disabled stats would be low, but I thought they would be lower - more people are disabled than I think. Invisible disabilities need more research on my end.
Low socio-economic upbringing - again, I knew that would be low, but it wasn't as low as I expected. I clearly make unconscious assumptions about people. Does that matter? How do I address the imbalance if it's so hard to see?
I'd love help from experts in DEI
Calling inclusion experts! I'd love to get more guidance about how to read this demographic data, and some different angles on the story it's telling - but here's my action plan for now:
Disability representation (currently 5.3% vs 12% target) - I'm determined to close this 6.7% gap. I'm personally meeting with disability advocacy groups to improve my recruitment approach.
Socioeconomic diversity remains a challenge at 26.3% vs 67% target - I'm researching best practices to improve both declaration rates and actual representation.
I'm also conscious that I am not seeing explicitly non-binary identifying candidates. Currently, I have zero declared. The targets aren't even clear. We don't know national statistics for sure (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64184736). This is an area that needs clarification and sorting out - if the whole point is measuring inclusivity of the best production talent from all backgrounds.
My stats are lower than last year in all categories, other than gender. So even when I am "successful," it's going in the wrong direction. I immediately know my reduction in IRL networking last year meant I wasn't connecting with advocate groups as much as usual, so that's number 1 on my list to focus on.
My new Producer Pay It Forward Initiative
In parallel with my new services for advertising producers, I am going to find the most promising producers from the widest talent backgrounds. For every 5 x Producer Power Hours I complete with producers over 5 years of experience, I will offer a FREE session to emerging producers.*
*Eligibility criteria will apply and can be found here. I will be selecting the candidates who I feel will benefit most from the Power Hour. Read more about what will be included for FREE in these cases.
My Targets...
Rather than only look at advertising industry reference points, I have widened it to the creative industries generally. As the only fully publicly funded media behemoth, I think the BBC framework is a safe place to start. I've then looked to societal measurements via the Gov.uk. After investing in DEI training with Your DE and I and conferring with the leading charity recruitment company Prospectus, who kindly shared their learnings in this area, I created my own targets which you can see here
It's hard to get people to fill in the form - I will not be defeated!
My questionnaire response rate was 65.5%, which is better than last year, as I am more vigilant about chasing people to do it.
I know this sort of thing is hard for production companies too, when they are trying to collect data from their crew - so I've changed my candidate on-boarding process: now in order to get a call with me you have to fill in the form (just once and there's prefer not to say for all questions) only then can we get talking! It's working already.
Next Horizon
True diversity isn't just about meeting numbers—it's about creating an environment where talented producers from all backgrounds can thrive. I'm going to revisit all the people I have placed in these last 2 years of figures and see how they felt inclusion-wise (anonymously, too). I would love anyone with expertise in this area to get in touch to help me craft the right questions and help me collate the answers in a meaningful way.
I'm personally committed to continuous improvement and would love to hear constructive, actionable ideas on how to do this. Other recruiters too...community not competition, if any are reading this, I'd love to brainstorm about this and compare notes so I can keep pushing.
I would also love to hear from my clients, the top agencies and production companies in London, about how they balance their obvious desire to improve inclusion against the commercial need for the right experience.
Have you found effective strategies for improving disability representation or socioeconomic diversity in creative industry/production roles? Let's grab a virtual coffee and share ideas!