Actions you can take
Create opportunities for flexible working for all — especially for parents, carers and deaf and disabled people. You should consider that some people might need to work flexibly because of their health or might need to do the school run or have other caring responsibilities. You could create an opportunity to discuss this at recruitment stage – and reassure applicants that you’re open to flexible working. You might want to keep in mind that there is some stigma in the industry around having health needs, being a parent or having caring responsibilities, so some people might not feel comfortable flagging this up.
A more open conversation might be possible once an offer has been made, so you can discuss these things in the context of the role. This is also something that could be discussed in a regular catch-up during production, to check the arrangement is working for everyone. This resource created by Raising Films offers guidance around inclusivity for parents and carers.
See script supervisors Laure and Marnie talk about job sharing on their most recent production and why it worked for them. Check out Bectu Vision’s Take Two initiative which offers a guide for both employers and employees.
Advertise job-sharing roles on your production on all platforms. You might want to advertise job-sharing roles on The Talent Manager and Share My Telly Job. Share My Telly provides useful guides on how to job share and find a job-sharing partner. You could ask people at interview stage how they envisage a job-share partnership working. They might be able to anticipate what changes or modifications might be needed for it to work successfully – they may have done a job share previously and have useful insights.
Assess whether each role on your production could be undertaken remotely or part-remotely. There can often be opportunities in pre-production and post-production stage. Be open to trialling it and always remember to provide valid reasons if remote working is not possible.
