DM2023: recruitment and retention
Highlights from the debate.
The NUJ will now create an eight-strong recruitment working group drawn from the entire membership including at least one each from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, following a motion from London Independent Broadcasting and New Media branch.
It will include adequate representation from areas where increases in remote working are making traditional approaches to recruitment and organisation more difficult.
The union will also fund research into the characteristics of the estimated 180,000 media workers in the UK. Liz Else, London Magazine branch, highlighted that if just 10,000 of these eligible recruits were to join at the lowest subscription rate of £204 a year, they would contribute £2million a year. Charles Whalley, Oxford branch, indicated there were many potential recruits in book publishing and academic journals.
Natasha Hirst speaking on behalf of the NEC, said that recruitment had been a core part of the NEC’s work over the past two years and congratulated national organisers for going to places where journalists had not been recruited before. She said a key part of the focus is the recruitment of young journalists.