Creating a More Inclusive Future: How North Yorkshire Sport Transformed its Recruitment Process

Recruitment is changing—and so are we. George Cull, our Director of Development, shares how North Yorkshire Sport has reimagined its recruitment process to better reflect our values and reach a more diverse pool of candidates.  

At North Yorkshire Sport, we believe that movement, activity and sport should be accessible to everyone, and that starts with the people we employ. Over the past year, we’ve undertaken a comprehensive review of our recruitment process to ensure it reflects our values of inclusion, curiosity, compassion, and collaboration.

Crucially, our review was carried out by a working group within our team.  It was important for us to have different perspectives to help design our new process, with each member of staff viewing the proposed solutions through a different lens and bringing that together.

Ultimately, this review led to the creation of our new Recruitment Pack, a resource designed to make applying for roles at North Yorkshire Sport more transparent, inclusive, and welcoming. The pack outlines everything from our organisational values and benefits to guidance on accessibility and the use of AI in applications. It’s more than just a document, it’s a reflection of who we are and who we aspire to be.  The pack is the tangible change we have made, but there is so much more that sits behind it.

Why We Made the Change

We recognised that it is getting harder to recruit, and traditional recruitment methods weren’t reaching the diverse range of candidates we wanted to engage.  We were still recruiting great staff, but our candidate pool was smaller, and the process of recruitment is not as one-sided as it was in years gone by.  Our goal was to remove barriers and create a process that encourages applications from people of all backgrounds, abilities, and experiences. This meant reviewing everything we have done, from how we write job adverts to how we conduct interviews.  We had identified this in our Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) and as part our annual improvement planning process.  It also came out strongly in our ‘leading Inclusion’ workshop with the Activity Alliance.

What Changes Did We Make?

• Introducing an information webinar on the role and working for NYS.  This provides a window into the organisation and gives us a chance to sell what it is like to work for us.  It also gives candidates a chance to determine if the role is right for them.
• Our accompanying recruitment pack provides more information on what it is like to work for NYS, including sections on benefits, what our staff say about us, and how we create a welcoming and inclusive environment to enable our staff to bring their whole selves to work.
• We modified our application form and we now ask 4 -5 specific questions relevant to the role.  The shortlisting panel only see the answers to these questions so have no knowledge of gender, age, level of schooling or any other factors that could influence a decision to shortlist.
• Our interviews contain a mix of questions provided in advance, and questions that are asked on the spot.  We recognise that some applicants work better when given time to prepare, whereas some are more comfortable answering questions in the moment.  We use a blend to see how they compare.
• We have produced a video walk through of our office, which is available on our website, to help candidates gain some familiarity with the environment that they will be interviewing in.
• We tell the candidates who will be on the panel so they know how many people will interview them, and who to expect.
• We commit to all of our panels being of mixed gender and, where appropriate, involving an external panel member who will be interacting with the role being advertised.

In addition to the process elements, we also considered our culture and behaviours in relation to recruitment.  We wanted to create the best environment to get the best out of each candidate.  This was reflected in how we interacted with candidates and how we considered reasonable adjustments to help accommodate every applicant.

The Impact So Far

In the 4 years preceding the launch of our new approach to recruitment, we cited the following statistics in relation to our recruitment process:

These figures show a promising shift towards greater inclusion and representation, in particular reaching more people with a disability or long term condition.

In addition to those that we can compare, we have also started to track the following:

• 18% of candidates report having caring responsibilities.
• Our recruitment is attracting people with higher levels of education (50% have post graduate qualifications and 33% have higher education qualifications).

One candidate’s feedback perfectly captured the impact of our inclusive approach, in this case in relation to reasonable adjustments for an interview:

“Thank you so much for offering such considerate adjustments for my interview. I’ve never been offered such personalised arrangements to meet my needs so I really do appreciate it. These would really help me and I would like to accept all the adjustments you have suggested.”

Whilst this is a promising start, it is just a cut of the data at this moment in time, and could change when we next recruit.

What’s Next

We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, but we know there’s always more to do. We’ll continue to evaluate and improve our recruitment practices, listening to feedback and staying committed to our values. Our aim is to build a team that reflects the communities we serve—diverse, passionate, and united by a shared mission to make movement, activity and sport a force for good.

If you’re interested in joining us, we encourage you to explore our Recruitment Pack and see how we’re working to make North Yorkshire Sport a place where everyone can thrive.