In the UK screen industry, who you hire shapes what audiences see. Recruitment often begins in familiar places, advertising in the same places, relying on personal connections and word of mouth. But sticking to the same old approach means you’re likely to find the usual candidates. Inclusive recruitment isn’t just about fairness. It’s about finding people who bring fresh thinking, lived experience, and a diversity of skills. It’s about building teams that reflect the world we live in and the audiences we serve.  

Hiring through the ‘little black book’ of personal contacts and networks may be a tried-and-tested method or a necessary approach when scaling up at pace. It might feel difficult to try something new. But you can start by simply expanding your network and connecting to people differently:  

• Partner with community organisations, charities and youth organisations that support underrepresented groups. Bloody Norah TV and Look Beyond the List offer comprehensive directories - an excellent starting point for identifying potential partners. 

• Connect with a diverse range of education settings - colleges, adult education hubs and apprenticeship networks. They attract learners from a wide age range and diverse backgrounds, often with real-world experience. 

• Use specialist job boards, particularly aimed at underrepresented groups. These sites create safe spaces for applicants who might avoid typical platforms.  

• Diverse Jobs Matter supports all underrepresented groups, while platforms like Evenbreak, LGBT Jobs and BME Jobs target specific communities. Flexible working platforms can also be useful places to advertise to attract diverse talent. There are many options out there, so explore what is best for your organisation's needs.  

Casting a wider net unlocks a wealth of candidates who may never have pictured themselves joining your organisation. But widening your reach without scrutinising and adapting your messaging and processes risks alienating the very people you’re trying to attract. 

Developing inclusive recruitment can be tackled in bite-size chunks; you don’t have to do it all at once. It’s helpful to break it down and think about how jobs are advertised, assessed and filled. Making conscious changes is especially important in screen industry workplaces, where informal hiring and fast turnarounds can easily, and inadvertently, overshadow the priorities of finding diverse talent. Start by reviewing your hiring journey with fresh eyes, and assess how you fare across these key areas:  

• Crafting inclusive job adverts 

• Use clear, non-biased, language and focus on describing skills you really need for the job, not how you envisage a typical candidate   

• Avoid terms like ‘digital native’ or ‘recent graduate’, which limit your pool of candidates unnecessarily. Also avoid terms like ‘work hard, play hard’, which subtly exclude people who have different values.   

• Don’t assume degrees or qualifications are essential. Be open to transferable skills and experience from other industries. 

• Publish the salary and outline flexible-working options up front. 

• Use imagery and messaging that reflects diversity and challenges stereotypes about capability and appearance. 

• Rather than requesting CVs, consider application forms that draw out job-relevant criteria. 

• Provide flexible interview formats and proactively ask candidates whether they require any modifications or accommodations. This might include sharing interview questions in advance, offering virtual interview options or ensuring physical spaces are accessible. 

• Use standardised interview questions for every candidate, focusing on job-relevant criteria. 

• Use tasks that measure job-relevant skills, or request showreels, rather than relying on proxies like education or a specific number of years of experience. 

• This might be a little more difficult to do, but for ‘gold standard’ practice, you can anonymise CVs or application forms, removing demographic information such as names, ages and ethnicity.

• Create an interview scoring framework and apply it consistently to every candidate to ensure fair comparison. 

• Avoid decisions resting with one person. Use diverse panels and challenge decisions made around ‘cultural fit’.  

Building a successful inclusive recruitment process isn’t achieved by implementing a few new things and moving on; it’s an iterative journey that requires reflection and learning. Collect data at every stage to interrogate your practices, uncover patterns, and address issues early. Spotting problems quickly means that you can adjust your approach and test practical solutions. 

Inclusive recruitment isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s our competitive advantage. Tapping into a truly diverse talent pool will strengthen your team, ignite fresh creativity and ensure your work truly resonates with your audiences.