Paramount Global is rolling out a new diversity reporting platform that has the potential to fill in major gaps in metrics on its television productions for everyone from writers and directors to wardrobe stylists and stunt workers.
On the corporate side, Paramount has already been publishing diversity data for its full-time employees — but productions, which typically include workers hired by third-party companies, lacked a universal system to access and analyze those same metrics and proved more challenging.
So Paramount created its own platform using Salesforce’s low-code developer tools, which is designed so that other media companies (and businesses in other industries) can also use it. The dashboard tracks diversity statistics of production suppliers — which also include production assistants, makeup artists, vendors, contractors and extras — across its brands in furtherance of its Content for Change initiative. The information is collected on a voluntary basis in connection with payroll, and the process is designed to safeguard data security and privacy.
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“To produce the best content for a diverse global audience, it’s imperative that the teams both in front of and behind the camera, and those who are creating content, reflect our audiences,” says Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish. “We often say ‘what gets measured gets done’ and this data will help us create a baseline for diversity targets, continue to improve representation, make informed long-term diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments in a measurable way, and hold ourselves accountable.”
For the past six months the company has been testing the tool — which is currently dubbed the Paramount Production Diversity Measurement Infrastructure — on some of its TV projects. In the first phase, the company asked for opt in data on race and gender, but it will explore measuring other factors. Paramount plans to roll out the tool for all of its domestic television productions.
“We know that media plays a pivotal role in shaping and driving values, perceptions, and actions — of individuals and within communities,” says Crystal Barnes, svp of corporate social responsibility and ESG strategy and reporting. “Content for Change’s mission is to transform the way the world sees people. We recognized the need for diversity across the industry and have key insights through our partners that prove that the more diverse the profiles are of those helping to create content, the more accurate the portrayals across this content will be. By using scientific research and insights, like those that are in our Salesforce production tool, we will be able to continue the work towards systemic change and a clear path to measure this process.”
Because the company was an established Salesforce client, developing a tool using its framework was speedier than building something similar from scratch. Paramount also plans to implement automation features in the future, including Salesforce Flow.
“While there is no finish line when it comes to equality, every company can make progress in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce and ecosystem by seeing and acting on their data,” says Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff. “We’re incredibly excited to support Bob Bakish and his amazing team of their creation of a new software platform that advances equality across Paramount and the entertainment industry.”
