Kerstin von der Brelie is the Chief People Officer at OneFootball. The company was named earlier this year one of the Most Attractive Employers in Sport by a report published by iWorkinSport. This is one of five interviews with top recruiters in the industry featured in the publication.
The study surveyed more than 1,600 people from all continents, with the majority already working in sport, and asked them a simple question: “If you could choose to work anywhere in sport, where would that be?”
Initially, the respondents chose organisations divided into nine categories, and at the end, they indicated one single preferred choice, overall – the “Employer of their Dreams”.
The publication features rankings of the most attractive employers in sport divided in the following categories: Football Clubs, Sports Teams (other than Football), Sports Teams in the USA, Sports Leagues, Sports Governing Bodies, Event Organisers, Sports Marketing Agencies, Sponsors, Sporting Goods Companies and Sports Tech.
Additionally, the report presents the aspects that candidates rate as most important when deciding where they would like to work.
Why do so many people wish to work at OneFootball?
Purpose is really important when people choose where they want to work, whether they’re building their career in the early stages or looking to make an important strategic senior leap.
We are a purpose-led organisation and it’s at the heart of everything that we do. We want to disrupt the status quo by making football accessible and enjoyable for everyone - and who wouldn’t want to join us on that journey and bring their expertise and energy to the table! Especially (but not only) if you’re a football fan.
What makes OneFootball a great employer?
Most people are really surprised to hear that while we are a Berlin-based and founded company, we have more than 50 nationalities working together at OneFootball, in Berlin and remotely… and we’re very proud of that.
OneFootball is a values-led organisation. We care about the industry we are in, we care about our users, all 100 million of them, and we also care very much about our people.
And we think that comes across to people looking to build their career with us, because like many organisations which operate true to their values, they become intrinsic behaviours which everyone within the business operates to.
We are also very fortunate to have a leadership team which is made up of many people with incredible experience from across the football, media and tech sectors. It’s a unique mix.
So, with such great breadth and depth of expertise, comes a culture where integrity is important, teamwork is essential and playing to win, as a team is essential. But at the heart of everything, is having fun, which we do through the lens of our ambitious forward thinking company culture.
How can OneFootball become even a better employer?
There’s always more to do. Diversity and inclusion are really important to us, ensuring that we build an inclusive workforce, and a global mindset and welcoming culture across all measures, is essential to our success. And we don’t think striving to be better is something that ever stops.
We do have a lack of gender diversity at senior levels in the company and we know this is something that we have to work really hard to address - harder than other industries to some extent. But we are in a unique position and are striving to change the game for women in the industry.
We are making good steps by spearheading a number of initiatives already, so we don’t rest on our laurels. There’s always more to do and improve from where we are now.
What advice would you give to someone who wishes to work at OneFootball?
Look at our jobs page and follow us on LinkedIn. We have some fantastic open roles and we are fortunate to be in a rapid growth phase. We recently announced that we’d raised funds at Series D and we are immensely proud to be the number one football media platform on the planet, thanks to our many users, and entirely due to our amazing founder and formidable team.
So, if you find a role you think you would be right for on our site, come to us with examples of how you overcame challenges, pushed boundaries, delivered value, challenged the status quo or improved things for your customers. But remember - you have to be comfortable with tons of ambiguity and change. So, if you are someone that likes the stability of doing the same job day in, day out, we might not be the best company for you.
What are the changes caused by the covid-19 pandemic that will remain in the workplace?
Every company and organisation have been on their own path since the pandemic and post covid changes are always top of mind, with remote working right at the top of the agenda. We are transitioning back from a fully remote work environment that was forced upon us like every other company. We have considered this really carefully at all levels of the organisation and have concluded that going fully remote isn’t for us.
Instead, we have been working really hard to create an enabling hybrid working environment that's adaptive and open to evolving in time. It means that so far, we are able to accommodate most of our people’s location needs right now. And as a rapidly scaling global organisation, we are constantly looking for ways to fine tune what we offer to make it as attractive as possible for our people. Especially as we are planning to open new hubs and locations to further enable us to attract the very best talent globally.
But being together is really important to us at OneFootball. So, we want to provide spaces and moments for all our people to meet, collaborate, connect and have fun.