Policy Principle and Guidelines
Equity and Inclusion
Policy Statement:
Being a prominent global Casting agency, Castingtree is in a unique position to be a torch torchbearer of representing Diversity in the Advertising and Entertainment contents. We take our role very seriously.
Internally - "We leverage diversity in our workforce and adopt inclusiveness in every aspect of our company's functioning.
Externally - "We push back against stereotypes in Casting. We encourage our clients, vendors and partners to include maximum diversity in the casting of a content"
Castingtree is committed to promoting collaboration between people from diverse backgrounds globally. We believe that authenticity is the key to true transformation! Our goal is to contribute to a fairer and more socially inclusive society, by enabling and thereby amplifying the broadest, most diverse creative talent available to us globally.
This can only be done by leveraging diversity and adopting inclusive collaborative practices in all our casting projects irrespective of a person’s age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make us unique.
The 6-pronged approach we adopted to revolutionise the authenticity in the industry one project at a time entails:
Acceptance of Diversity -
Understanding that our differences are what truly help us bring unique traits, skills, knowledge, and experience to the table, and in doing so broaden our horizon. It is our experience that a respectful attitude, as well as harmonious behavior in the team, is the first step to keeping up with the ever-evolving global market and garnering the best results. It is important for us to break stereotypes in Casting by encouraging our clients, vendors and partners to include maximum diversity when working on the casting of a project.
Accessibility -
Support is imperative in any collaborative effort. As such, we have worked on creating a completely virtual audition process on our platform - Cretso to make the casting process more convenient for the talent, client, partners, and us. This prevents us as well as the talent from missing out on opportunities due to logistical reasons. It also helps us reach and retain talent that might have special needs, and hence are unable to come for in-person auditions due to health concerns. Castingtree closely works with our talent, client brands, partners as well as vendors to strategize and devise a workaround in the production elements to ensure the comfort of everyone connected. We also adapt our office premises, shoot locations, etc to accommodate any specific requirements, special needs, or other concerns from all parties involved. We are constantly striving to make our workplace, and shoots as accessible as possible for one and all.
Communication -
Communication is crucial when it comes to making people feel seen, heard, and included which will make your team happier, more united, and more engaged to contribute. Minor efforts like using appropriate terminology, a respectful undertone, and two-way communication go a long way in taking results a notch higher. Therefore, we stress on mutual respect in order to maintain a professional environment with internal as well as external stakeholders regardless. We incorporate total transparency in our casting calls and briefs for clear communication thereby setting the right expectations and avoiding misleading anyone, which ensures optimal results.
Partnerships -
Extending the impact further, we associate ourselves with employees, vendors, partners, clients, talent, and other external groups that not only value but also exude openness to diversity, authenticity, and inclusivity.
It is paramount that our internal, as well as external stakeholders, share similar ideologies when it comes to openly accepting, and working with the perfect fit for a project, irrespective of any other aspects. We engage actively with NGOs that work with the LGBTQIA+ community, veterans, people with disabilities, and more. In addition, we have pushed for inclusivity in various campaigns over the last few years, which have helped shatter stereotypes, and set benchmarks as opposed to adhering to bygone and regressive casting practices.
Adaptable Work Culture -
An inclusive work culture is the foundation of any organization, and the workforce is at the very core of it. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that both of these are aware of and exude the values of the company. We believe in leveraging diversity in our workforce by adopting inclusiveness in every aspect of our company's internal functioning. Our efforts to strengthen our base incorporate, but are not limited to awareness and internal change seminars for deeper cultural education, as well as strict policies, for the prohibition of any hostile or inappropriate conduct against others by subjecting the person responsible to disciplinary actions including termination of employment. Other efforts include new work practices and meaningful shifts in the way we plan, brief, research, create and judge our output with the end goal of better resonating and winning with a more diverse as well as under-represented segment of people. Every member of the workforce is expected to exhibit conduct that reflects inclusion during work, at work functions on or off the work site, and all other company-sponsored as well as participative events.
Intersectionality -
We aim to break stereotypes, doing away with any bias, and thereby working towards an overall diverse representation by ensuring our casting is authentic and not taking opportunities away from diverse groups. We will not settle for the casting of non-disabled actors to play characters who are disabled. Only consider non-disabled actors playing a disabled role if the health or safety of the individual with the disability would be at risk playing the role. We also actively work towards getting our clients and partners to consider how we could include people with disabilities in supporting roles or as extras.
In all, diversity, inclusion, and mutual respect are building blocks to a harmonious and profitable organization. We hope to transcend this to every professional relationship we foster, whilst constantly working on evolving with them, and developing or updating policies that aid us in staying relevant ethically.
For any questions related to this policy, write to us at admin@castingtree.com.