Brentford Football Club

About

Premier League Football Club, Brentford are four-time winners of the EFL Community Club of the Year Award. They are also the only professional football club in the UK with a Business in the Community and Community Mark Award.

Challenge

To support Brentford in the identification and appointment of an Equity and Inclusion Director. A newly created role aiming to provide strategic leadership and create impact across the club. Putting inclusion at the heart of everything they do. Key to the search was finding someone with excellent stakeholder management experience. Someone who could win hearts and minds in addition to setting overall strategy.

Solution

For this search, we ran an anonymous recruitment process. Meaning Brentford chose to review answers candidates gave to work scenario questions rather than taking the traditional path of reviewing CVs and cover notes.

The search started with the development of an interactive candidate briefing pack / job description. This was shared across a wide range of communities and job boards in order to make the role genuinely accessible. Alongside this, our research team identified and approached a number of individuals with the relevant traits and abilities for this role.

At the screening stage, we worked with Brentford to develop four work scenario questions which each candidate was asked to give a written response to.

The answers were randomised using an advanced recruitment platform and both Executives in Sport Group and Brentford employees then assessed and ranked answers. Additionally, the answers were anonymous and, importantly, ranked separately so no bias or groupthink could creep in. Scores were averaged out to remove potential halo effect and the shortlist quickly formed.

Result

A truly equitable and inclusive executive search process, from start to finish. This process had the highest candidate feedback ratings we have to date. This showed how much people value the extra time and effort put into debiasing the recruitment process and making it fair and equitable for all.

Sixteen exceptional individuals reached the assessment stage and completed the skill-based work scenario questions, leading to six being invited for interview. Eight weeks after the process started, Brentford had their first-ever Equity and Inclusion Director. They came from outside of sport, transitioning from media and entertainment.