Retire or Fire?The Fate of the Diversity Hire!

Over the last couple of years, more and more companies are implementing diversity hire schemes, with an increase in headlines claiming “the first [insert demographic] to….” on front-page news.

The death of George Floyd in 2020 spurred a global social justice movement; Black Lives Matter, which highlighted the historical and ongoing structural inequalities for anyone who isn’t a straight, white, cis-gendered man or woman. It highlighted the continual issue that the stories we primarily see are mostly from the perspectives and experiences of only two types of people. Causing structures to be built mainly around supporting the abilities of some and blocking others. Because of this, companies globally started to invest millions into diversity and inclusion such as hiring Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs). However, many companies are simply conforming to “what’s popular” without understanding the need to hire diversely, consequently causing more harm than good.

Speaking with some friends; who are queer, non-binary, neurodivergent people from all areas of the world, most of whom work in media (myself included) about the topics of diversity quotas, found that despite people having more on-screen representation, offscreen there are still very few people like us.

“companies are trying to meet their quota without understanding the needs of the people they’re getting in, and without making the workplace safe for those people. I’ve been in companies who are getting more queer people in - but getting queer people into a space surrounded by people who aren’t accepting of their queer identity is really harmful”

However, the issue at hand is far more deeply ingrained than we thought. A recent Forbes article shows that “an alarming number of corporate CDOs stay less than two years” due to the lack of respect, regard and appreciation for their position.

Amongst the many on this list are the BBC’s previous June Sarpong, Director of Creative Diversity; Tabitha Jackson, Festival Director at the Sundance Institute; and Gaylene Gould, Head of Film at the BFI – all of whom lasted no longer than three years.

And these women were not alone. As the BBC Annual Report reveals 23.9% of BAME or minority staff lasted less than a year in comparison to their white counterparts, 78.1% of which lasted longer than a decade. On top of that, diversity schemes are also being cut as they’re not considered revenuegenerating. However, the research shows that “increased diversity in staff leads to increased innovation, resiliency and profitability” which is supported by McKinsey & Company’s 2020 report showing that “companies in the top 25% of social and gender diversity are more likely to have stronger financial returns”. June Sarpong spoke to Variety about her experience at the BBC stating there was “a lot of scrutiny” around her role as Director of Creative Diversity, as she received “a barrage of racist tirades and abuse” during her three years. However, she spoke proudly of her work securing the £100 million diversity and inclusion initiative which is said to be the “biggest financial investment to on-air inclusion in the industry”. In regards to the BBC’s Staff Exodus, she says “change doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time…if we’re going to effectively represent all of our audience, then we need to make sure that we are in the room, even sometimes when it’s difficult to be in that room”.

Hiring diversely is a step forward in the right direction - but it is just one step. The next needs to be opening up the conversation with a group of diverse people and being willing to listen and learn in order to make the necessary internal, and external, changes.

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