Providing clarity over diversity in recruitment
Voluntary Sector North West
“We identified a number of gaps in HR support for smaller voluntary sector organisations and worked with Action Planning to develop material and a training course, which was delivered to the VSNW team and developed through workshops with VCSE groups.There is now an accessible resource, geared towards small voluntary organisations, available online for VCSE groups in the North West of England.””
Warren Escadale, Chief Executive, VSNW
Background:
Voluntary Sector North West (VSNW) is a membership organisation that connects to the region’s 30,000 plus voluntary, community and social enterprise groups through infrastructure organisations, equalities networks and large regional and national providers. With over 120 full members and 50 associates, VSNW facilitates key partnerships working in the subregions of the North West.
The organisation felt it would be a good idea for the staff team to have some unconscious bias training from the Diversity Trust and, following the receipt of some funding from a local Roman Catholic charity, decided that a recruitment pack would also be useful for the region’s voluntary sector.
In the end they opted not to use the Diversity Trust and came to Action Planning instead.
Brief:
The brief was quite simple: to deliver a training workshop via video conferencing and to produce an accompanying pack with templates and further guidance notes.
Process:
Action Planning’s HR expert Tracy Madgwick was put on the case. She led a two hour workshop for eight delegates from across the North West, the use of Zoom making it very easy for them all to attend. It also enabled Tracy to make the training very interactive and participative.
To follow up the workshop, Tracy created a recruitment pack, setting out the principles on diversity and unconscious bias that were covered in the workshop, for voluntary organisations to reference when recruiting. This was made available to organisations throughout the region.
Outcomes:
The workshop was extremely well received and VSNW now has a pack available for its member associations to guide their recruitment.
Consultant’s insight:
Fits members. Diversity and unconscious bias is something that many charities are committed to, but they are not always sure how to turn that commitment into action. Reviewing recruitment processes to make sure they can attract candidates from a variety of backgrounds is a great place to start.