NHS Scotland Hiring Managers Centre

This resource is designed to support hiring managers through every stage of the recruitment journey. Here you’ll find clear guidance, practical tools, and essential resources to help you plan, authorise, and manage vacancies effectively and in line with NHS Scotland standards.

With centralised access to essential tools, templates, and guidance on the recruitment journey, the below resources have been collated to empower hiring managers to easily navigate the recruitment process, support candidates effectively, and uphold NHS Scotland’s national standards.

This page brings together the key documents and resources used throughout the recruitment process, helping you stay on track and work consistently.

Whether you’re completing on the early stages of recruitment, creating a job description and person specification, or navigating approval processes, this guide provides step-by-step instructions and best practice advice to ensure a fair, transparent, and efficient recruitment experience.

Get the full picture before you begin

Before starting your recruitment activity, we recommend reviewing the Recruitment Timeline. It gives an end‑to‑end view of the process and highlights what you need to consider at each stage, helping you plan effectively and avoid delays.

Follow clear guidance at every stage

This section breaks the recruitment journey into manageable steps, with dedicated guidance and resources to support you through each one.

Before you start: Planning Checklist

Before progressing a vacancy, ensure the appropriate approval and authorisation processes have been completed in line with your Health Board's local procedures. This helps confirm the need for the role and ensures the necessary approvals are in place before recruitment activity begins.

Providing clear and complete information at this stage can help prevent delays later in the recruitment process.

Vacancy Approval Process

Before advertising a vacancy, you should consider whether the role can be filled through redeployment in line with local Health Board policies and workforce procedures.

Redeployment supports organisational change, helps retain valuable skills and experience, and ensures employees affected by organisational change are considered for suitable opportunities before wider recruitment activity takes place.

If a suitable redeployee is identified, the vacancy may be filled without progressing to advertisement. Where no suitable match is available, recruitment can proceed through the next stages of the process.

Once approval has been secured and redeployment requirements have been considered, the next step is to prepare for recruitment.

This includes finalising recruitment documentation, confirming the recruitment timeline, identifying panel members, and ensuring all information required for advertising the vacancy is ready for upload to Jobtrain.

Taking time to prepare at this stage can help avoid delays later in the recruitment process and supports a smooth experience for candidates and panel members alike.

Step 5: Advertise and Attract

Promote your vacancy to potential candidates. Once your recruitment documentation has been finalised and uploaded, the next step is to advertise the vacancy and attract suitable candidates.

Vacancies are typically advertised through NHS Scotland Jobs and may also be promoted through local recruitment channels, social media activity, professional networks and other approved advertising routes.

The resources below provide guidance on vacancy advertising, recruitment marketing and attracting diverse, high-quality applicants.

Please note that advertising arrangements and support available may vary between Health Boards.

Shortlisting is the process of assessing applications against the person specification. This supports fair, objective and transparent decision making and helps identify candidates who best meet the requirements of the role.

When undertaking shortlisting activity, you should follow local recruitment procedures and ensure all applicants are considered consistently using agreed criteria.

The guidance and resources below will help you complete shortlisting, apply the Job Interview Guarantee Scheme (JIG) where appropriate, and record decisions accurately within Jobtrain.

Interviews and assessments provide an opportunity to evaluate candidates against the requirements of the role, assess values and behaviours, and determine who is best suited to the position.

A well-planned interview process helps ensure recruitment decisions are fair, objective and evidence based. This may include interviews, presentations, practical assessments or other selection methods appropriate to the role.

The resources below provide guidance on conducting interviews, using assessment methods, recording outcomes and making appointment recommendations.

Pre-Interview Checklist for Managers

Before conducting interviews, ensure:

• Finalise Questions: Interview questions and scoring criteria have been agreed.
• Review Adjustments: Reasonable adjustment requests have been reviewed and arrangements put in place.
• ID and Documentation: Right to Work and identification documentation requirements have been prepared.
• Panel Competence: Panel members have completed the appropriate recruitment and selection training. All panel members understand their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.

Step 8: Conditional Offer

Confirm your preferred candidate. Following completion of interviews and assessments, the preferred candidate may be identified and a conditional offer progressed in accordance with local procedures.

A conditional offer is subject to the satisfactory completion of relevant pre-employment checks and does not constitute formal appointment.

The guidance below outlines manager responsibilities, candidate communications and the next steps in progressing an offer.

Complete recruitment and safety checks. Before a candidate can be formally appointed, pre-employment checks must be completed in line with NHS Scotland recruitment policies and employment legislation.

Depending on the role, checks may include Right to Work verification, references, Occupational Health clearance, professional registration checks, qualifications verification and Disclosure or PVG checks.

The resources below provide guidance and supporting information to help you complete these requirements and ensure safe recruitment practices.

Confirm the appointment. Once all pre-employment checks have been successfully completed, a formal offer of employment can be issued.

At this stage, arrangements should be made to confirm the candidate's appointment, agree a start date and support any final onboarding requirements.

The resources below provide guidance on appointment processes, employment documentation and preparing for a successful start.

Support a successful start. Effective onboarding and induction help new employees settle into their role, understand organisational expectations and begin contributing as quickly as possible.

Hiring managers play an important role in ensuring new starters receive the information, access and support they need during their first weeks in post.

The resources below provide guidance on induction, mandatory training, system access, local orientation processes and manager responsibilities for welcoming new employees into NHS Scotland.

Additional guidance for senior and executive roles

Meeting national standards

Key areas to consider

NHS Scotland is committed to attracting and retaining talented people from across the world to support a skilled, diverse and sustainable workforce. International recruitment can play an important role in meeting workforce needs and widening access to talent across a range of professions and services.

This section brings together national guidance, policies and resources to support hiring managers involved in the recruitment of international candidates. Whether you are considering visa sponsorship, reviewing eligibility to work requirements, or ensuring your recruitment process aligns with ethical recruitment standards, these resources will help you recruit fairly, consistently and in line with NHS Scotland policy.

You'll find information on international recruitment processes, visa sponsorship, right-to-work requirements, ethical recruitment principles and and key considerations for hiring managers to help you make informed recruitment decisions and provide a positive experience for candidates throughout the recruitment journey, ensuring recruitment processes are fair, compliant and aligned with national policy.