Members Spotlight: Talent Trust

Talent Trust is a workforce measurement platform for creative productions spanning film, TV and the wider creative industries. Founder and CEO, Elizabeth Peyton-Jones, chats to us about why aggregated data on the creative workforce is so valuable and how the organisation is helping firms and productions sustain supportive and safe working environments across the sector.

 

Who are you and what do you do?

Talent Trust is a problem-solving platform for the creative industries. We help productions solve problems before they become critical by listening directly to cast and crew. Most producers have a decent instinct for how a shoot is going. What they cannot get is the thing nobody will say to their face, and proof of the bit they already suspect. Talent Trust asks cast and crew directly and anonymously, during the job rather than in a survey after everyone has gone home. It confirms what a good production team already senses, and it surfaces the two or three things that were never going to travel up the chain. That gives a production live evidence of whether its people feel supported, which is the closest thing this industry has to a read on psychological safety. It also catches problems while they are still cheap to fix: prep time that was never realistic, a department under strain, a safety concern nobody wants to be first to raise.

At industry level, the aggregated data answers questions nobody can currently answer with confidence: where support is missing, which training actually matters, why skilled technicians leave, and where funders and government should point money.

 

What are you currently working on?

We are closing the expensive distance between what a production plan says should happen and what live data tells us is actually happening. That is not only about catching bad situations. It is also about revealing what great looks like, understanding where productions are working well, where people feel supported, and what conditions allow teams to do their best work. We are currently working across theatre, dance, film, TV and advertising, while also looking at how the methodology can expand into sectors such as sport and tech. The aim is to build a measurement approach that fits different workflows and pressure points, rather than assuming every production or creative environment works in the same way.

 

What has been your organisation’s proudest achievement?

Our proudest achievement is building a platform that helps the industry move beyond tick-box change. You can have as many diverse people on set as you like, but unless people feel supported, feel that they belong, and feel psychologically equal, they will not necessarily return. That means you are not really increasing diversity, equity or inclusion just by having the right numbers on paper. For us, real inclusion means understanding who is having the best time, who is having the worst time, who feels supported and who does not. It means making sure everybody has a voice, and that everybody feels psychologically safe. That is what Talent Trust is designed to measure. Our categories, methodology and questions are all indicators of whether people feel supported, included and able to function at their best.

 

How is your organisation working to champion EDI within your sector?

Talent Trust champions EDI by measuring whether inclusion is actually being experienced by people on the ground. It is not enough to mandate diversity or to bring people from different backgrounds into a production if they are not supported properly once they are there. If people do not feel they belong, if they do not feel psychologically safe, or if they leave the experience feeling they have not accomplished anything, then the industry has not created lasting inclusion.

Our platform helps organisations understand this in a measurable way. We listen to everybody — not only protected groups, but the whole workforce, because equality has to mean that everybody has a voice and everybody is treated with fairness. By measuring support, belonging, voice and psychological safety, Talent Trust helps organisations see where EDI is working and where it is still only a tick-box exercise.

 

What are three things you’re loving in your sector right now?

1. Government is recognising the creative industries as financially significant
The first thing I am loving is that government is realising this is a very lucrative, investable sector. For a long time, the creative industries were treated as a “nice to have”, valuable culturally, but not always recognised as a serious financial force. Now there is a greater understanding that if we get this right, if we measure success properly, understand what works, and know where to put training, skills and money, this can become an even more financially robust industry.

2. The industry is becoming more data-driven
Because of that, people are becoming more data-driven, which is very important. The sector is beginning to understand that if we want to make better decisions, we need better measurement. We need to know what is working, what is not working, where skill sets are needed, where training is needed, and where investment will have the greatest impact.

3. There is a shift towards true oversight
I am also loving the shift towards true oversight. The industry has always known there is no such thing as a standard production. Every production carries different risks, pressures and dynamics. What is changing is the recognition that we need tools that can show us what is really happening while there is still time to act, rather than relying only on hindsight.

 

And three things you’re not loving so much in your sector?

1. The lack of proper measurement tools
I find it frustrating that people are trying really hard to make a difference, but because there is no adequate measurement tool, we do not know how well we are doing. A lot of money and effort is going into change, but the stats never seem to move. Everyone is trying to change the dial, but without proper measurement, it is difficult to know what is actually working.

2. Finance driving tolerance of bad behaviour
One of the things I do not like about the sector at the moment is that finance is such a big driver of behaviour, and of how much bad behaviour people are willing to tolerate. Budgets are squeezed, there is less work than there used to be, and people need the jobs. Because of the financial burden on everybody, people put up with behaviour that should have been stamped out. The creative industry presents itself as creative, but in reality it is driven very heavily by business and finance. That creates a difficult dynamic when financial pressure starts driving expectations of creative teams.

3. Training and wellbeing initiatives that create a buffer, but not deep change
There is a lot of investment going into training, wellbeing programmes, intimacy training and anti-bullying initiatives. Those things can be useful, but they can also become a buffer rather than deep change. Deep change comes when there is a proper management system in place: when people can be creative without crossing boundaries, and when producers and leaders are brave enough to say no to unacceptable behaviour. The industry needs to have more honest conversations about how to keep difficult but creative people within the industry while also protecting the people who need to be protected. It is not as simple as saying every difficult person will be removed, because that is not realistic. So we need better systems, better boundaries and better measurement.

 

Who would be your dream collaborator/collaboration?

The dream collaboration would be a network of production companies, broadcasters and streamers, working with funders such as AHRC, DCMS, the BFI or Arts Council England. The aim would be to build a proper infrastructure measurement tool for the sector, something embedded, not just a standalone service. If the measurement is equal across different organisations and sectors, we can begin to understand what is happening across regions, industries and forms: film, TV, dance, theatre, ballet, sport, tech and beyond.

That kind of collaboration would allow the industry to gather meaningful intelligence at scale. It would help us see what is happening north, south, east and west; understand the different pressures in different sectors; and use data to support better decision-making for the whole creative economy. For me, the dream is to be embedded within the sector as infrastructure.

 

What does creativity mean to you?

Creativity means having the space to think and the space to create. Creative people cannot do their best work if they are overburdened by policy, standards, admin and the day-to-day grind. That creates limitations on achievement, and it creates frustration. That frustration can then affect the supporting team, making people feel inadequate, overburdened or disconnected from the work. Creativity is not just about the person with the most visible creative role. Every person working on a set, no matter how small their role may seem, is part of creating something. A runner, someone making a cup of tea, someone collecting someone from the airport, they are all part of a bigger picture.

When people are seen as just a function or just a job, creativity fails. People need to feel invested in what is being made. If being in the creative industries starts to feel like just a job, then something important has been lost.

What’s next for your organisation?

What is next for us is creating the collaborations we have been talking about: building Talent Trust into a standard mechanism across the industry. We want it to become a normal budget line, paid for by multiple organisations, rather than the burden sitting with one production or one company. This is about budget protection, but it is also bigger than that. We are not just creating an early warning system. That is only the first part of what we do. What we are really trying to build is a way for the industry to understand what works in difficult situations and how to solve problems before they damage the work, the people or the production. At the end of the day, we are trying to keep the industry alive and highly functioning. We do that by giving it better knowledge, better measurement and practical solutions.

 

What do you think needs to change in the UK’s Cultural and Creative Industries?

People need to enjoy their jobs again. They need to love the work and have the ability to be creative without feeling the pressures they are feeling at the moment. There needs to be better training, better mentoring and a better understanding of the pinch points that are happening across the sector. But those things need to be worked out in measurable ways. We also need to rethink return on investment. There is a lot of investment going into people, workforce, training, skills, wellbeing and anti-bullying work, but where is the return on that investment (ROI) if people are still not feeling better, if people are leaving the industry, or if productions are still facing the same problems?

ROI cannot only mean squeezing the budget until a production breaks even. Our data shows that by paying attention to the small details, the day-to-day challenges cast and crew are facing, and implementing changes from the start, productions can actually maintain ROI more effectively. So what needs to change is the way the sector understands value. Investment in people is part of ROI. Measurement is how we prove whether that investment is working.

 

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