A handful of tv talent managers at some of the biggest indies, Endemol and RDF spring to mind, have been in place and crewing up for over a decade. Their influence has grown with their experience and their companies’ expansion. These long-term talent heads have known many executive producers and commissioning editors since they were researchers. Other indies have recruited talent managers from working producers, or from HR depts., or from production co-ordinators and assistants. There is a wide range of experience among people with the same the job title.
The different levels of experience highlight that the tv industry as a whole has not yet decided what the role of the talent manager is, or who should be doing it. In other, more established, sectors with stable workforces a talent manager usually comes from a human resources background. Their role is both fresh recruitment, and ‘succession planning’. The latter presumes that good people in a given role will be promoted within the company or out of it, and you need to know in advance who can step into their place. For now much of the tv industry is still too reliant on short-term contracts to make succession planning a priority at anything less than Managing Director level.
Many indies still have no talent manager at all, so the role is filled by the head of production, or individual production managers and producers. Talent managers within some other indies work in parallel with the production management teams, but they do not necessarily work together. But the indies really are in competition with each other now for the best freelancers, and increasingly they need the range of contacts, long-term planning and collaboration across companies that talent managers provide.
Here is my prediction for the near future. Currently there is confusion about the talent manager’s role, but a clearer division will form. Junior talent managers will continue to put together production teams in below-the-line roles, and they may do this on their own, or as part of the production management set-up – theirs is obviously a very important role. Other talent managers will take an increasingly corporate role within their companies, they will act more like head-hunters of specialist directors, executive producers, creative directors and managing directors. They will advise and support business development and growth within the indie, and be seen as a more integral part of a company’s strategy than they are at present. Some talent managers will work on a permanent basis for a company, others as consultants.
What is already clear is that indies can’t expect to attract the most appropriate freelancers and executives without investing in their search and retention. The talent manager is an increasingly vital connection between a company’s ambition and the people who can get it there.
Photo by C.P.Storm
