65. Levelling The Playing Field - Hiring Inclusively in Sport with Francis Kelly

Sports recruitment has a ways to go in its journey to truly inclusive hiring. Founder of levelequals, Francis Kelly, joins us in this episode to share with us the answers to inclusive recruitment. levelequals is a consciously inclusive talent partner for sports organisations that creates a fair and inclusive process for candidates. They’ve worked with large organisations such as the Premier League and Premiership Rugby and small NGOs like UK Deaf Sport and Cerebral Palsy Sport. We speak about the current state of diversity and inclusion in sport today, and why it’s so important for businesses to hire inclusively. Francis gives us insight into the process that levelequals goes through to reduce bias in every stage of the process. He offers actionable tips that organisations can take to get started with making a change.  We speak about the ‘wall of silence’ that’s putting off talent from ever applying and how to break it down, and why the process of inclusive hiring can never be rushed. We also get insight into the key milestones in Francis’ life that led him to start levelequals. In this episode, we cover -  The state of D&I within the sports industry. Why does sport need more inclusion? The ‘wall of silence’ putting people off applying for roles and how to break it. Is bias more of an issue in sport? The correlations between back-office and on-the-pitch diversity. The key things that organisations should be considering to encourage a diverse range of applications. Why inclusive hiring takes time. LEARN MORE Diversely - https://www.diversely.io/Diversely on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/diverselyio/ CONNECT Francis on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/edib-recruitment/ Helen McGuire on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenmcguireme/ Diversely on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/diverselyio/ LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0FRssDsAUpx1WCbxDfvFoG Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-d-igest-a-diversely-podcast/id1607041648