Will the Rooney Rule Increase Diversity In TV?

When it comes to diversity in the media everybody seems to love the Rooney Rule.

But does it actually work?

The answer to that question is a massive “maybe” with a large dose of "it might do more harm than good.”

The Rooney Rule is the idea that to tackle the lack of diversity in an organization at least one person from a diverse background should be shortlisted to be interviewed for certain jobs.

This week ITN revealed that on average its BAME staff roughly receive 20% less pay than their white counterparts.

When it comes to bonuses the figures are even worse with BAME employees receiving roughly two thirds less than their white colleagues.

To tackle the problem ITN immediately announced it will be implementing a version of the Rooney Rule, their exact words were; “A key initiative, effective immediately, includes the policy for at least one BAME candidate to be interviewed for every role.”

Similarly just a month earlier (almost to the day) the BBC announced it would be implementing the Rooney Rule with shortlists for all senior roles at the BBC having to include at least one BAME candidate.

ACADEMICS SAY THE ROONEY RULE HAS NOT INCREASED DIVERSITY IN THE NFL

So what has been the experience of the Rooney Rule?

The Rooney Rule is named after the ex-president of the American Football team the Pittsburgh Steelers – Dan Rooney - who championed the policy to be adopted by the NFL in an attempt to increase the number of BAME head coaches.

At the time it was implemented in 2003 there were only three minority head coaches out of the 32 teams. In 2006 the number of head coaches had more than doubled to seven.

But by 2013 the number had dropped back down to three.

Last year the number had gone back up to seven.

And this year despite seven head coach places becoming free only one BAME coach was appointed.

With the numbers yo-yoing like this the problem of trying to definitively say whether the Rooney Rule works is very difficult. We are trying to analyse incredibly small numbers, a few dozen teams and even fewer coaches, and come to a simple answer.

The fact that the policy can be heralded a success one year because numbers have doubled due to four individual appointments and then labelled a failure because five years later the numbers have fallen back to just three shows how difficult it is to judge its effectiveness.

However when academics have crunched the numbers the conclusion seems to be that they “find no evidence that the Rooney Rule has increased the number of minority head coaches.” ("Moving on up: The Rooney rule and minority hiring in the NFL" published in the journal Labour Economics).

ROONEY RULE DOES NOT INCREASE DIVERSITY IF THERE’S JUST ONE MINORITY CANDIDATE

But what the champions of the Rooney Rule claim is that at least it creates equality of opportunity because BAME candidates get to be seen and interviewed.

This is a dubious claim.

In a ground breaking study researchers at the University of Colorado showed that simply adding one minority candidate to an interview list does not help improve diversity hiring.

When there is only one minority candidate in the interview pool the chances of them being hired is close to zero. There are several theories as to why this may be the case, including the idea that they are seen as a novelty or an outlier or more of a risk.

However if the number of minorities being interviewed is doubled to just two then their chances of being hired rockets.

The study showed how the effect is also true for women being interviewed.

SHOULD WE SUPPORT BROADCASTERS IMPLEMENTING THE ROONEY RULE?

The very real fear of broadcasters implementing the Rooney Rule is that it can be counterproductive as managers feel they are addressing a problem when they more than likely are not.

The business magazine Forbes recently looked at the issue and it criticized the use of the Rooney Rule of being a lazy management tool when what is really needed to tackle diversity is “real investment from senior leadership over a sustained period of time to look at the root causes of the issues and develop the cultural shift that will bring success.”

Forbes magazine concludes that if you want to improve diversity “Don’t implement the Rooney Rule”.

I wouldn’t go that far as I don’t think there is conclusive proof either way.

But what there does seem to be conclusive proof about is adding one minority candidate will not dramatically improve diversity, and so if you really want to implement the Rooney Rule you must have at least two BAME candidates short-listed.