The Getting On Board Festival of Trusteeship was stuffed with useful tips for trustees and aspiring trustees. I am proud to be a trainer for Getting On Board. We have rounded up a few of our favourites to share with you here.
8 ways to correct an imbalance of power on your board of trustees
Those who are already on boards have more power than those who don’t. So power-sharing is bringing people on boards who aren’t currently there.
Use your position: reflect on the imbalance and acknowledge it.
Don’t create a differential between the value of lived experience and learned experience. They’re not binary.
Check who holds the balance of power. Two-tier boards are toxic!
Conduct board evaluations to see how the dynamic and culture is working.
The chair should make sure that the quieter voices are being brought to the fore.
Who speaks first has a big impact on the direction of the debate. Make sure it’s not always the same people.
For those experiencing a deficit of power, draw your confidence from your passion for the mission – it’s your yard, own it!
11 ways trustees can support their CEO
Be an ambassador for the charity - that’s invaluable.
Be committed. Hold the beneficiaries of the charity in mind.
Open your networks. You don’t have to be rich to be generous.
Don’t micromanage your CEO!
Be a strategic thought partner.
Know the difference between governance, strategy and operations.
Make time to have in-person conversations with your CEO – as them what they need from you.
As a chair you have a responsibility to indicate to the other trustees how and where they can help the CEO.
If you need to challenge, take it offline (Side note, a good challenge phrase is: ‘Do you think we’re on track for …’).
Roll your sleeves up and get stuck in.
Be a sponge, learn as much as you can!
The above power tips came from the panel discussion Generating discussion: power-sharing and participation on boards an illuminating discussion which threw up myriad thoughts and opinions, some of which didn't always see eye to eye!
The CEO support tips came from panel discussion CEO and Board - the critical relationship and what it means for you.
Rosa and Smallwood Trust announce 70 new grants through the Women Thrive Fund
As Chair of Trustees at the Smallwood Trust we are delighted to announce 70 new grants worth £1.9 million, which we made through the Women Thrive Fund in partnership with Rosa. Together, we’re resourcing 70 specialist women’s and girls’ organisations that support women and girls with their mental health and financial resilience across the UK.
The work of these organisations is varied and reflects the many inequalities the pandemic is bringing to light – from combating social exclusion for deaf women, to supporting migrant women across the West Midlands.
“As the pandemic continues to push back the cause for gender equality, we’re so pleased to be funding so many incredible specialist organisations that improve the lives of some of the UK’s most marginalised women and girls. These organisations, and many more, told us that declining mental health, increased risk of emotional trauma and increased poverty levels were their biggest concerns among women and girls across the UK.
The Women Thrive Fund is a direct response to those needs. We prioritised organisations led by and for women and girls where the need is greatest, particularly those led by and for Black and minoritised women. We’re incredibly proud to be able to fund this vital work at a time when funding to the women and girls sector is limited, yet the need is more urgent than ever.”
Rebecca Gill, Executive Director at Rosa, and Paul Carbury, Chief Executive at Smallwood Trust.
The Women Thrive Fund is the result of a successful joint bid to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sports’ Tampon Tax fund, from which we jointly received a £1.79 million grant. Smallwood Trust contributed an additional £200,000 and both organisations contributed to the running of this fund from their reserves.
The fund received 665 applications requesting over £17m. Of the awarded oranisations, more than 66% were led by and for Black and minoritised women and more than 40,000 women and girls will be supported through the 70 grants. Successful organisations will be able to spend the grant over the next 15 months.
Examples of the organisations funded by the Women Thrive Fund include the Lesbian Immigration Support Group, which will use its £15,917 grant to give bi-monthly vouchers each worth £100 to women who would otherwise be destitute. The funding will alleviate immediate hardship and connect women with longer term support.
Another funded organisation, RISE, will use its grant of £49,081 to fund a Black and Minoritised Wellbeing Practitioner to disseminate skills and knowledge to survivors of domestic abuse. The aim of this work is to support mental health and create a supportive, healing environment for women and encourage them to foster positive relationships with others.
Rosa and Smallwood Trust are looking forward to working with specialist women and girls organisations across the UK as they respond to the needs of their beneficiaries and wider community.
For Blume I wrote the following article about coping with excessive workload based on my own experiences and on conversations with other chief executives.
Running a charity has never been easy, during the COVID19 crisis it has become even harder. How do hard pressed charity CEOs cope with the heavy workload and support their team? I have had some fascinating discussions with the CEOs of a dozen charities with teams ranging from 180 staff to a handful.
Managing your time
First I asked them how they managed their own time and what techniques they had to let them know when there was just too much work.
As you can image their approaches are varied but the overwhelming theme was the need to take time to plan and reflect, whether that was going for a walk, which almost all of them do, or using very structured management practices, like using a block diary system: when something new doesn’t fit in the diary, there is too much work!
“I look at new pieces of work and then either delegate it to one of the team or I will just pop it into the diary. If it's a funding application or about social impact it takes priority. If it's a team inquiry, it normally comes through on my WhatsApp and if it is urgent they call me. So, we have set patterns within the staff team and trustees so that I know how urgent something is by the method through which they contact me.” Sam Everard - SAMEE
“Every Monday morning, I start by looking at the following week ahead, especially at the moment because of remote working and zoom. I look two weeks ahead because I find that changing things in the current week makes me feel like I'm letting people down. Doing it a little bit further in advance so that people have got notice and I'm not relying on things at the last minute feels better. I try to make sure that I'm not on Zoom for more than four hours a day. I find that being on the phone is easier than staring at myself on the screen all day, especially for a one-to-one conversation where you don't actually need to be on video.” Fiona Spellman – Shine
Tom Lawson from Turn2Us impressed me with his self-discipline, something I need to work on, in having a system to capture and control work, ideas and tasks straight away. “Identify critical goals and a regular assessment of risks. Delegate tasks according to a Trust and Verify system with clear measurable and timed outcomes. Personal prioritisation is a balance of operational need, time requirement, strategic importance and risk management. I use the Eisenhower matrix if things get overwhelming. I also have a things to remember list where I list people and keep a list of things I need to tell them, discuss with them etc. I write only actions down in my notebook and transfer them regularly to my planner. For email management - 3,2,1 zero from Happy Henry is really helpful.”
I was interested to hear how they not only prioritise but also reconcile themselves to not working on everything. As the size of organisations varied the opportunity to delegate also varied but I was particularly taken by the comment from Nicola Sharp of ‘Surviving Economic Abuse’: “For me there is an element of feeling comfortable in not always getting everything I want done. Of holding onto the most important things and trusting that the other things will come together.”
There is a danger of taking on too much and becoming exhausted. Interestingly many of the CEOs have missed the daily commute. Having a long train journey gave them the time to prepare for the day ahead and on the way home they could digest and think about what their next steps would be.
Practising a little bit of self-care and a bit of self-acceptance that you can't be in five different places at once is critical. It is better to have fewer higher quality meetings.
It is also helpful to set up protected time slots of two to three hours, a couple of times a week and ensure there is time to reflect.
Supporting their teams during lockdown
During the lockdown we have all been remote working. For some of us it has been a welcome working style, for others it has been isolating and difficult. I asked how people deal with this challenge not just in terms of getting the work done but also in taking care of their teams.
“It has become more difficult with remote working because you don't get the same informal signals that you get when you're interacting in person. So I have a weekly or fortnightly catch up with all my direct reports and they do the same thing with their teams. If I receive an email that's substantially outside of working hours that's something which will trigger a conversation about what's going on. I am also very conscious of the effect my behaviour has on others. I don't send people things outside working hours and use the delayed delivery function in Outlook. From my point of view it's dealt with and they are not logging in to find five emails from me that they're then thinking oh gosh I should be working those hours too or I need to respond straight away.” Fiona Spellman – Shine
“We have always had monthly line management meetings. Moving to remote working we have increased that to biweekly with a Monday priorities meeting and Wednesday check-in” Mary-Ann Stephenson – Women’s Budget Group
“Well-being and social capital are directly related. We've set up a Google Map, and everyone has popped in where they live, and if they live closely they've been meeting up for lunchtime walks or walking meetings. So we have been building that social capital between people that normally builds in an office environment such as “Oh that's a nice picture” “I heard you got a new dog” “Do you want fancy beer”. At the moment no one's doing any of that, they're only having meetings without social capital. People have become minded to not give each other the benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong.” Tom Lawson – Turn2Us
Supporting themselves during lockdown
Chief Executives are often very bad at looking after themselves. They sometimes feel as if they need to be doing everything all the time and that they alone are responsible. There is a particular pressure on leaders at the moment.
Not only is there the increased demand because of the circumstances but there is also the sense that now is the time to #buildbackbetter and engage with key decision makers and drive change.
So how are they stopping themselves from being spread too thinly?
“It's all the stuff that your Mum told you; get outside, get some fresh air and have a proper meal. I have a walk with my husband every lunchtime, partly to get some exercise and fresh air, but also because we are both so exhausted at the end of the day that we weren't having proper conversations. Whereas before we sat over our dinner and chatted, at the moment we are staring into the middle distance, all our focus has been on work and the kids, and not on ourselves or each other. So our lunchtime walks – when we have both got some energy – have been really helpful. I'm also part of a couple of WhatsApp groups of women leaders of other women's organisations, so we chat and we moan and share experiences.” Mary-Ann Stephenson – Women’s Budget Group
“Simple things, I've made sure to go for a walk before work every day and at lunchtime, even if it's just around the block. At the end of the working day it need to reset my mind to being at home so I turn everything off, go for a walk then I'm coming back home, even though it's the same space. I'm not someone who finds working from home at all easy it's not my preferred working style I like being around other people. I try practising the art of self-acceptance because we all struggle at times, not just at work but in our wider lives. I've tried very consciously to change what I expect from myself and to be more accepting of the fact that sometimes things are more challenging and one of my key responsibilities as a CEO is to take care of myself because I can't take care of my team or, or be a support to them, if I'm in a sort of depleted state. You can't really give your full self.” Fiona Spellman – Shine
“I love reading and then taking that thinking back into my one to ones with my directors or into management or leadership team meetings. It is digesting emerging thinking from others that is a really helpful way to think about how to continually evolve the operation. I've never had a revolutionary thought in my mind and I like classic cars. So what I think about is that you can't drive the car fast until the engine is tuned. So, for me is always about understanding the language and thinking about how to get the most psychologically safe culture, how to excite people about their role, all of that thinking is how I know how to make an organisation work.” Tom Lawson – Turn2Us
Having a sounding board
As I said in the beginning being the leader of an organisation can be tough anywhere, but it is especially true in the not-for-profit sector. The CEO may not feel comfortable sharing all their concerns with the board, although the majority of the CEO’s talked about their supportive Chair of Trustees. The CEO cannot really share personal concerns or anxieties with staff members who are employees, who want to see their leader as being able to solve all the problems.
Ten of the twelve CEO’s talked about the benefits they got from having the experience, skills and support of an experienced mentor to help them navigate through the current difficulties. They emphasised the value of having someone who can ask questions that clarify the situation and can help relieve the anxiety that builds when there is nowhere to articulate the doubts that they may be feeling.
I have always liked the acronym that Mentoring brings MAGIC
Making better decisions through seasoned and supportive input and lateral thinking.
Accountability, provided in a positive and helpful way, to those who often have no one to hold them responsible.
Growth, both personal and professional, through challenge.
Isolation is relieved. It is lonely at the top. “Discussing the undiscussable” in absolute confidence makes the meetings something that you can look forward to.
Change is risky and uncomfortable. An independent but pro-active sounding board helps to improve both the thinking and the implementing.
“I have certain groups that I'm part of which is incredibly helpful. I have a coach who helps keep me focused. I also have a couple of people that I'm mentoring at the moment and I feel like I learned as much from those as I do when I'm being mentored” Joseph Howes - Buttle UK
“I'm on an action learning set which I've been on for 10 years, with horribly experienced people who are really good at asking blinding brilliant questions. I have a coach who I use when I feel like I need a coach and I've had the same coach for nine years. I've also got a very good relationship with my Chair – we invested a lot of time in it at the beginning. We know how to have conflict, how to challenge one another, and also basically how to be vulnerable.” Tom Lawton – Turn2Us
Top Tips
I found it difficult to end the conversations as it was both fascinating and inspirational talking to such caring and dedicated leaders. I rounded off by asking them for their top tips on how you stay current and relevant?
“Read... read widely and regularly.”
“Be a Reader: Read widely both old and new and within and outside your current industry. Be Present: Make sure you surround yourself with a variety of thinkers, ideas, fresh thinking and then practice the discipline of listening, note taking and observing the world, constantly asking the question 'Why?'”
“Look outside your traditional networks for information and knowledge and be open to new ideas and thoughts from others”
“First is to look at your vision and mission from where you are - what is the biggest step you can take right now towards that future vision? Don't try and road map the whole journey - rather have a sat nav approach where you can make small adjustments to keep moving in the direction of that future vision. Second is to listen to understand and not to reply. If you already think you know the answer then you cannot make adjustments which maintain relevance and currency. Truly understanding others enables you to flex and adapt. Thinking you know what's best for them doesn't.”
“Talking to lots of different people, having lots of networks. Talking to people from different backgrounds, different interests, different ages. Taking seriously the views and inputs of junior staff, Not just talking to the management team, but actually having conversations with other staff to find out what they are thinking about and talking about.” Mary-Ann Stephenson – Women’s Budget Group
“It's absurd to think that I've got any more than a fraction of the answers that I'm facing. It's an increasingly fast changing world, so with that very comforting belief, it's great to say to yourself ‘I don't know. Where can I find the answer?’ The answer can be someone, it can be in work, reading and going to conferences and training courses. So, the belief of knowing that I don't know very much means that I'm equipped to go and find out without any sense of defensiveness.” Tom Lawson – Turn2Us
Contributors
A huge thank you to the Chief Executives who contributed to this piece.
They included:
• Phil Kerry, New Horizon
• Fiona Spellman, SHINE
• Tom Lawson, T2U
• Joe Howes, Buttle
• Nicola Sharp-Jeffs, Surviving Economic Abuse
• Red Godfrey Sagoo, Sophie Hayes Foundation
• Penny Thomas, Halo
• Sam Everard, SAMEE
• Mary-Ann Stephenson, WBG
About Blume
Blume finds experienced freelancers for interim, part-time and project work with charities. We have worked with more than a hundred charities helping with Charity Finance, HR, Marketing, Leadership, Coaching and Fundraising. To find out more please visit the site.
We are all disappointed by yet another lockdown but with the role out of the vaccine, there is hope for a better 2021.
However, for many people, there have been devastating changes.
Working in the charity sector I have seen the impact the pandemic has had on both the people who depend on the support of charities and the wonderful people who work in those charities.
During the first lockdown, I set up a CIC ( Third Sector Worker Coalition ) to help people who work or have worked in the charity sector. The initial approach is to offer support and guidance with financial assistance to follow.
I am asking for your help to bring this support to the people who need it.
If you can volunteer time to help develop the CIC or to be a friend on the end of the line that would be great.
Of course, a little help with the cost would be great too.
Please share this with as many people as possible.
The Smallwood Trust is committed to exploring new ways to help bring equality, diversity and inclusion into all of our work to support our goal of ending gendered poverty.
Having recently increased the skills, perspective and diversity of the Board by appointing two new members (read more here), the Trust would now like to offer the opportunity for two individuals to shadow Ambreen Shah, one of our new recruits, as she embarks upon her first Board role.
Ambreen has said the following about this opportunity: “Smallwood awards grants to support women who are living in poverty, suffer mental ill health, are in abusive relationships, are digitally excluded or all of the above (and this list is far from exhaustive). I think if you have personally been affected by these issues, you will bring a perspective to decision making that others, who have not, just cannot; but I am also aware that the opportunity, confidence and headspace to be a trustee can be really limited. This is why I wanted to provide an opportunity for someone to shadow me as I embark on my first Trustee position; to provide an opportunity to gain confidence, and for us to learn the ropes together. Experience that I hope we will both benefit from and will provide you with a springboard to further opportunities.”
The first shadowing opportunity would run April to September 2021 and the second, October 2021 to March 2022*. The position would suit someone who would like to learn more about the role of a Board member (read about our board here) and the work of a grant-making trust. No prior experience of a Board or trustee role is required and we encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds and with lived experience of poverty to apply.
Opportunities would include:
Regular briefings, conversations and insights with Ambreen
Chance to meet the CEO and the team to learn more about the grant-making process
Access to briefings and discussions
Opportunities to contribute ideas and thoughts to discussions
If you are interested in this opportunity, please email our CEO, Paul Carbury (paulcarbury@smallwoodtrust.org.uk) to briefly tell us about yourself and why you would like to take this opportunity. Deadline: 26th February 2021.
The Trust would reimburse any out-of-pocket expenses and a small training/personal development budget would be available.
We will also accept nominations from women’s sector organisations but please speak to the nominee to ask their agreement first. Ambreen and Paul would also be happy to talk to anyone in advance who might be interested, please email in the first instance.
*Depending on coronavirus restrictions shadowing will take place online and we will review this as and when restrictions are lifted.
If it didn't bring you joy
just leave it behind
Let's ring in the New Year
with good things in mind
Let every bad memory go
that brought heartache and pain
And let's turn a new leaf
with the smell of new rain
Let's forget past mistakes
making amends for this year
Sending you these greetings
to bring you hope and cheer
Happy New Year!
As part of Getting On Boards Festival of Trusteeship I am running "Knowing your place; how to be strategic". A webinar on Wednesday 4th November at 5pm. Use code GONB50 for 50% off.
What is the role of the sector in the recovery – e.g. in terms of promoting greater social cohesion?
Should the sector be looking at consolidation/mergers/greater collaboration?
How do we balance servicing increased demand v. ensuring short/medium term financial sustainability?
These are just some of the questions addressed during the panel discussion at the ACO Conference this week.
Panellists:
Rachael Maskell MP (Shadow Minister for the Voluntary Sector and Charities)
Rachael Maskell was elected as the Member of Parliament for York Central in 2015.
Prior to being elected, as a National Officer for UNITE Rachael led the union’s equality agenda, campaigning against discrimination and for equal pay. She then spent seven years representing the charity sector on improving voluntary organisations and the opportunities for those that work in the sector.
Rachael has served as a Shadow Defence Minister and as the Shadow Rail Minister; also serving in the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment and as the Secretary of State for Employment Rights.
Debra has worked in the charitable and voluntary sector for over 30 years. Amongst numerous other roles, she is Vice President of the Soldiering On Through Life Trust Awards and co-chairs the judging panel with the General Lord Dannatt.
She is a Trustee of In Kind Direct, one of the Prince's Foundation Charities, and a trustee of the Berkshire Community Foundation. She is also an Africa Advocacy Foundation Ambassador for women and girls at risk of or affected by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
She has served as a trustee of several charities including being the co-founder of the Small Charities Coalition and was its first Chair. She served on the Charity Commission's SORP committee for over 7 years and was the Vice-Chair of Governors of Whiteknights primary school for 6 years.
Simon Gillespie (former Chief Executive - British Heart Foundation)
Simon is a strategic advisor, non-executive chair and board member with extensive international and national experience. He is currently a specialist advisor on noncommunicable diseases to the World Health Organisation, a Strategic Advisor to Microsoft UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Strategy, Resilience and Strategy at UCL.
A former Chief Executive of British Heart Foundation, Simon was awarded an OBE in June 2019 for “services to patients and to medical research”.
Joseph has years of fundraising experience and a passion for supporting children, young people and their families in the UK to build better futures. Joseph joined Buttle UK from youth homelessness charity Depaul UK, where he spent five years as Executive Director of Fundraising, Development and Communications.
Previously, Joseph has held senior roles at Action for Children and The Prince’s Trust. He is also Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at Rainforest Foundation, which gives him the chance to support another cause that has always been close to his heart.
Virtually all Charities are having to adapt to today’s unprecedented challenges, threats, needs – and opportunities. Huge demands on their services. Dramatic reductions in funds coming in. Stark need for precision and close attention to their management. But – paradoxically – more talented senior people are attracted to and available for this work. This might be you.
This WorkingFree Threshold Webinar will give you an insight into the Charity Sector and how as a Trustee you can make a real difference.
Who should attend
Current Charity Trustees.
Individuals considering becoming a Charity Trustee
Individuals wanting to understand how Charities and Trustees work.
Webinar Agenda
What is a Charity?
What are Charity Trustees? What you need to be and what you need to know
Governance
The Charity Trustee Market and the demand for and supply of Trustee opportunities
The following by Dana Kohava Segal is an inspirational read.
I feel like I should open this blog with a disclaimer: I’m not a recruiter. I don’t work in recruitment. I’m just a regular human who has been both an employer and an employee, someone who is surrounded by people from a huge range of backgrounds and life experiences, who is trying to make things better. I am left with the feeling that too many organisations and people in our sector still aren't doing enough to understand and implement small changes to their recruitment that make a huge difference to inclusivity. In the words of my awesome friend Martha Awojobi: “it’s not revolutionary, it’s just inclusion.”
Don’t require a degree.
There are loads of reasons including a degree is exclusionary:
For entry-level roles, it discriminates against younger applicants from lower socio-economic backgrounds. How much did you pay to go to uni? It certainly wasn’t £9,000 a year like it is now. It’s just not a feasible option for so many people and no one should be punished for making wise decisions about not getting into debt - if anything they are showing good financial acumen.
For senior roles, it discriminates against applicants who have plenty of relevant work experiences but didn’t go to uni. I know plenty of people who are great at their jobs who never went to university. In adding a degree requirement in, you might be leaving your perfect candidate out...
Some of the world’s biggest companies don’t require a degree - Google, Apple, BBC, Virgin. We need to attract talent in to our sector. We have to make it more attractive for people to work in the third sector. And this is a big part of that.
Practical actions to take:
Next time you’re writing a new job description, think twice about adding it in as a mandatory requirement. Is it really relevant? REALLY? I didn’t think so. Take it out!
If you’re updating an old one, take it out of there!
Get your colleagues to take it out!
Make it part of your organisation’s HR policy to not have it as a mandatory requirement
Use #NonGraduatesWelcome when advertising your roles on socials to let non-graduate candidates know they are welcome to apply
Gender pay gaps, ethnic pay gaps and age-related pay gaps are everywhere. People doing the same jobs, at the same level, being paid differently. That is totally unfair.
A huge part of this is the recruitment point when organisations simply say ‘competitive’ and lock candidates between a rock and a hard place: pitch too low and you undersell yourself, pitch to high and they don’t consider you.
Practical actions to take:
Put the salary or salary range on every job you advertise!
That’s literally it...
Reads & resources:
Follow @ShowTheSalary on Twitter: ONS Statistics about ethnicity & pay gaps
Good reads that explore the challenges of gender pay gaps include Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez
Give interview questions in advance.
Interestingly this is the one I’ve had the most emails/comments about. There are many discriminatory reasons for this:
Not providing any preparatory information or questions at the interview stage discriminates against neurodivergent people, who may need additional time to process tasks and questions before they are faced with them.
It also discriminates against younger candidates, candidates who have been in long stretches of unemployment, and/or candidates who are new to the job market who might not have any immediate answers to questions like ‘tell us about a time where you helped improve a system’ but with a bit of time and prep could construct a good answer.
No one can “cheat” - even if candidates make up answers, it will clearly be found out in the follow-up questions and conversation that arises.
Ultimately this boils down to whether you are in one of two ‘camps’: you are someone who believes that an interview is an opportunity for candidates to perform to the best of their abilities and then select based on that, or you see the interview as a competitive process in itself that helps you select the right candidate (i.e. that person performed better under pressure, therefore, are a more suitable candidate).
The Halo Effect is a common unconscious bias, where one trait of a person is used to make an overall judgment of that person. In this case, many people believe that how they perform at an interview tells them about their ability to do the job. Unless the job is being interviewed all day every day, it’s just not an accurate marker of this. So stop it.
Practical actions to take:
If you can, give the specific interview questions well in advance
If you can’t, give the interview questions at least 15 - 30 minutes in advance and provide a suitable, quiet space for candidates to review the questions and make notes
If you are after the ‘element of surprise’, at the absolute very least, give candidates a specific list of topics you plan to discuss in the interview
Offer alternative options for applications and interviews.
This one comes from my recent experience of recruiting new Board members for Emergency Exit Arts.
As well as the usual “CV & cover letter” we also offered candidates the chance to apply by video instead. We got rid of complicated language and asked for people based on their qualities and values. We set up an open evening on Zoom where people who were interested in applying could meet our trustees and staff to ask questions and get to know the people behind the forms before applying.
This led us to have over 5 x the usual number of applications we normally get. Yes, many people submitted CVs & letters, but we also had videos. The applications were more diverse in age and ethnicity than ever before too. One person saw the application with 1 hour to spare, and instead of scrambling around to update her CV and write a cover letter, was thrilled that they could just record their video and send it over to us.
Similarly, with the interview processes, COVID-19 has meant that for the first time, en masse, we are all doing away with the traditional scary ‘power table & panel interview’ and literally giving everyone - employer and employee - equal space on the screen and therefore in the interview. This is a game-changer that should be here to stay.
Practical actions you can take:
Offer alternative application options (e.g. video or audio cover letters)
Offer alternative interview options (e.g. like in person or video call, with or without table, in an office or a neutral setting, sitting down or taking a stroll)
My amazing friend Martha Awojobi, is a talented fundraiser who is a woman of colour. She has been to many interviews in her time but has never been interviewed by someone who looks like her. And she was interviewed just once by a man of colour.
I hate that this has happened to her. I hate that this happens to talented people of colour, disabled and or/ LGBTQ+ people every day. It needs to stop, and a simple way to do this is to ensure that your panel actually represents the range of candidates you want to attract.
Practical actions you can take:
Don’t have an all white / all male / all hetro / cis / all non-disabled panel
If you don’t have anyone in your organisation to stop the panel from being this way, take a long hard look at yourself…
Reads & resources:
Martha Awojobi on Fixing Fundraising Podcast
Beware the phrase ‘they seem like a good fit’.
This is entirely connected to many of the points above. Also strongly connected to a cognitive bias called the Affinity Effect. Studies show that, in general, people extend greater trust, positive regard, cooperation, and empathy to people who are more “like us” compared with people who are less “like us”. The markers we use to identify this are ethnicity, gender, class, geographic… and there you can start to see the problem.
This means that in interview situations, whether we like to think it's true or not, we are likely to give people who are more like us preferable treatment when it comes to candidates' performance in an interview. For example, if both a female and male candidate didn’t perform well in interview, I may use external reasons for justifying the performance of the woman (e.g. “she might have had terrible bosses in the past that have affected her confidence”) vs personality-based reasons for justifying the performance of the man (e.g. “he didn’t seem to care about selling himself”).
When we start to say someone feels like ”a good fit” we are revealing our unconscious bias. If you truly want to diversify your workforce, you also need people who are “not a good fit” - because they will create the challenge that makes the cultural and systemic changes the organisation needs.
Practical actions you can take:
If you catch yourself saying it - stop - and ask yourself why you said that
Try not to use this as a reason to favour one candidate over the other
By combining skills-based questions with answers in advance, you can give a better, and more equal footing, to make your assessment based on their ability to do the job… not on whether they “seem like a good fit” or not.
Skills-based questions can offer you insight into both a person’s technical skills for the job at hand, as well as the softer, character-based skills such as integrity, adaptability or resilience.
If you can’t do any of the above… pay someone to do it!
Recruitment isn’t always easy. Sometimes we just don’t have the right amount of time or energy to make it as meaningful or inclusive as we should. There are very talented people out there who can support your organisation to recruit in a way that is inclusive.
You might be saying ‘But how can I release some budget for that?’. The real question is, how much will it cost you to get it wrong? Plus, we know that more diverse companies perform better. So investment in the right external support will be worth it.
