Case Study: Improving Everyday Board Practices

What is this advice about?

This case study on improving everyday board practices was produced on behalf of Historic England by Dr Ambreen Shah, Associate at Getting on Board.

It draws on the experience of Heritage Trust Network, a membership organisation that seeks to empower people across the UK to rescue and reuse historic buildings and spaces for their communities by providing peer-to-peer support, knowledge sharing and skills development.

What are the key points?

What was the challenge?

When the first chief executive of Heritage Trust Network (HTN) took up the post in 2020, he inherited a board that did not have its full quota of 12 trustees. While the board was efficient and functional, it was felt that current practices could be improved and that the board could benefit from drawing in wider perspectives.

The current board was not diverse in terms of:

• Age. No one was under 40
• Ethnicity. Everyone was white
• Gender. The majority were male
• Background. All board members came from within the current membership or existing networks. The board was quite inward-looking, and the trustees all knew each other well because they all came from the sector and had worked with each other for years

This did not serve an organisation seeking to appeal to new audiences and raise its profile. It also meant decisions were not made with diverse perspectives and lived experience, putting the organisation at risk. There was also a reliance on existing procedures and a tendency to still look towards older and more experienced potential board members.

What actions were taken?

After taking some time to research and learn about good recruitment practice, the board:

• Openly recruited new posts, advertising trustee roles in the same way as any other job
• Made clear in recruitment and promotional materials that the organisation was seeking to diversify its board
• Offered potential trainee roles
• Offered training to all trustees, including trainees

Heritage Trust Network achieved all of this without spending on recruitment.

One challenge was that while more diverse, young trustees applied, when it came to sifting, there was a strong tendency to resort to familiar practices such as giving high scores to applicants with the most experience, skills and knowledge. This tended to be people over 50 as opposed to younger candidates.

It was in this context that having a trainee option was helpful in allaying the fears of existing board members who were reluctant to prioritise diversity of perspective over skills and experience. Young people also found it helpful to be offered a trainee role, where they could learn 'on the job', which was less intimidating and more beneficial for their professional development.

In real terms, the board felt there was no discernible difference in how full members and trainees contributed to meetings. All could contribute fully, the only limitation being that trainees had no voting rights (but in a context where very few decisions were made by voting).

Heritage Trust Network also provided training. The whole board took part in the Young Trustees Movement’s (YTM) Board Boost Trustee Accelerator Programme and 2 trainees were paired up with mentors from the existing board.

Confirming term limits

• The board reaffirmed its commitment to term limits for trustees. This is now a 3-year term that can be renewed once for 3 more years, with some flexibility for a further 3-year term if it aids transition and succession planning

Creating friendly and welcoming board practices

• To make board papers shorter, they were split into 2 parts: a summary that gave trustees key information, and a longer, more detailed paper for those who were interested and had time to read it
• Finance papers were improved and clearly presented so anyone could read them. Training was put in place for all trustees to deepen their understanding and knowledge of finance
• The length of meetings was reduced and limited to 2 hours
• To ensure the board had time to properly consider big strategic decisions, agendas were divided between business and strategy items

Supporting ongoing professional development

• Trustees were encouraged and enabled to go to the annual conference for the "natural bit of training that goes on." The organisation paid their expenses, including accommodation
• Trustees were helped to showcase who they were to give them greater visibility in the organisation, supporting their personal growth and contributing to their professional development

Heritage Trust Network considered this groundwork important if it was to have any chance of retaining newly recruited trustees.

What was the outcome?

Since the changes were implemented, most board roles have been openly recruited, including the chair (only the vice chair role was not). Through these recruitment rounds, both trainees secured full board member roles.

The board now has 3 young trustees (all aged under 40, including 1 in their 20s). It has more people from outside the membership and more working professionals, most of whom are women. This has "already changed the dynamic of meetings, providing helpful scrutiny and good ideas." The younger perspectives have strengthened the work of Heritage Trust Network to establish a youth forum.

While it can't be said with certainty that the training the full board members and trainees did together with Young Trustees Movement was the sole cause of this, the reality is Heritage Trust Network now has a board where all voices are respected and opinions valued, irrespective of who is speaking.

There are also plans to do 2 more rounds of trainee recruitment, offering 18-month placements.

What lessons were learned?

• Be clear about your commitment to change. This will make you think about the commitment and how to improve existing practice
• View change positively. Be positive about the opportunity to bring about real change
• Recruit with diversity in mind. If recruiting the most experienced people only, you may be compromising on this
• Recruit at least 2 trainees at a time so they can go through the onboarding process together. Ensure they have a proper induction, including time with your chief executive and chair, encouragement to visit members, and basic governance training that is available from organisations such as Getting on Board and Young Trustees Movement
• Be clear about roles and responsibilities. Develop a job description for the role of a mentor for trainees

Further reading

Heritage Trust Network felt the training of Getting on Board on good practice in recruitment "provided the template for what we did… [and] gave us permission to take this work forward in a way we knew would make a difference"

The training of Young Trustees Movement was also deemed invaluable.

Resources

Heritage Trust Network's board recruitment pack (PDF)

Key contact

David Tittle, Chief Executive of Heritage Trust Network: [email protected]