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Engagement and recruitment

This section will help you to recruit more diverse employees, extend opportunities to underrepresented groups, and engage them from an early stage. Engaging and involving diverse communities can unlock local knowledge and skills and meet key workforce challenges. The following recommendations and suggestions offer an opportunity for employers to embed EDI within the engagement and recruitment processes.

Follow inclusive recruitment best practices

One of the main ways your organisation can attract a broader range of talented people is to follow inclusive recruitment best practices. Making your job advertisements more accessible will help you build your inclusive culture as people within your organisation will see that your hiring practices are designed to find the best people with the right skills for the job.
Our research found that Black women who were also immigrants reported experiencing xenophobia because of their accents. Many of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi women interviewed felt that employers looked unfavourably on their CVs. Research interviewees also shared their desire for employers to have a better understanding of cultural reasons for CV gaps.

Inclusive recruitment best practice for job adverts includes:

  • Using inclusive language in your job advert;
  • Focusing on the skills and competencies needed for the job being advertised, (avoid making your ‘essentials’ list too long);
  • Considering whether academic achievements are necessary for the role before making them a requirement;
  • Avoiding jargon;
  • Stating salary, or a salary range;
  • Directing candidates to a named contact should they need to discuss any access requirements or request the advert in a different format;
  • Consider if you can offer the job on a flexible basis, part-time, or as part of a job share – if you can, say so;
  • Avoiding asking for several years’ experience in the same role, or asking for continuous employment - this discourages those with CV gaps, and for people looking to change careers and use transferable skills;
  • Promoting your organisation’s EDI policies and commitments;
  • Keeping roles open for the full application period and not closing them early;
  • Ensuring all job adverts adhere to these best practice principles.

Now that your job adverts are inclusive, it’s time to think about the other stages of the recruitment process.

Ensure you have:

  • Diverse and equitable hiring panels; 
  • Standardised competency-based interview questions with a focus on asking about skills;
  • Communicated procedures for offering and requesting reasonable adjustments;
  • Anonymous CV reviews, to embed conscious inclusion and make the hiring process more efficient. Remove irrelevant information (including names of educational institutions) from applications when reviewing candidates; 
  • Run inclusive recruitment workshops or training for all hiring managers. 

NHS Networks and RCN are free resources for anyone working in or with the health and care sector to use to share information, network with others and keep up to date with news. It is managed and funded by Primary Care Commissioning Community Interest Company (PCC)

You may wish to consider using positive action in recruitment when a particular demographic is underrepresented in your organisation’s workforce. Positive action is about taking specific steps to improve equality in the workplace that either do, or may, advantage a particular underrepresented group.  There are numerous different ways to encourage ‘positive action’, but steps in this direction are best tailored to your organisation in particular.

This resource contains some useful information on positive action, including its purpose and when it can be applied, and examples of how to use it. Additionally, knowing the difference between positive action, which is legal, and positive discrimination, which is not legal, is essential.

AIHR released guidance on inclusive hiring and best practice in relation to inclusive recruitment policies that affect employee access from application through to equitable opportunities for career progression.

NHS Employers have a year-long programme which includes face-to-face interactive modules and specialist virtual masterclasses in partnership the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI), with input from leading industry experts, good practice, guidance and resources.

NHS Providers has information and videos on inclusive recruitment and talent management.

The Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) was developed as a sustainable measurement against which NHS trusts could improve care, and align its internal recruitment, retention, and progression processes to better include patients and employees with disabilities. The WDES remains a singular example of employer-mandated disability standards across the UK.

Alongside this, NHS England has partnered with the Disabled NHS Directors’ Network to bring awareness of disability representation across leadership and across the NHS. Increased awareness and understanding has led to a number of positive changes in representation. For example, The NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard report for 2021 shows the proportion of disabled staff at the very senior manager level has increased to 3.4% in 2021, from 2.8% in 2020, and 1.6% in 2019.

The Disability Confident scheme is a free, voluntary government programme that helps employers make the most of disabled people’s talents in the workplace. It provides actionable insights for employers looking to build more inclusive workplaces, regardless of what stage they are at on their journey.

The BMA released an article explaining the difficulty of accessibility for those with invisible disabilities, which are often overlooked.

HEE (now merged with NHS England) is an example of a level 2 Disability Confident Employer.

NHS Employers produced some guidance relating to best practice when supporting disabled staff in the workplace. In this guide, they highlight what disability can look and sound like, what was learned from Covid-19, reasonable adjustments, as well as supporting carers. They also shared an infographic that can be shared relating to understanding disability.

The Calibre Leadership Programme has been designed specifically for disabled staff in the NHS and Higher Education, while Project Choice are supported internships from HEE for interns with learning disabilities and/or Autism.

Hackney Council Supported Internship Programme (Project SEARCH) at Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation is a one-year employment-focused programme offering long-term work experience for young people with learning disabilities or autism. Interns on the programme can expect to complete three different work placements to acquire transferable employability skills. They also gain a BTEC qualification in work skills upon successful completion of the programme. The overall goal of the work programme is for all interns to secure full-time paid employment.

The NHS Learning Disability Employment Programme (LDEP) recognises challenges to employment for people with learning disabilities and seeks to actively remedy those barriers. The LDEP is a resource to aid NHS organisations to recognise the talents of those with learning disabilities and provides guidance on diversifying NHS organisations to include those with these characteristics.

This article gives top tips for ensuring your recruitment practices are accessible.

Build a plan or strategy to attract and recruit diverse talent

Creating a more diverse workforce aids how organisations serve their local community.  There are many ways to recruit locally, such as advertising with the local job centre or researching local community organisations, centres and events to advertise job vacancies. Many organisations cite difficulty attracting diverse talent as the leading cause of poor diversity within their organisation. While some sectors and roles have well documented challenges in this area, many organisations do not have programmes in place to attract and recruit diverse candidates. It is also important to ensure that the role of biases have been considered and a plan formulated to account for these in your recruitment process. Research by the Nuffield Trust in 2021 showed that candidates from Bangladeshi backgrounds were half as likely (on average) to be appointed from an NHS shortlist than a White British person.

The NHS Talent Management Hub Toolkit was designed in collaboration with NHS stakeholders. It is designed to help organisations embed inclusive and sustainable approaches to talent management for staff at all levels.

There is guidance on recruiting diversely, and specifically for supporting disabled staff in the NHS.

This report looks into ensuring apprenticeship recruitment is inclusive, and there is also a toolkit focused on recruiting and retaining young people (recruiting and retaining young people).

When it comes to ensuring you have a diverse interview panel, consider following the example set by NHS Blood and Transport who specify that for roles which are band 8a and above, the recruitment process must involve a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) recruitment support panel member.

You can find other case studies discussed here, outlining how NHS and anchor institutions are using funding designed to address key inequalities, including in recruitment.

Representation on a local and small scale can be an effective way to open up a pipeline to the health sector, increasing employment opportunities within the local community. Helpful guidance from NHS Employers on how to recruit locally for local service provision and why it is beneficial. There are also specialist recruiters that can help organisations find talent from underrepresented groups and communities, working to fulfil any EDI targets your organisation may have.

Recognising that NHS Jobs is a primary recruitment source for NHS organisations, it may be helpful to consider talking to your NHS recruitment partners about the importance of EDI in your organisation and having a robust plan for ensuring diverse shortlists.  If you use executive recruitment partners, specify that candidate diversity is key.  Independent GP practices may wish to utilise these partnerships more actively due to increased flexibility around recruitment practices compared with other NHS trusts. 

BYP Network is designed to connect Black talent with a range of potential employers across multiple industries, addressing the common question of how organisations can reach out to Black talent. 

Below is a helpful list of diverse job boards specific to various characteristics including age, gender, ethnicity, ability and more:

Talk to Diverse Networks and Support Organisations

There are also many organisations you may want to consider reaching out to when hiring for new positions; here are some medical associations, networks and affiliations who can be contacted with diverse and inclusive recruitment in mind.

We have grouped these in line with the ‘Priority Groups’, and you will also find that most trusts have staff networks that will be keen to talk about how to improve retention and recruitment for their members:

Diverse networks and support organisations

Guidance has just been published on retaining doctors in late stage careers.

The Step into Health programme is designed to help skilled candidates from the Armed Forces community use their transferable skills in the NHS by connecting them with employers and new opportunities.

Maldon Road Surgery runs a patient participant group that meets every three months. To ensure all local community groups are included in discussions about the practice and care services, they are advertising further vacancies in the group, including a young person and someone for whom English is their second language.

In July 2021, they were considered the best performing practice in South-West London, with 99% of respondents describing their overall experience as ‘good’.

The Future Together Group was created to highlight the importance of representation of a diverse community, and to make Homerton Healthcare the ‘best place to work in the NHS’. Their goal was to reach out across the organisation to speak to local people - to find out what works, what isn’t working, and how things can be done better. Find out more on Homerton Healthcare and its EDI focus.

Having a visible presence at local community events helps build trust, and affirms the community aspect of healthcare delivery. Having healthcare experts, or GPs, host community events builds understanding of the communities needs, whether those are employment related or healthcare specific. The correlation between increased local representation among staff, and reducing health inequalities in the local community, has been reinforced in NHS England’s first  EDI improvement plan. Talking directly to the local community about any available roles, whether clinical or non-clinical can help to open up a pipeline into the health sector for underrepresented communities.

You may wish to consider:

  • Holding an open morning at a GP surgery, or at an out-patient facility,
  • Visiting the local community centre, food bank or place of worship,
  • Creating strong links with your local jobcentre and emphasise the transferable skills that can suit non-clinical roles: There is a common misunderstanding that all roles within the health sector require specific degrees and experience - our research highlighted this as a key barrier to recruitment,
  • Attending local job fairs,
  • Using social media platforms: online conferences and Q&As are ways to reach potential employees. NHS Health Careers held a Q&A on Instagram, which is a cost-effective way for smaller organisations to hold talks with school leavers, while other NHS employers have begun to embrace TikTok.

In order to ensure that a wider audience has access into the healthcare sector, EDI needs to be integrated across all aspects of the sector. One way of ensuring this is to increase the presence of Priority Group representation through adopting apprenticeship schemes, mentorship programmes, and ensuring entry level positions are accessible, and development is encouraged throughout the journey. It is important to note that our primary research highlighted people are conscious of, and discouraged from, applying for jobs if they feel that attempts to widen participation are tokenistic. To counter this, Trusts should focus on EDI interventions and initiatives that are long term, part of core practice and can be shown to have made a difference.

HEE (now merged with NHS England) released an insightful document detailing why widening participation is important, as well as detailing how. Another useful resource is a case study conducted by NHS Employers on Widening Participation as a strategic approach to encouraging Priority Groups into/back into the sector.

Ensure all staff are paid at least the London Living Wage (LLW)

The London Living Wage (LLW) is calculated independently from the National Living Wage (NLW) due to the higher cost of living within London. Paying below this puts workers and their families at risk of falling into poverty. Paying the LLW allows London workers to afford necessities and potentially save for the future. As a result of better wages, it is more likely that your organisation will be able to retain staff, especially when the LLW is combined with clear progression opportunities.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission created a report detailing the experiences and treatment of lower paid minority ethnic workers in health and social care, detailing the impacts on health and wellbeing.

Invest in Cultural Awareness training for all teams, particularly recruitment teams

As an organisation responsible for delivering healthcare, it is critical that varying values and beliefs are respected, to ensure that public perception and service delivery can flourish within the local community. Cultural Awareness training is useful in helping employees from different cultures and ethnicities to work together cohesively, and to foster greater understanding of treating patients from diverse cultures, religions, and ethnicities. It can also help to reduce grievance cases, misunderstandings and miscommunications in the workplace, resulting in a more inclusive environment for both staff and patients. You can read more about the benefits of Cultural Awareness Training. 

There are inclusive practices organisations can consider, including accommodating annual leave and shift work around personal values, beliefs and faith days. While accommodating these requests is not a legal obligation, adopting this practice is a great step towards making your workplace more inclusive. 

While this resource provided by Nubian Life is centred around social care, it is a good source of knowledge and understanding on how to deliver culturally specific care. Read it before investing in training for your organisation. 

Additionally, by utilising FutureNHS, you can gain access to the cultural competence programme. This is an e-learning tool designed to help how service users receive health care services, ensuring care is respectful. Its content is informed by the needs of a diverse population. This programme was developed by HEE (now merged with NHS England) in partnership with the Royal College of Midwives. 

Further reading relating to cultural competence and awareness:

Run an annual recruitment drive focusing on underrepresented groups

Our engagement with individuals from the Priority Groups revealed that many believed it was necessary to have degree level education or higher qualifications to enter the health sector. This pinpoints a potential challenge in recruiting non-clinical staff.

Creating an annual recruitment drive that focuses on underrepresented communities, while also spreading awareness of non-clinical roles, is a helpful way to connect with talent and improve representation within the sector.

In turn, this opens up progression opportunities within the sector, as individuals who join the sector may develop an interest in acquiring the skills and qualifications to transfer into clinical and/or senior positions. 

It’s important to consider the needs of the groups you are trying to target when planning recruitment drives; for instance, considering those with caring responsibilities or religious practices. For example, scheduling meetings or drives for Fridays, particularly Friday afternoons, could exclude Muslims who may attend formal prayer sessions at a mosque.

In 2022, the NHS launched a recruitment drive and toolkit amid record vacancies. The drive highlighted the Priority Groups underrepresented in the sector as: ‘Older Londoners, mothers, young Black men, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, and disabled Londoners.’ The toolkit was developed in light of one of 15 recommendations within the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), published in October 2020.

You can read more about the toolkit’s development, and you can find the toolkit itself on FutureNHS.