English Cricket Team - What Business Can Learn From Their Example

The English Cricket team, or rather, their lacklustre performance in the recent Ashes tour, provides a timely reminder about why diversity matters, and how business can learn from their example.

Mention the word ‘diversity’ in recruitment or talent acquisition circles and there’s an assumption that gender equity (in hiring and remuneration practices) is the topic up for discussion.

It goes much deeper and broader than that. ?But back to the cricket for a moment-?

The Chief Executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Tom Harrison, said recently “English Cricket was nearing an emergency over its’ inability to address racism, diversity and equity, and that the ECB has struggled to get first-class cricket to wake up to the problem”

Tom Brown (different Tom) is a high-performance coach on the UK Country Cricket scene. ?Currently completing a PhD in talent identification and development in cricket, he’s been doing a deep dive into relevant data. He reckons that England’s selection process has become increasingly skewed over the years.

The result? A more elitist cohort than the House of Lords in the top order.

The research highlighted that a white, privately educated player was 13 times more likely to be selected as a professional cricketer than if you're a state-educated white player. (Notably absent? English born players of ethnic descent from traditionally cricket-loving countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, West Indies) ?

It takes a great team to win at International cricket. Typically, great teams have players with different styles and strengths.?An elite team needs to bring agility to a game- to adapt to changing conditions and circumstances. An elite team needs a combination of attack and defence, a balance of brains and brawn. Above all, a high-level team needs to avoid a ‘group think’ culture.

Brown believes continuing to pick from such a narrow cohort makes the team monocultural and less adaptive.

“If you open it out and you look into other areas and other communities, then you're going to get different styles of players, different thoughts, different thinking patterns that will help with the cricket on the pitch."

?Already, his findings have triggered some action toward more inclusive development programs.

So what lessons can business take on board from this example?

Mainly that selection strategies matter. BIG.TIME.

Your future success could come down to the hiring strategy you’re using today.

Does that excite you, or make you feel a bit nervous? Does it leave you wondering just how far into the future you can continue to draw from the old boy's network?

It’s normal to seek out the familiar. To problem solve within the boundaries of your view of the world and with your own inherent biases. This is why, within so many organisations, the hiring processes are stacked with bias (conscious and unconscious)

Unless you wanna be like that English Cricket team, shake it up a little, and test that your hiring processes are robustly inclusive. Are you looking broadly across all of the market?

Secondly- have a plan to improve performance in the diversity stakes and work it

?“xxxx pty ltd is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds” across the bottom of a job advert isn’t enough anymore.?People want proof. Prospective candidates will look online for evidence this is true.

A recent real-life example from my own experience -A bright, aspiring, albeit introverted engineering graduate turned down an excellent job offer with a terrific company. The problem? The (female) graduate had a good look at everything she found online. Females were under-represented in the company org chart, and an apparent lack of ethnic diversity her reason for regretfully turning down the role. ?Possibly a mistake on her part, who knows?

I see it as a loss for both parties however, it gave the impetus to articulate and develop an inclusion and diversity strategy within that company. Baby steps.

Unless you’ve been lurking under your doona in extended isolation without internet access- you’d be aware many Australian businesses are talking about a skills shortage. There’s suddenly an added degree of difficulty to hiring. A shortage of [quality] candidates. ?

Even job board behemoth, SEEK, has recently added the following disclaimer to their job advert page;

“Candidate cautiousness and high demand is currently resulting in fewer applications for some job ads”

It’s a ‘perfect storm’ [Definition; perfect storm: when a rare combination of circumstances drastically exacerbates an event. In this instance, record levels of infrastructure spending/loads of projects combined with a skittish, risk-averse talent pool.]

For businesses needing skilled personnel, the forecast is rough seas ahead.* Keeping your existing team on board will also take some careful navigating. Your precious staff could, erm... correction, WILL be targeted and enticed to look at competitive offers.

Work smarter to land your prospective employee. ?Broaden the aperture of the lens you’re using. Open the field, look a bit broader. Embracing diversity and ensuring your processes are inclusive will go a long way towards forming a winning team.

*(Conversely, it's Anchors Aweigh! and adventure on the high seas for job seekers. Opportunity abounds)

P.S Personally, not really much of a cricket fan.