Summary
- Recruitment of two trustees with a diverse background and specific skills
- Open recruitment process included targeting minority groups and communities
- One ethnic minority candidate and another ethnically minoritised person were appointed as trustees.
The Brief
Eastside People were commissioned by St George’s Hospital Charity Board to recruit two new Trustees.
The charity wanted the recruitment to be representative of the diversity of its local community and they also asked us to target particular skill areas.
We encouraged applications from under-represented groups, particularly people from ethnically minoritised backgrounds, but also from a broad age-range and people living with disabilities. We welcomed applications from people who had not been senior volunteers or non-executives before.
We were looking for trustees with skills and experience in the following:
- Fundraising and income generation
- Communications and PR, particularly digital and social media
- Business and commercial expertise especially entrepreneurial businesses within St. George’s catchment area.
The Search
We followed an open recruitment process, advertising the roles widely and reaching out directly to numerous networks and individuals. We contacted the following organisations/people and asked them to help spread the word about the role, providing them with wording for the ad and with a comprehensive and engaging information pack:
- Voluntary sector coordination bodies
- Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network
- West Indian Friends and Families Association
- Hope Atrium, a Black and Asian led health and social care group
- Muslim Women of Merton
- Wandsworth Chamber of Commerce
- Wandsworth CVS
- The three Wandsworth councillors
- Eastside People’s talent pool and wider networks.
On LinkedIn, we connected with several minority group platforms and asked them to spread the word about the role.
The role was advertised on the following online platforms:
- Third Sector Volunteering
- Charity Jobs
- ACEVO
- Women on Boards
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Eastside People and client websites.
Our individual search was largely focused on connecting to people from Black and Asian communities (about 80% of individual contacts).