Broker Case Study - Maverick
The company
Maverick is the TV company that brought viewers '10 Years Younger' - the makeover series with added plastic surgery. It's currently following that up with 'How to Look Good Naked', whose production team have been touring Britain persuading members of the public to take their clothes off.
Founded in 1994, Maverick has taken advantage of Birmingham's broadcast hub and the traditional strength of the West Midlands in creating national and regional TV programmes. Today, it has 50 full-time staff and works with a further 90-95 freelancers. This makes it an unusually large employer, in a region where 98% of media companies have fewer than 25 employees.
With a string of successful programmes, and a new managing director, Maverick TV looks set to remain a strong player among the region's television companies.
The Meeting
Amy Thomas, Midlands Regional Manager Manager at Skillset and Joan Smith of West Midlands Broker Services, met Maverick's head of HR Claire Welch at the end of January. Joan and Amy both took the opportunity to explain their roles. "I spent a few minutes talking about what Skillset has to offer and how we are working with Train to Gain," says Amy, "and then I handed over to Joan".
Joan talked through the company's situation and learned that Maverick has strong staff training and development structures in place. Claire ensures that all managers review staff regularly and keeps training and development files for all staff. With staff reviews coming up, this was not the right moment to discuss general training opportunities - but she had something more specific in mind.
What interested Claire was the Director Development Programme available through the West Midlands LSC, which could provide grants to support two of the company's senior management on Institute of Directors courses.
"While Maverick might be interested in business support training such as ICT or finance in the future, this meeting was mostly just to discuss how I'd broker that Director Development application for them," says Joan.
The Outcome
The majority of Maverick's staff are professionals with little need for the free Level 2 courses available under Train to Gain. It was agreed that Claire would contact Joan again once she had completed the company's annual reviews to discuss other training options.
The imminent application deadline for Director Development grants made this the priority. But other pressures meant Claire was struggling to complete the paperwork.
"I'm afraid that's how this industry works," says Amy. "Everyone is so busy that sometimes people miss incredible opportunities. But ultimately it's up to the businesses," she adds, "all we can do is make it easier."
More generally, Amy was impressed by the way Joan dealt with Maverick, and is looking forward to working more closely with her in future. "The media industry often perceives the offer of organisations such as Business Link as not very relevant," she says. "But the brokers I've met were obliging and flexible, with a good knowledge of the support available. Joan was very keen to get beyond the idea that Train To Gain is just about Level 2. For her, this is about meeting the needs of the company."