Service Types

 

Foundational Research -and- Needs Assessment 

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The Task

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• NCAP looked to undertake foundational employment research on nonprofit arts and filmmaking industries as well as collect insights and input from staff at the evaluated organization.

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• To achieve this end, our team arrived at a two-part solution: 1). compare available data on employment and compensation rates across U.S-based nonprofit arts and filmmaking organizations and 2). design and send a custom survey to the evaluated nonprofit’s employees to gather anonymous responses about perceptions of organizational priorities and reactions to workplace practices.

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Our Approach

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Landscape Research Focused on Hiring Demographic and Compensation Data

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Our team looked to provide CJAM with the proper industry-wide hiring and compensation data to contextualize their larger evaluation of the filmmaking organization’s objective to strengthen their DE&I objectives and practices.

 

Culminating in a 15-page brief, our findings were structured into three main areas of focus: 1). employment and compensation rates in the nonprofit sector and arts + entertainment industry; 2). diversity rates in the arts + entertainment sector and documentary filmmaking industry; and, finally, 3). snapshot review of DE&I hiring and human resources best practices.

 

Drawing first from official government sources for employment and labor statistics, the compiled data framed the state of nonprofit employment overall, examined wage variances across different geographic regions and detailed compensation trends characterizing 501(c)(3) arts and entertainment organizations operating within the U.S. context.

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The additional data extracts in the brief were taken from a series of reports surveying nonprofit organizations across the country. Our team honed in on how compensation policies, along with salary increase criteria and rates of increase, partly illuminate payroll strategies and employee advancement standards at U.S. nonprofit arts and entertainment organizations.

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In addition to the data pulled from these referenced sources, we excerpted from studies focused on examining the current state and shifts in the documentary filmmaking profession.

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We developed a summary of recommendations for DE&I hiring best practices. These recommendations were meant to serve as a ‘first step’ for registering improvements to hiring and HR processes and practices and establishing greater equity within an organization such as the documentary filmmaking nonprofit under evaluation.

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Design, Development and Administration of Employee Survey

 

Following up on background research, and initial conversations with CJAM based on their engagement with the organization under evaluation, we designed a 29-question employment survey for deployment via email. Areas of inquiry included: 

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• Demographic information for the respondent, including a write-in box for self-described gender, race and ethnicity identification; 

• Degree of equity, diversity and inclusivity achieved through hiring practices and protocol;

• Review of human resources processes as related to respect for a diverse and inclusive employee population;

• Perceptions and experience of workplace culture and interpersonal dynamics, particularly in regard to accepted best practices for how to balance the needs of diverse employee population;

• Stated organizational mission and values versus daily work experiences and observations of operations in practice;

• Relationship between staff, leadership and board of directors;

• Compensation by income range in relation to reported employee position;

• Impact of COVID-19 on human resources protocol and workplace dynamics;

• Prompts for providing input on the most pressing organizational requirements in order to ensure the American Documentary hiring activities and work environment meet the needs of a diverse employee population.