- Increase in BAME representation, disabled staff members and females across the Group
- Increase in females and BAME staff at executive level
- LGBT staff 9% above national average
Wednesday 20th December, 2017: Today, super-indie, Argonon Group, releases the results of its 2017 diversity report after the launch of Argonon For Everyone in 2016 – a campaign established to find, support and nurture a diverse team across the group, which is made up of Leopard Pictures, Leopard USA, Remedy Productions, Remedy Canada, Transparent Television, Windfall Films, Barefaced, Bandicoot, Blacklisted Films and joint venture BriteSpark Films.
As set out in 2016 with the launch of Argonon For Everyone, Argonon conducted a group-wide survey (September 2016) and committed to a series of diversity goals. Argonon is now able to report on the 2017 survey (completed 3rd November 2017), the achievements against objectives, new processes and schemes that have been implemented – evaluating how the Group has delivered on its diversity commitment aimed towards Argonon’s 2020 targets.
One year on, key findings and achievements include*:
- 55.5% of the respondents from across the workforce are women (up from 54% in 2016 and higher than the 51% national average).
- There has been a significant rise in female representation at executive level, which increased by 24.5% to 53.5%.
- After hitting the staff LGBT target of 6% (2017 levels are at 10.5%), Argonon has decided to increase the target further to 15% for 2018.
- Argonon recorded a 7% increase of BAME staff within the executive team to 31%, whilst the overall workforce respondents increased from 16% to 17.5% year on year (national average is 13%).
- Increase in those disclosing a disability (4.5% up from 4% in 2016).
- Successfully appointed and trained Diamond Champions across each company within the group who are implementing their training regarding staff awareness and contributor data in programmes.
- Addition of a diversity section to Argonon’s website, reviewed and implemented Argonon’s Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policies and changed the diversity monitoring surveys to include reporting categories relevant to location.
James Burstall, CEO of Argonon, says: “As a group, we’ve made great progress, with increased numbers of representation of BAME and disabled staff as well as females. At executive level we have seen an increase in female representation as well as numbers of individuals from Black, Asian and ethnic minority groups – but there’s still a wealth of diverse talent out there waiting to be tapped and a lot more to be done.
It’s my continued aim for us to be a leading example among media groups, working collaboratively with others in the industry to make our teams more diverse and produce content that truly reflects the world we now live in.”
2018 Objectives – highlights:
- Increase BAME representation at staff level – Argonon’s executive level BAME representation is currently 31% up from 24%, while numbers of the whole workforce from a BAME background rose from 16% to 17.5%. Argonon’s aim is to reach 20% by 2020.
- Raise disability awareness and progression – To increase disability representation of staff and leaders to 6%.
- Monitoring diversity during recruitment – review recruitment processes to better understand the make-up of the applicants and aim to make an electronic diversity monitoring survey available to all applicants. Also continue to focus on current initiatives, including recruitment of staff with disabilities, social mobility recruitment and head-hunter diversity commitment
- Ongoing agenda for the Board and Production Managers – Diversity will be added to the agenda in 2018 for the Executive and Board meetings, with set feedback to action.
For the full Argonon For Everyone 2017 report, please click here.
For the Argonon For Everyone 2016 strategy, please click here
* The results reflect the numbers of current Argonon employees who responded to the survey