We all have a role to play in keeping our sports safe and healthy. From an organizational perspective, this includes keeping safeguarding top of mind when hiring employees, coaches, contractors, interns, or other positions within your organization.
Organizations have the opportunity and responsibility to prioritize athlete safety through their hiring practices. By following best practices when hiring, organizations are better able to sift out potential bad actors, screen applicants holistically, and assess candidates’ safeguarding education and experience.
This means going beyond the background check. Background checks are certainly necessary and a great starting point. However, this step alone is not enough, as past actions may not always appear on background checks and do not completely indicate one’s fit for candidacy for a position at your organization.
Rather, organizations must take additional steps in hiring to demonstrate and ensure their commitment, and the potential hires' commitment, to safety and healthy practices in the athletic community. This shows the organization’s dedication to safeguarding, putting athletes' best interests first, and connecting policies to people.
During the recruitment process, organizations can embed safeguarding through the candidate profile and job posting, as well as through requiring written application and personal interview. Furthermore, reference checks, education and employment verification, checks for qualifications, registration and motor vehicle records, disciplinary databases, and social media serve to better understand a candidate’s fit for your organization. Lastly, requiring applicants to sign a self-declaration and an acknowledgment of the organization’s safeguarding policy and engage in prompt safeguarding training through onboarding all work together as best practices for hiring.
To support organizations with hiring practices, #WRT has created a guide that discusses these action steps in detail. The guide provides examples of interview questions and further information on the measures described above with additional resources.
Click here to download the Hiring Best Practices Guide.
When we focus on safeguarding from the start with hiring best practices, we work to create safe and healthy sporting environments in the best interest of our athletes, coaches, staff, and communities. We recommend that organizations review this guide and engage these best practices immediately when recruiting and hiring!
If you or someone you know needs support, please visit our crisis resources or resources for assistance.
Kathryn McClain, MSW, MBA
Program and Partnerships Director at #WeRideTogether
