How Can Companies Welcome Working Class Audio Professionals?
Aug 16th
Our recent article series about the experiences of working class and financially insecure audio professionals has shown a need for more inclusion and opportunities across class lines. In the final two articles on the topic, our writer Francesca Turauskis suggests some actions to make audio a more accessible career, starting with some options for companies…
Now that we’ve done our best to outline where some of the issues are around class and socioeconomics in audio, I wanted to end this series with some tangible actions. When it comes to audio companies, there is a wide range of influence and power between the big corporations (such as BBC, Spotify and Audible) and indies that might have a handful of shows.
None-the-less, there are some things that all companies could implement fairly easily. What’s more, as mentioned back in my first article on the topic, there is an intersection of socioeconomic status and other marginalised identities, and some of these suggestions are likely to increase equality in many ways. So what are we waiting for?
START GATHERING DATA
Class and socioeconomic status aren’t protected characteristics so companies aren’t legally required to collect the data. However, having a baseline of data can be a great way to understand if there is improvement to be made in your company, so I suggest gathering information on your working class workforce percentage and pay gaps.
Ideally companies across the sector would use the same measure of ‘working class’. I mentioned in my first article how definitions of class can be tricky because self-identification doesn’t align with metrics, but luckily the Socio Economic Commission has guidance on how employers should measure socio-economic background.
Gathering data in this way would bring the sector in line with the BBC measures, and align with the Audio UK mention of socio-economic background in their statement on diversity and inclusion. This can be a baseline for companies to set internal, tangible targets to aim for better representation in their workforce.
INCREASE REGIONAL AND REMOTE WORK
We’ve seen an increase in remote working options in recent years (in large part because of the enforced remote working during the Covid pandemic restrictions). Many jobs are advertised as remote or hybrid, and for many, jobs being in the office is often a preference rather than a necessity. All employers should be offering this as an option whenever able, and perhaps consider splitting out the work that needs to be in person to a separate role to allow more specialism (e.g. an engineer or studio manager rather than a ‘producer’ doing it all – more on this in the job role section below!).
We’re also starting to see more companies basing themselves outside of London. Notably, last month saw Persephonica move their operations to Sheffield, where both Founders are from. In the press release, Persephonica CEO Dino Sofos specifically mentioned people from ‘lower income backgrounds’ being priced out of London:
“It means people growing up in the South East have an unfair advantage at securing interesting and influential media jobs. The best way to change the status quo is to create more opportunities outside the capital.”
Other companies that have been based outside of London for years are also pushing it as an advantage, such as Distorted whose Head of Marketing, Becky Lamb-Pritchard, I spoke to for my previous article.
Audio is one of the few mediums where remote and regional production makes a lot of sense, and it was one of the reasons many other media forms turned to podcasting in the pandemic. It is also a great way to help make your podcast production greener, and it can increase accessibility for workers in many different circumstances, including disabled professionals, parents and carers.
The only thing to consider with this suggestion is to make sure it is not done at the expense of workers already employed in London. If a company is considering moving their office, they must offer enough support for those staying put to do remote working too.
OFFER PAID INTERNSHIPS (AND ADVERTISE THEM OUTSIDE AUDIO)
One of the key pledges in the Equality in Audio Pact was to ‘pay interns/no longer use unpaid interns’, and there are already several paid internship and entry-level schemes of note. Multitrack in particular is a scheme that has been running since 2019 and specifically references class as an area underrepresented in the audio industry. They work closely with industry partners, which this year included Novel, Goalhanger, BBC Studios Audio and Sony Music. As a company, you can work directly with Multitrack to offer placements at your company.
It’s also worth considering running internships yourself independently, particularly if you are a regional company, as you might have local knowledge to reach individuals outside of the audio network. Distorted offered a good example of this when they created an internship for 18-24 year olds based in Yorkshire. “We wanted to ensure our search went beyond our own industry networks and the more traditional entry routes” Becky told me “it attracted candidates from all parts of the region and all demographics.”
Reaching potential interns who aren’t necessarily tuned into audio networking in this way is really important, as the lack of connections or industry knowledge could mean that many talented individuals just don’t see the opportunities advertised. It’s one of the reasons I personally offered an internship in my own Tremula Network via Arts Emergency last year – it was the first time Arts Emergency had a podcast company offer a placement and there were several more people interested than I was able to offer a space to.
HAVE A CLEAR AND COMPETITIVE PAY STRUCTURE
UKAN (UK Audio Network) has been a good resource for me when it comes to finding jobs and learning about rates in the industry. This is partly because all posts for work have to include the rate of pay for all jobs, whether it is day rate for freelancers or a salary. However, one thing that I still find confusing with jobs across the audio industry is the pay structure and discrepancy between roles, particularly with day rates.
Whilst controlling rates across the industry would require some form of industrial action or intervention, individual companies could have clear pay structures and transparent pay grades. Knowing the pay makes it easier for people to decide if they can even afford to take on a job, but seeing the pay structure also helps people plan for a future in audio. Making those pay grades competitive and fair (for example by referring to rate cards like BECTU as a minimum) will encourage the ambitious and the talented to stay in audio.
EXPLAIN AND OFFER CAREER PROGRESSION
Your pay structure should go alongside clear job descriptions that explain the duties and level of responsibility, because the label ‘podcast producer’ is often too vaguely used for a wide range of jobs. The National Careers Service still doesn’t even have ‘podcasting’, ‘producer’, ‘audio producer’ or any form of the job in its database and this makes it difficult for newer professionals without a prior connection to the industry to a) know what could be available to them and b) tell whether a pay rate is adequate.
Companies could do a lot for people entering the industry by making the progression of ‘production assistant’ to ‘executive producer’ MUCH clearer, with pay grades that correspond.
THINK ABOUT YOUR ONBOARDING
When you have hired someone – whether as a freelancer or on staff – I think audio companies could do a lot more to bring workers into the company (especially if they are new to the industry). Coming from the public sector, the lack of onboarding with audio jobs was a real shock, and there are two different aspects that I think are worth making a more official part of all company welcomes:
a) Explaining the options for industry body support, unions and financial or mental health support (if available). A simple welcome pack that signposts people to places like ELAN (Entry Level Audio Network), UKAN, AudioUK, and Radio Academy would be simple to send to everyone – and if people don’t need it, they can just not read it!
b) Company-specific training for things that might seem simple but would take less time to explain than it would to pick-up, for example presets or preferences on the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), who is who in the company, and any industry partners you work with regularly or newsletters you subscribe to etc.
SIMPLE ACTIONS ACROSS THE BOARD
All of these suggestions are fairly simple actions, and there may well be some of you reading this thinking your company already does some of these. That means that industry change to make audio more welcoming for working class audio professionals is not that far away – it just takes simple actions industry-wide.
Read The Other Articles In This Series:
How Is The Class Gap Affecting Audio And Podcasting Professionals?
Is There A Brain Drain in Audio?
How Can Individuals Welcome Working Class Audio Professionals?