An Update on The HudsonBec Group’s Commitments to Change — October 2021

As we begin our new financial year here at the HudsonBec Group, we continue to honour our commitment to update publicly on our commitments to change made back in 2020.

However, before I dive into those updates, I wanted to pause for some open reflection on these updates, and what we’ve learnt over the last 18 months of posting them.

The changes that have happened across the group in that time have been substantial, and incredibly impactful. By challenging ourselves to specifically improve in so many areas from a diversity, equity and inclusion perspective, the group is a much healthier place.

The diversity of different views in the group, a changing of the lenses through which we see the world, and a deeper understanding of all the work we still need to do has had some great impact. Our work has benefited from new ideas, our internal processes have sharpened through (sometimes uncomfortable) challenges, and our very mission to ‘Enable Creativity to Thrive’ has taken on new meaning and depth.

Without those commitments we made back in 2020 — this progress would have been far slower, less tangible and much less impactful. Reporting on statistics has been helpful to make sure we are held to account on specific areas we needed to look at urgently — but will always fall short in painting the depth of picture needed to fully appreciate the impact so many have had on our group in that time.

So, before I dive into lots of overly cold statistics and updates — a huge thank you is necessary. To everyone we’ve welcomed into the group, to those we’ve collaborated and worked with to improve over that time — you know who you are and we are forever grateful for the change you are helping us to create. This is clearly only the start.

Recently at our annual all staff meeting in September and the weeks following it — we made new commitments, and outlined a desire to broaden our own awareness and knowledge of the challenges underrepresented groups face in our industry. Even since that meeting, we’ve all learned more about the changes needed in the world around us, our business and ourselves than we ever could have imagined.

It goes without saying that the need for us to commit to constant improvement is crucial. The more we learn and explore — the more opportunities we see to improve in our own four walls and influence the wider creative industry.

So, over a year and a half on from my first post here, a commitment to improving our diversity, equity and inclusion in the group is now embedded into every business, and to report just in a written silo like this feels inadequate now.

These are no longer targets; but values and competencies we should assess ourselves against every day. We will continue to chart and track how we are doing internally, without updating every quarter in this same format.

As always, we can’t promise perfection — but what we can promise is commitment to change and improvement for as long as the organisation exists.

Here are the key updates from the last quarter;

Recruitment and Team Representation

I’ve written a few times about the challenge we’ve faced in reaching our ambition to welcome 60% of applicants for new roles at the group from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

This last quarter was no different; and we started working with specific recruitment companies specialised in this area to try and do more here. This has worked in some cases; but not in all. However, we have seen some encouraging applicant diversity through our increased spend into more diverse jobs boards. We will continue to do both over the next twelve months.

This past year, on average our Black Asian and Minority Ethnic applicants were 30%. That average increased to 46% reaching the first interview stage, and to 49% at second interview stage.

On reflection, our 60% goal was probably over-ambitious, and now we have more accurate data from the last twelve months; will set where we are as a benchmark for further improvement in this area over the next twelve months.

The make-up of our internal team is now at 27.5% employees from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic backgrounds and in-line with the ambition we set ourselves this time last year.

There is absolutely no doubt that our reassessment of our recruitment process and our investment in looking outside of our usual channels and networks has given us the opportunity to improve here.

As I said in my introduction, we also fully appreciate that reporting on specific data like this is important to ensure we are held to account; and we will continue to do so. However, it always feels overly cold and impersonal when what we’re talking about here are human beings. More importantly than any number could show — the impact that true diversity of thought, background and opinion has on our work and organisation is huge, and we have so much more work to do.

Inclusivity

We are still dedicated to improving the inclusivity of our group for all; and it has become clear since our last update that we have much more to learn and do here too.

We will continue to invest in our own education in the shape of;

• Specific training around our understanding and use of inclusive language for the entire workforce.
• Continued Unconscious bias training for all employees, and for all new starters too; thanks to our continued partnership with YCN.
• Budget has also been set aside for ad-hoc DEI training into next year as we continue to unearth new needs for the workforce.
• We have also just finished a 6 month-long project to launch an internal Intranet for the group; making our processes and systems set up to support inclusivity more accessible to all; which we hope will have great impact.

New Opportunities

Following the success of our first four Kickstart placements I’m delighted to report that we will be welcoming a new cohort of 8 placements across the group before Christmas.

There will be a mix of full and part-time positions across the group — all increased by the group to pay London Living Wage — and will be advertised through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) jobcentres nationwide.

If this cohort is half as brilliant as our current four placements, we’re in for a very exciting 6 months with them all.

Our DEI teams have also continued their commitment to help entry-level talent by launching ‘The Drop-In’; a free to attend digital event supporting underrepresented groups entering the creative industry. Taking the format of an informal chat where attendees can ask the three hosts from The HudsonBec Group anything and get advice related to their careers or interests. Keep an eye on our socials for more on that in the coming months.

Data from the last year

In September 21/22 one of our commitments was to set specific ambitions for each business in the group — based on their specific output. One year on; I’m pleased to say we’ve reached nearly all of them.

It’s also worth mentioning here that we are very aware that our focus to this point has been mainly on race and ethnicity. This was done consciously; firstly to ensure we better reflected the make-up of the city where we are based (London), and to acknowledge where we needed to make the most improvement.

We’re acutely aware that there is so much more to be done for many other underrepresented groups — and we are committed to do so. Our intention to focus on a small number of specific areas so that we could make real change has been helpful, but we will ensure that our approach to diversity, equity and inclusion are broadened over the coming months and years.

As our business year has just begun; we also wanted to take this chance to make clear what our new opportunities for the year ahead are.

It’s Nice That:

20/21

• Opportunity: 50% of all creatives and writers commissioned and speakers programmed in 2020/21 must be Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic talent
• Data: 53% of all creatives, writers and speakers were Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic across the 186 opportunities we created

21/22

Next Year we’re hoping to sustain this, and also add further tracking on our editorial output too:

• 50% of all creatives and writers commissioned, and speakers programmed in 2021/22 must be Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic
• 50% of all creatives covered in Work posts must be Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic in 2021/22

Creative Lives in Progress

20/21

• Opportunity: Continue to ensure a minimum of 50% of featured creatives are from underrepresented backgrounds, including a balanced representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic talent. Increased coverage of creatives based in underrepresented parts of the UK, creatives of all genders and creatives with disabilities.
• Data: 59% of talent featured were from underrepresented backgrounds

21/22

• We want to continue to maintain 50% representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic creatives within our content.
• Alongside this, we want to expand this to include a number of groups who are underrepresented in industry. Including creatives who are disabled, neurodivergent, LGBTQIA+, from low-income backgrounds

Anyways:

20/21

• Opportunity: Talent as collaborators on projects at a minimum of 30% Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic by September 2021.
• Data: 58% of collaborators on projects were from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic backgrounds across 66 collaborators.
• Opportunity: Freelance talent on internal project teams at a minimum 20% Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic by September 2021.
• Data: 37% of all freelance bookings were people from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic backgrounds across 81 opportunities

21/22

• At least 40% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic talent worked with as collaborators on projects
• Make strides in tracking other areas of DEI following continual advice from consultants and discussion with the rest of the group.

If You Could Jobs

20/21

• Opportunity: 40% of all creatives contributing to editorial content must be Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic talent.
• Data: 37.5% of all creatives contributing to editorial content were Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic talent.

21/22

• To reach 40% of all creatives contributing to editorial content must be Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic talent.

Any questions, comments and feedback are always welcome — alex@thehudsonbecgroup.com

Thank you for reading,

Alex Bec