We are delighted here at The Talent Manager to have our work recognised by such eminent diversity champions such as Simon Albury, Marcus Ryder and Pat Younge.
On Oct 11th 2020 Simon Albury, Chair of the Campaign for Broadcasting Equality wrote:
Last week, I saw some action. I’d published a blog. It said I’d found the grail – The Talent Manager, a diversity search engine which provides diversity reporting to companies, Unconscious Bias functionality to anonymise recruitment and a functionality to facilitate Job Sharing and Flexible Working. I’d seen it work.
But I wasn’t happy. I’d discuss it with a former BBC executive, now with budgets and influence in another organisation. This exec criticised The Talent Manager on the sole grounds that it was developed commercially. My blog suggested this reflected a continuing ethos which sees a unique purity bestowed by virtue of licence fee expenditure. “BBC types hate it when a commercial venture gets there first. There is a long history of the BBC seeking to duplicate what the commercial sector innovates.” I suspected what I’d heard reflected BBC thinking.
The blog got great reactions, confirming the value of The Talent Manager.
Pat Younge, Managing Director. Cardiff Films and Former Chief Creative Officer, BBC said
“Totally agree and use it all the time. I get concerned when I hear broadcasters thinking of ‘building their own’ when there’s a perfectly good solution already available. Why waste time or money. Plus this diversity database sits outside the paid product, so it’s open to all.”
Laura Mansfield, Managing Director Outline Productions, said,
“Beauty of The Talent Manager database is that it exists as industry go- to already- now with added simple effective diversity tools. Makes looking for diverse talent exactly what it should be – no-brainer. Am v impressed with Tim Davie clarity of comms so far – now action!”
Laura Marshal, CEO of Icon Films and Wildscreen Festival chair, said:
“Using the Talent Manager database with its diversity toolkit is an essential part of Icon Films’s recruitment protocols. Let’s build on this rather than create new tools that take more time, focus brings results.”
Marcus Ryder MBE, Chair of Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said
- By creating a separate “diversity” database hiring managers will go to the “normal” database first and then go to the “special” database to fill their diversity quotas, which is why it might be best to integrate the databases.
- The BBC and PSBs do not have a great track record in creating efficient diversity tools (think current controversy over Diamond). So, the fear is they will undermine existing tools but replacing them with an inferior effectively state sponsored alternative.
Best of all
Others responded positively in private. The best of all came from June Sarpong who told me the BBC was aware of The Talent Manager and was already setting up a meeting with them. It is clear the BBC is no longer the sluggish organisation of old and with “cc Tim Davie”, it is clear she is confident of the Director General’s support on this.
Now, someone I trust says they’ve had contact with Tim Davie and he responds quickly and decisively on diversity issues.
Leadership
The BBC has long lagged behind Channel 5, Sky and Channel 4 on diversity numbers and effective action. When it gets behind The Talent Manager and brings the rest of the industry along, the BBC might for the first time be able to claim the supreme diversity leadership role it has dodged for so long – but only if it can also deliver a less toxic internal culture.
For twenty years, I have been proved right in never giving the BBC the benefit of the doubt. Now I’m prepared to eat my words. Last week I ended with a Martin Luther King quote. Today I am ending with a different MLK quote:
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
The full blog piece can be read here along with the previous weeks:
https://cbesite.wordpress.com/2020/10/18/bbc-and-diversity-june-sarpong-and-tim-davie-why-for-the-first-time-im-giving-the-bbc-the-benefit-of-the-doubt-by-simon-albury/
“BBC and Diversity: Why Tim Davie should seize the opportunity to do what is right on the 20th anniversary of the BBC’s CDN Diversity Action Plan’’ by Simon Albury (+ Reaction)
Posted on October 11, 2020 by Campaign for Broadcasting Equality CIO
Last week, BBC DG Tim Davie told the Ofcom conference:
“Now, if you’re making a production for the BBC, we expect a diverse production crew. We all looked at some of those (crew) wrap shots. You just look at it and you go, that is not acceptable. So, you just intervene. You have to intervene. And that is where we can act.”
That is what Davie said but the BBC is failing to do all it could.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the BBC’s first diversity action plan – published at the launch of CDN on 12 October 2000. On Page 7, the BBC plan said:
“Talent – Objective
There is cross industry consensus that we need to establish a database of ethnic minority talent which will be an essential tool, a reference point and a way of taking away the excuse –
“I don’t know where to find the talent”. “
This tool has been a “holy grail”, long sought but never found.
Last month I found the grail. A brilliant talent manager by “The Talent Manager”. It does all it says on the box and more:
- A Diversity Search Engine – to find the right talent from a BAME or lower socio-economic background, or a person with a disability
- Diversity Reporting – so that companies can monitor the make-up of production teams or talent networks in terms of protected characteristics and socio-economic background.
- Unconscious Bias functionality – to give companies the choice to anonymise their recruitment
- Functionality to facilitate Job Sharing and Flexible Working– something the industry has been crying out for years.
It works. It is open to all. It is free at the point of use. Yet one ex BBC type criticised it to me on the sole grounds that it was developed commercially.
BBC types can leave the Corporation but it is hard to separate them from what they see as a unique purity bestowed by virtue of licence fee expenditure. BBC types hate it when a commercial venture gets there first. There is a long history of the BBC seeking to duplicate what the commercial sector innovates.
The new BBC DG Tim Davie may not be a BBC type but he may find it hard to convert people. The ethos lives on.
During the demo, which showed more than I could have dreamed of, I saw a name that rang a big bell – Karon Monaghan QC. It was Monaghan who provided the legal advice to the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Ofcom on what you could do within the constraints of the Equality Act to increase diversity in the broadcasting industry. The advice was captured in the crucial official guidance “Thinking Outside the Box: supporting the TV industry to increase diversity”. Monaghan has now joined the Steering Group of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. When you see the name Monaghan you know it is 100% kosher.
When it comes to Black, The Talent Manager doesn’t lump everyone together.
Now many people who support diversity are using The Talent Manager at the BBC, ITV, Viacom, Fremantle and EndemolShine. When I talk with diversity champions I find they say it is great.
What’s needed now is engagement from the commissioners and key execs at all the broadcasters – to get their production teams and suppliers to use it fully and consistently. Only when the head’s properly engaged will the hands and feet move in the right direction.
The Talent Manager is what the CDN founding group dreamed of twenty years ago. If the BBC and the broadcasters got behind The Talent Manager no one could again say “I don’t know where to find the talent”.
As Martin Luther King Jnr said “The time is always right to do what is right.”
Tim Davie should do what is right and intervene on this day, the 20th anniversary of the BBC CDN Diversity Action Plan, and support what the Action Plan sought:
“a database of ethnic minority talent which will be an essential tool”.
12 October 2020
Marcus Ryder MBE, Chair of Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity has responded via Twitter
Important not to prioritize process over outcomes but its hard to see how current talk by the BBC & other PSBs of a “diversity database” will achieve a better outcome than the Talent Manager database for non-scripted programs. Important piece by @simonbg12
