Meet “Generation Post-Pandemic”: the first generation to enter the workplace post-pandemic is putting mental health and employer reputation before salary
Creative Access, a leading social enterprise specialising in diversity and inclusion, surveyed 800 of this year’s school-leavers, students and graduates to find out what the first generation to enter the workforce post-pandemic – so called “Generation Post-Pandemic” or “Gen P-P” – expect from their future careers in the creative industries.
The research reveals that this incoming generation are most influenced by an organisation’s values, commitment to employee wellbeing and inclusive culture, when looking for their first role, placing more importance on these factors than on salary.
The top five factors influencing where “Gen P-P” wants to work are:
- Employer’s reputation as a good place to work
- Training and support on offer
- Employer’s commitment to employee wellbeing
- Organisation’s values
- Offering a good salary
For 71% of Black, Asian and ethnically-diverse young people surveyed, though, diversity of the team ranked as the most important influence.
When looking for their first role, the research shows this generation place more importance on the role being challenging, interesting or inspiring (23%) than on the attached salary (19%). Meanwhile, an accessible, inclusive, achievable job description was most important to 16%.
The pandemic, the impact of Black Lives Matter and a rising awareness surrounding mental health have impacted what this generation of workers expect from their new employer in the first 6 months:
- 36% said they expect skills training
- 24% expect a mentor
- 17% expect the ability to work flexibly and from home
- 16% expect training around diversity and wellbeing
The future’s bright
Despite the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis, the survey found that overall this generation is optimistic about their chances of finding a role – with over half (54%) expecting to find a job within a year of leaving education. Overall, “Gen P-P” is also optimistic about progressing quickly in their new careers with 82% expecting a promotion from their first-entry level within the first year to two years. However, this expectation for fast promotion drops to just over half (57%) for people from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds.
Leading the way
Looking further ahead in their careers, 4 in 10 (39%) of those surveyed expect to be in a senior position after 10 years in the creative industries. However, surprisingly only 16% expect to be in an influential leadership position, 13% to be self-employed or working freelance, and only 12% expect to be running their own business. This hints at wider trends surrounding the death of the ‘dream job’ and an increasing prioritisation of mental health. “Gen P-P” seem to aspire to careers and employment which will put their mental health first and offer stability.
Josie Dobrin, CEO of Creative Access, says:
“Despite everything that is happening in the world at the moment, it’s positive to see how optimistic the next generation is about their future careers in the creative industries. It is heartening to see the agency they have in expecting and not being afraid to ask for skills training, mentoring and career progression support from their employers. However, our findings clearly show that this optimism is not universal and is not shared at the same level by those from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds. To attract and retain diverse new talent coming into the industry, it’s critical that employers show tangible progress in diversity, equity and inclusion and commit to providing mental health and skills training.”
In its article, ‘Book firms in sharp ‘move from talk to action’ after BLM—but work remains‘, The Bookseller spoke to a number of organisations and figures working in the publishing about diversity initiatives in the industry, including CEO and co-founder of Creative Access, Josie Dobrin.
“For Creative Access co-founder and executive chair Josie Dobrin, the Black Lives Matter protests were “a watershed moment for the publishing industry”, prompting organisations which had not even started on their “diversity, equality and inclusion [DEI] journey” to take action, “and fast”. She said: “Those who had plans in place needed to accelerate, stop talking about their plans and instead show real, tangible progress.” In the past two years, Creative Access has seen a sharp increase in the number of organisations “wanting to move from talk to action”; from consultancy on putting a DEI plan in place or accelerating it, through to diversity and inclusion training for their teams, specifically on race in the workplace, allyship and anti-racism.”
Lauren Brown in The Bookseller reports, that the Mo Siewcharran Fund has supported 27 trainees and awarded more than £132,000 to organisations supporting aspiring talent from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse communities since its launch in 2018.
Read the article here.
In its news brief for the week, Provoke Media has reported that former Golin London managing director, and current director of communications at Creative Access, Bibi Hilton has been promoted to CEO of Creative Access.
Read here.
PR Week John Harrington reports that former Golin London managing director Bibi Hilton has been promoted to CEO of Creative Access.
Read the full article here .
Creative Access has promoted its director of communications Bibi Hilton to the role of chief executive following a recruitment process between January and April this year, Lauren Brown in The Bookseller has reported.
Read the article here.
Following a very rigorous recruitment process which ran from January to April this year – and was led by an external consultancy – Creative Access has appointed a new Chief Executive.
The successful candidate is Bibi Hilton who will commence her role in September this year.
Bibi has been Director of Communications at Creative Access – a leading social enterprise specialising in diversity and inclusion – since September 2021. Prior to this, she was global Engagement Director for IPG’s team at Unilever. From 2015 – 220 she was was Managing Director of leading comms and digital agency, Golin. She has a strong track record in diversity, equity and inclusion; from transforming Golin to become the most progressive and diverse PR agency in the industry, to leading the modernisation of Women in PR from an ‘exclusive’ networking organisation to being more accessible and inclusive in her role as President from 2017 – 2020.
Commenting on the appointment, Stephen Page, Chair of Creative Access said:
“Bibi has already made a huge impact on Creative Access in the time she has been here as Director of communications and I know is bringing a multitude of ideas, enthusiasm and of course expertise to her new role.
This is a super exciting time for us as an organisation and we have seen a huge growth in the volume of companies wanting to work with us. Our co-founder and current Chief Executive, Josie Dobrin, will continue to work alongside Bibi as Executive Chair; focusing on our social mission, devising strategies with longstanding and new partners to really deliver long term change to the creative industries. I am excited to see how Bibi leads and inspires CA’s brilliant team, taking over the day-to-day running of the organisation and evolving the commercial strategies that will drive further growth and impact for us.
We are looking forward to the organisation continuing to strengthen and grow, leading the way in diversity and inclusion across the creative industries.”
In a recent series exploring class and young people today, Dazed have featured Creative Access in two separate articles exploring social class and the creative industries.
Paul Toner’s article ‘What it’s really like to be a working class fashion creative‘, they mention our data:
“From snobbery amongst peers for having an accent, through to increasingly sparse government grants and bursaries, there’s also an endlessly tiresome battle against the nepotism that runs rife in fashion, with recruitment platform Creative Access finding 85 per cent of all creative roles are recruited via word-of-mouth over advertised positions. Speaking from experience, the sheer graft it takes to get even a toe in the door can leave you questioning a career in this rich person’s playground altogether.”
While Serena Smith’s article on the recent NCTJ findings that 80% of journalists come from upper-class backgrounds also highlights Creative Access’ work in supporting people from under-represented backgrounds in the creative industries, writing:
“Thankfully, there are some organisations which are seeking to change this. Creative Access is a leading diversity, equity and inclusion organisation which provides support and opportunities to talent from communities underrepresented in the creative industries in the UK.”
In an article discussing ITV’s new initiative, Amplify, which aims to create more opportunities for senior leaders from ethnically diverse backgrounds, Jon Creamer in Televisual referenced Creative Access’ role as a gateway for the Government’s Kickstart Scheme.
“In March 2022,17 Kickstarters joined ITV for a sixth-month placement (with ITV working with Creative Access as their Kickstart Gateway) for experience and training across a range of roles, including daytime programming, commercial, production, sport, diversity and inclusion and with ITV-backed Studio 55 new venture, Woo.”
Read here.
We’re excited to announce that disability and diversity consultant Simon Minty will be joining the Creative Access team of trainers. He’ll be delivering workshops which support our employer partners to broaden their understanding of disability in the workplace and beyond; starting with an open workshop – Disability 101 – on June 9th.
The workshop will include discussing best practice, reasonable adjustments, approaching conversations around disability at work, and dealing with microaggressions and ableism.
Simon has delivered public speaking, training and consultancy in diversity and inclusion since early 2000s and helps improve the portrayal of disabled people in television and on stage.
He is a non-executive director of Motability Operations, is on the board of the National Theatre and co-chair of StopGap Dance. He is an Ambassador to the Business Disability Forum and Business Disability International. He also helped establish the Disability Media Alliance Project in California.
Simon co-hosts two podcasts, BBC Ouch! and The Way We Roll, he regularly reviews The Papers for BBC News, and in 2021 he joined the cast of Channel 4’s Gogglebox. He also co-produced and performed in the Edinburgh Fringe comedy show Abnormally Funny People.
In 2016 GQ named Simon Minty as one of the 100 best connected men in the UK. He has featured on the Power 100 List of disabled people for many years. He has personal experience of disability being of short stature and limited mobility.
Disability 101 Open Workshop led by Simon Minty
Thursday 9th June, 2 – 3:30pm
Sign up for the open workshop here.
If you are interested in organising disability training for your team or organisation, please contact us here.
For their article exploring ‘Are diversity recruitment schemes successful in increasing inclusion and equality in the workplace?’, Hiyah Zaidi spoke to Creative Access, including our director of recruitment Anoushka Dossa, about the use of positive action schemes and how they can influence diversity within the workplace.
Anoushka stated:
(Hiring via PAS) shows employees/contacts their company is serious about making a change to the current workforce. Recruiting via PAS is a great way to find new and perhaps underexposed talent in the creative sector.
Read the article in full here.
Creative Access and the University of Manchester’s CoDE report has been discussed in Arts Professional. The article focuses on the findings that fewer ethnically diverse creatives are employed since the pandemic and are experiencing heightened levels of financial instability.
Read here.