Staffing the Future

Skills shortages in certain roles are having a major impact across the post-production sector.

In the latest episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson talks with the technical director of one of the UK’s most pre-eminent post-production facilities and an associate professor at a large university specializing in the creative arts about what the issues are and how they can be addressed.

In the episode, Craig speaks with Jai Cave, technical operations director of the award-winning ENVY Post Production, who says that they are still feeling the effects of the pandemic when it comes to recruiting staff, and that the challenge is not solely around bringing in people at the start of their career.

He tells host, Craig Wilson, “It's across the board. We're obviously always very keen to get the right talent in. You know it's not too difficult to find young people that want to come into the industry, but it's finding the right people, and that's what we have to work really hard to do. Higher up the chain it could be senior people from engineering to management in certain areas that can be quite hard to find. So it's not always the low levels. We've certainly had to work—I would say a lot harder—in the last year than ever before to get the right people in.”

Jai outlines the work of the ENVY Academy, a program designed to reach out to schools, colleges, and universities to attract the best talent in, and also its role within the organization to ensure staff can continue to train and develop their skills to further their career.

In the episode, Caroline Orme, associate professor at Ravensbourne University in the UK, details their work to prepare the next generation of creative professionals. She says that part of the challenge for recruiters is the wide range of opportunities which are out there now for students, beyond the traditional routes to work through post-production houses. With an increasing number of organizations creating and delivering content, that means competition for talent can be fierce.

“I think sometimes the reasons why companies might have difficulties recruiting is because of the variety of roles that are out there. And it means that obviously you've got fewer people going for one particular role because if you have 30 new roles out there, if you're trying to attract somebody for a particular role, of course there's all these other roles that are competing for people as well within that very same sector.

Caroline also talks of her excitement at the new Avid Media Composer For Students program, where students can get a free copy of Avid’s award-winning editing software. More details on that program can be found here.

Find out more on the next episode of the Making the Media Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms on Friday, June 23.

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