OUR CULTURE IS QUITE UNIQUE – PEOPLE ALWAYS SAY THEY MISS IT WHEN THEY LEAVE AND IT ’ S SOMETHING WE WANT TO

PROTECT . others . It ’ s going to sound trite but learning really is a lifelong journey .

You are a fierce advocate of achieving greater diversity within the creative industries . How can SMEs in particular create a diverse workforce ?

This is a huge topic but I ’ m going to keep it brief and give three concrete examples of what we ’ ve done at Future Factory to try and achieve this . Firstly , we don ’ t require previous industry experience as a pre-requisite to getting a job with us . Relevant experience is welcome but if we made this a requirement , we ’ d only be getting certain types of people through the door .

Secondly , the entire team has been trained in understanding unconscious bias and we ’ ve worked hard to be more mindful of how this impacts the decisions that we make , including who we hire . Currently it ’ s a team of about five people at Future Factory , across different levels , who get the final say on who gets a job with us .

And lastly , we have relationships with organisations which are doing fantastic work in helping companies create a more diverse workforce . One of our directors , Richard , has done loads of work with Brixton Finishing School and Creative Equals over the years and we ’ re currently exploring different ways of supporting them .

How do you challenge the stereotypes of job roles ?

The number one stereotype we come up against is people ’ s preconceived notions of what someone working in sales is like and we love turning this stereotype on its head ! Our team ’ s made up of people from all walks of life : creatives , fresh graduates , people who ’ ve worked in agencies , people looking for a career change . The most important quality we look for when recruiting is if someone is able to build rapport and relationships quickly and effortlessly . It ’ s impossible to put our team into a box .

Another stereotype I enjoy challenging is the stereotype of what it means to be a strong leader . To me , a strong leader is someone who ’ s not scared to show their vulnerability , someone who ’ s approachable and someone who can admit when they ’ re wrong . I think the stereotype of a strong leader is someone who ’ s stoic and who has all the answers – that just isn ’ t who I am and I ’ m delighted to be a different kind of leader . �

46 intelligent

. tech

Intelligent SME . tech