Proven practices for more inclusive recruitment

The driving force for inclusive recruitment

For the past year, I (Molly Byrne) have been implementing my inclusive recruitment strategy for England Rugby. The drive for more inclusive recruitment came from an increased focus on I&D after the murder of George Floyd, which prompted the development of our first I&D strategy. One pillar of this strategy was Employees and Board, where it was recognised that we had significant underrepresented groups across most protected characteristics.

Key focus for improvements

My initial aim was to improve our attraction and engagement of those underrepresented groups. As a sport, rugby has uneven popularity across different groups, with the most popular being white, male and middle class. This means that we must put in extra work to attract people outside this demographic, both within the sport and as an employer. We want rugby to appeal to a wider group and to make rugby a more inclusive sport and space, we need to hire people from those groups. Outside of the benefits of diverse lived experiences to our sport, inclusive recruitment is part of the puzzle of having a good working culture. 

A strategy based approach

My initial task was reviewing the existing process and using the opportunity to procure a new applicant tracker system to embed the changes I wanted into the system. Those changes shifted to anonymised shortlisting and using competency-based questions instead of CVs. 

One of the biggest challenges has been engagement with hiring managers across the organisation. The cyclical nature of hiring and managers dropping in and out of the process has meant that managers have not engaged with the changes until before they begin hiring. Time is in short supply, meaning that by the time they want to hire, they want to hire immediately.

In response to this situation, we created a suite of training, in collaboration with Inclusive Employers, for inclusive hiring, and this has been viewed primarily by those new to hiring. Experienced hiring managers are less likely to complete this training, so I’ve had to reach them differently. I set up weekly drop-ins for two months after the new system was put in place and extended this indefinitely to catch all hiring managers starting the recruitment process.

Effective change through collaboration and close relationships

The single most valuable and impactful measure has been working closely with our recruitment coordinator, who acts as a gatekeeper for the recruitment process. Working together has meant that we have adapted the existing process rather than adding or changing the process, which risks being dropped or shifted back in times of crisis or when time is limited. She has been instrumental in pushing hiring managers to use competency-based questions instead of cover letters and sharing the new job description template. Hopefully, as hiring managers gain more confidence in the new process, we can shift away from using anonymised CVs as a backup and solely rely on the questions.  

Molly’s final thoughts

As with all EDI work, it is a work in progress. We collect and regularly review feedback from applicants and hiring managers, and it has become clear that the interviews aren’t always consistent, so we are planning to start informally auditing some interview processes. We have also prepared some communications to reiterate must-haves in the interview process relating to panels and timely communications to applicants, both of which were raised in the feedback we collected. 

Author bio:

Molly Byrne , Diversity and Inclusion Attraction and Engagement Advisor at England Rugby

I have been working in EDI for around five years and first started out in a local charity in Cambridge, where I organised LGBTQ+ history month for the city. I also advise local businesses on how to make their workplaces more inclusive. After this, I worked at Stonewall for three years as a Client Account Manager, managing a portfolio of around 40 global clients. For this role, I provided inclusive advice, created and facilitated empowerment programmes and worked with our Sports department to help deliver their workshops. Currently, I work for the RFU as an Inclusion and Diversity Advisor, focusing on recruitment. Outside of work, I have played rugby since I was 12 and now play for my local club Shelford. I recently volunteered as D&I officer for my previous club Sheffield.