Sam has worked at board level for a wide range of organisations and is a board advisor for the Black Professional Network and the Inclusive Companies network. She is an Associate Non-Executive Director of Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership, NHS Trust and a member of the Seacole Group, the national network for Black and Minority Ethnic NHS Non-Executive Directors. She is currently supporting the National Union of Students as the interim Director of NUS UK.

We spoke to Sam back in 2018, when she was the Chief Executive of The University of Bristol’s students’ union; Bristol SU. After leaving her post 10 years, Sam is now an independent inclusion and cultural transformation consultant with a particular focus on racial equity in the workplace. She supports senior leaders and boards to develop competence in racial literacy to confidently lead a strategic response to tackling institutional racism.

Confidence and Competence

Sandy started by asking Sam about her new business. Sam said that she is now operating as an independent consultant/advisor helping senior leaders to develop their confidence and competence in addressing institutional racism through a strategic approach to cultural transformation.

Sandy clearly resonates with Sam’s new business modus operandi. She said her role at Moon is to recruit many Board members and Trustees into Charities, not for profit and voluntary organisations and she echoes the need for a diverse and inclusive portfolio she relishes the breadth of each search from reaching out into community, business and corporates and has many networks nationally and international, she said that having a truly diverse board is so important to reflect the rich tapestry of this world.

Organisational Development

Sandy and Sam talked about what organisations can do to positively encourage more diversification not only at a board level but more widely. Sam said that diversifying workforces in terms of gender and race is no longer a moral issue but quite simply a bottom-line business imperative. Businesses need to embrace diversity of thought in their planning so that they can ensure that monoracial or mono-gendered design does not result in unconscious barriers to organisational development.

Sam advocates to always suggest that the first place to start is to explore the views and experiences of current staff. The valuable insight that this research gives you into the barriers experienced by groups will provide the starting point for developing a plan to diversify the workforce at all levels. She said that the options are plentiful and can range from a wholesale review of an organisation’s employer brand through to training and education on Equality and Inclusion so that staff and leaders become more confident in discussing and understanding the issues.

Sam said most importantly the significance placed on this activity must come from the top; what the Chief Exec and the board pay attention to speaks volumes and dictates the culture. If this work is left to the EDI officer or HR team without visible senior commitment, then the organisation is unlikely to succeed in its ambitions to diversify its workforce.

Sam talked about the fact that the key is the diversity of thought that produces much better decisions. If an organisation needs to change, for whatever reason, it is probably the case that the way things are run also needs to change and that the people that are in charge need to adjust their point of view. Unfortunately, doing that in a bubble without the stimulus of alternative perspectives is very difficult.

Sam and Sandy looked at board restructure and Sam recommends starting out with a facilitated frank and open discussion about what this means to you and your current board. Encourage everyone to share their fears and embrace the discomfort because she believes that feeling uncomfortable is a key function of learning. She would then gather the evidence and understand what the issues are in your organisation and then put together a holistic plan for organisational culture change.

Sandy and Sam both agree that the role of Board members and Trustees is important. Sam said we sometimes forget the influence that the board has in setting the priorities for a business and supporting these boards to aspire to be equality leaders would not be a bad place to start.

At Moon Exec Search, Sandy regularly recruits Trustees for Boards, in fact, she has found over 60 Trustees for local charities in the past 18 months. She and Sam are in total agreement about diversity of thought and having an evidenced and open strategic plan. Sam finished by saying that:

‘Let’s all start feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable. Let’s keep asking questions, challenging ourselves to be curious, accepting that there are no ‘silver bullet’ solutions. However, if we commit to learning and getting involved with the complexity then we give ourselves a fighting chance of starting the journey of cultural transformation on some firm foundations.’

Sandy said that at Moon we see first-hand the challenges that boards are facing. While the impetus for change is there, the reality of implementing this change can be much harder. For us at Moon, we are regulated and transparent in our offering:

Value-Driven

We are members of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and adhere to their professional code of conduct. You can see more about the REC Code of Practice here which includes respect for diversity. We are audited on an annual basis. As Members we are especially mindful of these clauses to our Membership:

a) Members should adhere to the spirit of all applicable human rights, employment laws and regulations and will treat work seekers, clients and others without prejudice or unjustified discrimination. Members should not act on an instruction from a client that is discriminatory and should, wherever possible, provide guidance to clients in respect of good diversity practice.

b) Members and their staff will treat all work seekers and clients with dignity and respect and aim to provide equity of employment opportunities based on objective business-related criteria.

• We are a founding signatory for Women in Business, an initiative set up by Bristol City Council‘s Women’s commission and we report and adhere to their 7 goals.

• We have a Zero tolerance policy towards gender-based violence, abuse, harassment and exploitation.

We live and breathe our values, one of which is ‘being ethical.’ Ethical leaders are empowered to make moral decisions on conduct and behaviours. We accept our responsibility firstly to educate, inform and model decent behaviours and, secondly, to encourage business leaders to be accountable for the behaviours displayed within their companies or organisations.

We pride ourselves on our ability to source a diverse range of leaders that can initiate change, transformation and growth. Please email Moon Executive Search today for more information. For an example of how we approach building a board for a client, visit our Board Build case study to find out more.