When building a new team, what’s the best way to approach asking for people that identify as BAME to join?

I think it’s important to have a diverse team from the start, but my pool of creative friends is overwhelmingly white-British, and with that comes a limited viewpoint...

What’s the best to ensure diversity, you can’t just state that only BAME individuals should apply—or can you?

Replies11

  • I cannot really advise on this directly but I would like to share some thoughts on diversity.

    I loved @Samuel Ryan 's response here:

    "A lot of the reason access is difficult for people isn't because of overt exclusion today ("we will only hire a white-british person for this role") but because of the legacy of our historic discrimination. If we want to earn the benefits of diversity we need to do the work to create a diverse candidate pool, we cannot pluck out one non-white candidate because they'll give us diversity points."

    I will not and cannot speak to the experiences of other races and ethnicities, but as you put it, "other minorities" or generally.

    I think it's important to consider that the problems begin before a candidate even arrives in your pool. What difficulties has a person from an under-represented background experienced in terms of access, and how has it impacted their education, access to resources or technology, or work history? Where may they be now compared to their peers, and what might be currently stopping them from these opportunities? What barriers can you personally lower or remove in your local community?

    I think regular paid internships are a great idea, as agency opportunities can be so exclusive and competitive. 2 in 3 Junior roles, in-house or agency, ask for previous experience, which may be difficult to attain without having had, for example, a quality degree education that expected and supported you in securing work experience.

    Perhaps free workshops for young people to get those local to your community considering creative careers could be a good idea as well. You could seek out, support, and work with (vetted) organisations and initiatives that seek to address these root problems, or perhaps coaches or educators who themselves are from under-represented backgrounds and work within the local community to make these changes.

    Diversity and under-representation comes in many forms as well and not all of them are as immediately visible as race, so I would consider that as well. You mentioned the LGBTQI+ community, consider also lower/working class backgrounds and neurodiverence. Consider also that for many, these identitifiers will cross over. Perhaps those voices are already present in your team, though.

    For seeking candidates, while I understand the advice to do blind applications to avoid hidden bias, I would also reiterate the earlier point about access to opportunities and how that might impact what those applications look like.

    The way we currently seek employment and apply for roles is set up within a singular framework and does not really allow us to highlight achievements outside of it. We, again, focus on vetting people through the very systems that favour those with privilege and access.

    There is no section for "completed college while working a part time job to support family" or "shown extreme resilience by constantly seeking out opportunities and self-education while dealing with crippling depression and lifelong discrimination".

    You fill in your employment history, education, and do your best to sell yourself. But if you are the one running a business, you don't have to stick to that framework. Speaking now as a queer neurodiverent immigrant, I can tell you that if a piece of my work or something in my application highlights those identifiers, I actually do worry about whether someone on the receiving end will be a bigot and pass me over because of them. It's a risk, so I (and I imagine many others) tend to stick to the script. So perhaps, encourage deviating from it and create a space where it's okay to talk about those other merits that come from lived experience.

    Why not, aside from asking for a generic application pack, specify some questions you are looking for people to answer in their cover letter. List questions they could choose to answer and diretly ask them to talk about what inspires them, drives them, or a challene they had to overcome outside of the creative industry/professional context. Ask them about a cause they find important or something they would like to see change in the world. Try and imagine where they could have or still could go with the passion they show.

    Create a space where it's okay to talk about those experiences, and where someone's perspective itself is that valuable piece of qualification, because you will never get the full merit of a person from an applicatiton based on historically problematic instutitutions. Genuine compassion and respect for that is, in my opinion, much more valuable than simply hiring anyone on the basis of their identity to fill a quota.

    Apologies for the wall of text - I have a lot of thoughts :-)
  • Has it really come to this point in the design industry, where we are putting up signs “ONLY BAME SHOULD APPLY” it’s like Jim Crow segregation all over again. Thought we passed that era.

    Even if a you did hire a BAME person on the merit of diversity, you sure did tick “Tokenism” box just so you can say we’re a “diverse team”.

    If you did hire from the BAME community, what are the chances they will feel comfortable or themsleves around a “creative friends is overwhelmingly white-British” --- article from the Guardian “This is what it feels like to be black in white spaces”
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/09/everyday-racism-america-black-white-spaces

    The stress and frustration of finding out you are a token hire
    https://www.wired.co.uk/article/token-hiring-blm-coronavirus
  • Hi Jordon,

    First of all it's such a great question and particularly great intensions that you think about voicing it on the right way.

    On the top of what already said it's basically positive discrimination that face the same legal (and moral) consequenses than discrimination.

    Me personally find the most accessable word when you simply say 'underrepresented'. It's also nice when you describe that you genuinely value different viewpoints and so that is why you want a diverse team as unfortunately some brands just ride it as a trend wave.
  • It’s called positive discrimination in america they refer to it as affirmative action.

    Lead with the stats the fact that the industry is so white and you seek to challenge that

    State you wish for people to be able to feel like themselves and you seek to be an active ally who will not seek to belittle their experiences/listen and amplify them when you can.

    Aware that you may make mistakes and accept they might call you out for it and that you are totally willing to take feedback even what it may feel uncomfortable because that’s the path to growth mindsets.

    Highlight empathy and compassion is at the heart of why you seek poc/marginalised communities
  • Be vocal, as Mina says...
    But also why not ask HR for the whole process to be "blind" - no names, no pictures, no ages, no genders, no locations.

    Just look for the best experience, and then interview accordingly. At that point you know you are getting the best candidates for the job, and you can apply your own conscious positive biases.
  • Love what @Mina Owen has said as was also going to call out that BAME should go now as a term. Jordon I'd also suggest tapping into different communities. For example, Trench Mag and Galdem are centred on Black voices, Azeema focuses on creatives from the Middle East and South Asian diasporas, so if you can plug into those communities more then you're pool will increasingly become more diverse. Hope that helps, Alexandra x
  • @Mina Owen that was a really helpful respsone and article, thank you Mina. As I was writing the question I started to think about other communities, such as LGBT+, and considered writing 'minorities' but I don't think that term is helpful, or even clear. The term 'under-represented' clears all that up instantly.

    Untraditional education is a good shout as well, talent is talent. Just becaue some didn't choose, or have the opportunity, to go to uni doesn't mean they should be depreived of other opportunities too.
  • This is a really interesting article regarding the term ‘BAME’

    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-53194376

    Which many people (myself included) don’t feel accurately represents us and can feel tokenising and othering especially when it comes to the workplace.

    I would personally suggest (although other people may have totally different approaches) to advertise your listings with a very clear paragraph actively encouraging applications from those who are from underrepresented backgrounds in the industry. When you see that it makes you feel less apprehensive - also it’s worth extending this to untraditional education (just because somebody hasn’t got a degree doesn’t mean they haven’t put a lot of work into developing their skills to the same level!).

  • exactly as you have just described, explain you are looking for a diverse team and have priority positions for people who identify as BAME

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