WHO ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? Being specific with what you’re looking for here can be really useful for you and for freelancers. It reduces the number of applications you have to administrate, and you don’t waste freelancers time.

However, if you’re talking about protected characteristics make sure you’re using positive action (legal) not positive discrimination (illegal). For example, imagine you’re keen to hear from candidates with a particular protected characteristic:

Positive Action: We strongly encourage [people with this characteristic] to apply, all of whom will be invited to interview, if they meet the minimum criteria. (legal)

Positive Discrimination: We only want [people with this characteristic] candidates to apply, and will be burning/dismissing/ripping up all other applications. (illegal)

You can only stipulate that a candidate must or must not have a protected characteristic if that characteristic is absolutely necessary to the work. For example: “This project takes place in female-only spaces, therefore the candidate must be female”. Another example would be if a funder has specified that funding for this role is contingent on the role going to someone with certain characteristics: “This role is funded by [this organisation] specifically as an opportunity for someone [from this community / with this characteristic]”.

Last but not least, rather than using ‘BAME’ we suggest using ‘people who experience racism’ or, better yet, being specific about which ethnic group you’re talking about. More information can be found from Inc Arts UK here.

WHAT’S THE FEE? We ask employers to state the fee (or the range) so that applicants can decide to apply or not. Low fees mean you will not get the best applicants, and you will be excluding people who are too often excluded. We strongly suggest anyone posting a job ad look at the Equity / ITC minimums – and remember they are the bare minimums, not suggested fees. Funders will not object to you offering more than the minimum in order to secure the best artists.

WHAT’S THE PROCESS? You can use any method you like to assess candidates, and though no assessment will ever be 100% fair, we’d very strongly suggest you think carefully about how accessible your process is – will assessing people in the way you’ve chosen allow everyone to participate? Will it allow everyone to show you their best work? Will anyone be excluded / put off by your chosen process? Think about what you’re asking of candidates – will they need to travel, spend a long time preparing, have you given sufficient notice, etc? Will that exclude anyone? How can you be more inclusive?