Course description

You need to hire someone, and you want to choose well and treat each applicant fairly. This course shows new line managers and small business owners how to recruit in plain steps, from deciding whether to hire to the new starter's first week, with the Equality Act basics explained along the way.

You begin by working out what the role really needs, then write a job description and person specification, write a fair, clear advert, reach a wide pool and make it easy to apply, shortlist against the criteria, plan and run a structured interview, use practical tasks, make and explain the decision, and handle references, checks and the offer.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons. Each lesson has a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Anthea, who runs a small bakery in Ludlow, as she and her head baker recruit a shift lead, from the first plan to the first week. In the final lessons you build a complete hiring pack for a part-time café supervisor in Hereford, with a worked model answer. Every section has a practice pack, including a role planning worksheet, job description and person specification templates, an advert wording checker, a shortlisting grid spreadsheet, an interview question bank, an interview scoring sheet, a bias check card, a reasonable adjustments in recruitment card, a reference request template, a pre-employment checks checklist, an offer and onboarding checklist, a candidate data retention card and a glossary.

What you'll learn

• Deciding to hire: what fair recruitment looks like, the Equality Act basics, whether to hire at all, working out what the role needs and planning the steps.
• Job descriptions and person specifications: clear duties, criteria you can judge, essential and desirable, and criteria that shut people out without good reason.
• Writing fair, clear job adverts: what goes in an advert, plain and inclusive wording, age and gender coded words, showing pay and an advert wording checker.
• Reaching people and making recruitment accessible: where to advertise, easy ways to apply, Disability Confident, reasonable adjustments and the rule on health questions before an offer.
• Shortlisting fairly: judging evidence against the criteria, a scoring grid, shortlisting with a second person, records and inviting people to interview.
• Planning a structured interview: questions from your criteria, competency and situational questions, follow-ups and scoring answers on the same scale.
• Interviewing fairly: running the day, spotting bias, questions to leave out, online and phone interviews and good interview records.
• Other selection methods and the decision: work samples, work trials, keeping applicants informed, making the decision and giving useful feedback.
• References, checks and offers: references, right to work checks, criminal record checks, the offer, the written statement, probation and candidate data.
• Wider fairness, the first week and your final project: positive action, apprentices and young workers, onboarding and a complete hiring pack for a made-up café, with a model answer.

Who it's for

New line managers, team leaders and small business owners in the UK who recruit now and then and want a fair, simple process they can repeat. No HR background is needed.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a practical course in good practice, not legal advice. Legal points come from GOV.UK, legislation.gov.uk, Acas, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Information Commission (still known as the ICO), read on 4 November 2026, and are given in general terms. The law and guidance can change, so check the official pages, and take advice for anything serious or unusual. Anthea, Brockhollow Bakery, Cuthwin Yard Café, every applicant and every other person and business in the course are made up, and so are the pay rates in the worked examples.

What will I learn?

• Explain what fair recruitment looks like and the Equality Act basics that apply to job applicants
• Decide whether to hire, and plan the role, the pay range and the steps of a recruitment
• Write a job description and a person specification with essential and desirable criteria tied to the job
• Write a clear job advert in plain, inclusive words, with pay shown and no coded language
• Advertise widely, make it easy to apply and make reasonable adjustments at every stage
• Shortlist fairly with a scoring grid, a second person and clear records
• Plan and run a structured interview with competency and situational questions, follow-ups and a scoring sheet
• Spot bias, leave out questions that have nothing to do with the job, and interview fairly online and by phone
• Make and record the decision, give useful feedback, and handle references, right to work checks and the offer
• Look after candidate data, welcome a new starter and build a complete hiring pack you can reuse

Frequently asked questions