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NHS Foundation Trust
Building a more inclusive recruitment process at King's College Hospital
Case study
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a leading teaching hospital employing thousands of people across a wide range of clinical and non-clinical roles. As an organisation serving a diverse community, creating an inclusive workplace is a strategic priority.
To ensure its recruitment practices reflected the communities it serves, the Trust partnered with Robert Walters Group to review its end-to-end hiring process and identify opportunities to make recruitment more inclusive, fair and accessible.
The challenge
As a major healthcare provider, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust recognises the importance of building a workforce that reflects the diversity of its local communities. The organisation wanted an independent partner with expertise in inclusive hiring, recruitment best practice and bias reduction to evaluate its recruitment process from application through to hiring.
The objective was to gain a clear understanding of where barriers or unconscious bias could exist and to identify practical improvements that would strenghten the candidate experience for all applicants.
The solution
Robert Walters Group conducted a comprehensive Recruitment Inclusivity Audit using a proprietary framework informed by academic research, industry data and recruitment expertise.
The audit assessed every stagr of the recruitment journey, reviewing recruitment processes, hiring practices and career content to identify areas where bias could unintentionally influence hiring decisions. Drawing on insights from more than 60 peer-reviewed academic studies, the assessment analysed 257 recruitment data points and provided evidence-based recommendations to support long-term improvement.
The outcome was a practical roadmap containing tailored actions that enabled the Trust to strengthen its inclusive recruitment strategy and create a more equitable hiring process.
Delivering lasting impact
Following the audit, the findings were presented to senior stakeholders together with 49 tailored recommendations designed to reduce bias across the recruitment process. Key recommendations included:
- 8 recommendations focused on reducing gender bias, including improvements to the way pay information is collected and the wording of job advertisements.
- 10 recommendations to strengthen ethnic inclusion, including best practices for collecting ethnicity data during the application process.
- 11 recommendations aimed at improving accessibility for neurodiverse candidates and people with disabilities, including tailored interview adjustments and interviewer training.
- 16 recommendations covering LGBTQ+, age and faith inclusion through updates to recruitment processes and careers content.
Robert Walters Group continues to work closely with King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to support the implementation of these recommendations and help drive meaningful, long-term improvements in inclusive recruitment.
Client testimonial
“The inclusivity audit provides a recognised standard in the world of diversity and inclusion for organisations to reach an then build upon. There can be no doubt that in order to thrive and offer a place where people truly belong, it is essential that NHS trusts have inclusive recruitment practices. We are very pleased for what this process has given us - the ability to grow.”
Funmi Onamusi
Director of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
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