Engaging with Emerging Talent at BBC

It’s 8pm on a Thursday evening and you’ve just sat down in front of the box with a glass of vino, ready to distract yourself for the next few hours. But what to watch? Question Time? New Tricks? Unfortunately, these shows aren’t the most relatable - especially to a younger, more diverse audience. And so 9 times out of 10, the telly box goes off, and Youtube or Netflix is turned on. 

If companies and organisations are to continue to grow and expand, certain processes need to be intersected earlier in the pipeline to make a real change, and unfortunately - broadcasting one or two shows like Citizen Khan or Rupaul’s Drag Race just won’t cut it. 

Background 

BBC had faced challenges as an all-platform content provider. One was a disruption in the market for emerging SVOD players, which has resulted in some internal challenges concerning audiences, such as younger viewers. 

Younger audiences are cutting down on the usage of BBC television - a cause for concern. By a wide range of critics, this perception includes that the BBC is: middle-class, white, and London-centric, and thus out of touch and not representative of the whole of the UK nor engaged. 

In the face of emerging talent and limited available space, the BBC wanted to broaden its internal Recruitment and Talent Team's knowledge on team expansion and talent hiring. 

Having had previous projects with the BBC about ethics in AI and diversity in tech, Abadesi Osunsade, founder of Hustle Crew, knew what the BBC's teams were like and wanted to create sessions for their annual conference, a significant HR director was in contact because they wanted to try something new. 

The team needed to know what was happening in the external talent acquisition market and be innovative in engaging diverse talent to grow and evolve. 

Workshop Style

The point of the 45-minute session was to teach the talent-hiring managers more about identifying possible talent and how to recruit them more easily. The workshop consisted of two parts. The first focused on 'Engaging with emerging talent' and was hosted by Abadesi Osunsade, followed by the second half was a Q&A. 

Managers were encouraged to discuss frameworks related to unconscious bias, discrimination, the effects of unconscious bias behavior, and strategies for creating greater diversity and inclusion. 

After the workshop, there was time for networking. This allowed everyone to get to know each other better and build new relationships that can be mutually beneficial in future collaborations. 

Outcome

In conclusion, managers have said the training was highly beneficial with feeling capable of challenging any dysfunctional processes and having tools to combat recruiting trends. 

This training aims to foster a comfortable, interactive space where participants are free to ask hard questions, confront complex issues, and learn to cope with such events.

To find out more about this type of workshop, or book into a workshop click here. Hustle Crew also offers other workshops and courses such as Art of Negotiation, Building Confidence & Imposter Syndrome and Personal Branding.



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