Executive Search Embeds Equity & Inclusion into Brentford’s Leadership

Overview

Brentford Football Club is a Premier League club with a strong record of community impact, including four EFL Community Club of the Year awards. At the time of the search, the club had also received the Business in the Community and CommunityMark awards.

The newly created Equity and Inclusion Director position would provide strategic leadership and help place inclusion at the heart of the club’s decision-making, culture and operations.

Challenge

Brentford Football Club sought to appoint its first Equity and Inclusion Director, a newly created leadership role designed to place inclusion at the heart of the club’s strategy, culture and decision-making.

The appointment required an individual who could combine strategic expertise with the ability to build trust, influence stakeholders and create meaningful change across the organisation.

Central to the search was identifying a leader who could:

  • Develop and embed a clear equity and inclusion strategy
  • Engage colleagues, supporters, community partners and senior stakeholders
  • Build consensus and secure commitment across different areas of the club
  • Translate ambition into practical, measurable action
  • Bring relevant experience from either sport or a transferable sector

The challenge was to create an equitable search process that reflected the purpose of the role, reduced bias and assessed candidates on their capability, judgement and potential impact.

Solution

Executives in Sport Group designed an anonymous and skills-led recruitment process that reflected the purpose of the appointment and supported Brentford’s commitment to equity and inclusion.

The search began with the development of an interactive candidate briefing pack, providing clear insight into the role, the club’s ambitions and the impact the successful candidate would be expected to deliver. The opportunity was promoted across a broad range of communities, specialist networks and job boards to ensure the process was accessible to candidates from varied backgrounds.

Alongside the attraction campaign, EISG conducted targeted market research and proactively approached individuals with the stakeholder management, strategic leadership and influencing capabilities required for the role.

At the assessment stage, EISG worked with Brentford to develop four work-based scenario questions. Candidates were assessed on their responses rather than through traditional CVs and covering letters, allowing capability, judgement and potential impact to take greater priority than career history.

Responses were anonymised and randomised through a specialist recruitment platform. EISG and Brentford assessors then reviewed and scored each answer independently, helping to reduce bias, limit groupthink and create a more consistent evaluation process.

Scores were combined to form the shortlist, providing Brentford with a transparent, evidence-led and equitable route to identifying the strongest candidates.

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.