On Zoom at 4pm, Thursday 11th June The Talent Manager & Share My Telly Job are running a webinar event to discuss how work-sharing is a proven, successful strategy, for business’ to pull through an economic crisis and could contribute to making the TV industry more sustainable in light of the COVID-19 Crisis
Hosted by Michelle Reynolds of Share My Telly Job, our guest speakers will include Emma Stewart MBE - CEO at Timewise, Alex Pumfrey - CEO Film and TV Charity, , Waqas Ali – Production/HR Manager at Netflix, Mark James - Exec Producer/Series Producer - Studio Lambert along with Sarah Lee from The Talent Manager, who will give a demonstration of the new Talent Manager functionality which makes the hiring of a pair of job-sharing freelancers seamless.
The event will take place on Zoom at 4pm, Thursday 11th June.
Why is this an important conversation for now?
Due to caring commitments, changes in family set-ups, health and COVID-19 regulations, the industry finds itself in a situation where they may not have access to the freelancers they need to make their programmes. The freelancers themselves have taken a huge financial hit and currently, more than half are looking for alternative work away from the television industry. Job-sharing is a proven solution which helps retain and engage exceptional talent.
With little new talent coming through and the most experienced talent feeling unable to ride this storm, Share My Telly Job would like you to be part of our discussion about the benefits everyone can enjoy if employers can be more open to flexible working.
With current Covid health and safety guidelines requiring any workers showing signs of illness will need to immediately self-isolate, job sharing can also give productions the provision to create a quickly accessible team member to step in when illness prohibits work being completed.
In a recent survey conducted by SMTJ, 70% of freelancers responded in favour of job-sharing during this repair phase if that gave more freelancers the opportunity of work. The set-up is simple but the benefits are extensive.
We would be thrilled if you could join us on 11th June ™ 4pm. We will provide concise information about how to approach job sharing as an employer
Biogs of our panellists:
Emma Stewart - Timewise
CEO & Co-Founder
Emma is CEO and Co-Founder of Time wise and Women Like Us, responsible for the strategic direction of both the organisation’s business consultancy and its social foundation. Her leadership role sees her working with businesses, thought leaders, policy makers and social reformers to test and scale innovative solutions which deliver successful, sustainable, two-way flexibility.
As a result of her expertise in the flexible working sphere, Emma has developed a high profile as a key opinion former, advisor and speaker. She has contributed to numerous government task-forces, reports and initiatives, focusing on how to encourage more people who need to work flexibly into the workplace, shape the labour markets of the future and raise family living standards.
Prior to co-founding Timewise, Emma worked in a range of development roles across the private, civic society and social enterprise sectors and within documentary television
Alex Pumfrey – Film and TV Charity
Chief Executive Officer
Alex has always worked in the creative industries, across television, arts, sports and media. Her passion is helping creativity to flourish in people and businesses. She has held both strategy and delivery roles and likes it best when she can do both together to create real change. Her ‘big break’ in telly came when she worked at Channel 4, and after that she worked for the public service broadcasters at Digital UK.
She loves going to the cinema and in another life would be a documentary filmmaker. Her favourite TV programme of all time is probably West Wing, but confesses that at the end of a working day she watches anything that’s light relief. She is passionate about gender equality and women’s rights. She very occasionally runs half marathons but has two small children so mostly runs after them
Mark James
Exec Producer/ Series Producer
Mark is the current Exec Producer on Four in a Bed at Studio Lambert which has employed job shares. His background is in reality and factual entertainment including several years on Big Brother / Celeb Big Bro. He’s a passionate advocate for job shares particularly at a senior level where he feels it’s actually better to have a share pair...
He’s going to talk about his own experiences of hiring and working with job sharers and also how Studio Lambert more broadly have tried to embrace job sharing for a number of years now (Going back to the early days of Gogglebox .) Studio Lambert have also had Casting APs / Casting Producers / Senior Producers etc all job share.
Although Mark himself doesn’t job share he’s a big believer in allowing people “to be grown ups” and entrusting them to manage their own time and get the job done and advocates people working flexible hours if it works better for their home life / personal life.
Waqas Ali - Netflix
Production/HR Manager
With an academic background in Law, Waqas has practiced as a HR Professional for the last decade in various roles across the creative and entertainment industry for companies like, Apple, Canal+, Studiocanal and ITV Studios. Currently he is part of the Production HR team at Netflix supporting the EMEA Region. His experience in the region has given him the opportunity to educate and coach leaders on cultural competency whilst continuing his work as an Ally in the Diversity and Inclusion space. Outside of work, he has recently begun his journey in callisthenics, which has provided a perfect excuse to take a break from challenges of home working and back to back video calls.