Inclusive Recruitment Lead - Data-Driven Hiring in Sheffield

Social Work England is the specialist regulator for social work in England, focused on enabling positive change in social work. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate – to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people’s lives.

The Recruitment Manager plays a critical role in delivering a fair, inclusive and business-focused recruitment approach. The role ensures the organisation has the right resource in place at the right time by ensuring continuous improvement across all recruitment processes. The role will embed equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles in every stage of recruitment, strengthening data quality and insights, optimising recruitment systems and processes and ensuring sourcing approaches support organisational needs and objectives.

What you will do

• Lead continuous improvement in our approach to recruitment to ensure we are able to meet our business objectives, using recruitment, workforce and EDI data to identify trends, barriers and opportunities.
• Strengthen our inclusive recruitment practice by ensuring every stage of attraction, assessment and selection is fair, accessible and aligned to our EDI principles.
• Design, implement and monitor recruitment processes and policies that improve efficiency, consistency and inclusivity.
• Challenge and support hiring managers to use evidence-based, proportionate and inclusive selection methods.
• Develop and maintain a forward-looking resource and recruitment plan informed by workforce analytics, organisational priorities and risk.
• Proactively source talent from a diverse range of channels and communities.
• Provide advice and guidance to ensure we have inclusive job profiles, adverts and communications that use clear, bias-free language and support diverse applicant attraction.
• Ensure data quality across all recruitment systems, allowing accurate, complete and timely data capture to support meaningful reporting.
• Work with People Business Partners to ensure recruitment activity and planning aligns to workforce planning and future capability needs.
• Deliver training and guidance to recruiting managers on fair, inclusive and unbiased recruitment in line with our policy and processes.
• Manage the Recruitment Officer, ensuring efficient workflows, excellent candidate experience and high-quality data management.

Your Skills, Knowledge And Experience

• Experience leading recruitment with a strong focus on continuous improvement and inclusive practice.
• Experience sourcing candidates across multiple channels, including proactive outreach for specialist skills and underrepresented groups.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret recruitment, workforce and equality data to inform decisions.
• Experience improving data quality, defining reporting needs and using people and recruitment systems for reporting.
• Demonstrable understanding of EDI principles and how to embed inclusive recruitment approaches.
• Ability to present data-informed insights clearly to influence hiring managers and senior leaders.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills with the ability to challenge constructively and articulate risk.
• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and deliver improvements quickly.

The Benefits

• A contributory NEST pension scheme, with employer contribution of up to 10%.
• Life insurance, an employee recognition scheme and cycle to work scheme.
• Hybrid working, with a minimum of two days per week in the office.
• 25 days annual leave, rising with service to 30 days per annum, plus bank holidays.
• The option to purchase up to an additional 5 days of annual leave per annum.
• A TIDE award-winning inclusive culture, made up of staff networks, social events and forums.

Details

• Job type: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full time. We offer flexible working subject to business need.
• Salary: £44,866 per year, rising to £47,293 per year after successful completion of a 6-month probationary period.
• Location: Sheffield/Hybrid

Application

During the application process, you will be asked to provide answers to three questions from the job description. These answers will be what your application is scored on, please answer in as much detail as possible using examples where necessary.

Pre-Employment Checks

If you are successful at interview, we will carry out a series of routine pre-employment checks. These include verifying your references, confirming your right to work in the UK, and completing a Basic DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check.

These checks are conducted in partnership with our third-party provider, Amiqus, who will guide you through the process. Please note that all offers of employment are subject to the satisfactory completion of these checks.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact our recruitment team via recruitment@socialworkengland.org.uk and our team will be happy to help.

Contact

If you have any queries about the recruitment process, or would like to discuss the role, please contact recruitment@socialworkengland.org.uk.

How to apply

To apply, complete the application form by the closing date.

Interview

At interview we will seek to further understand your skills, knowledge, experience and motivation and test the key competencies of the role. If you are successful, we will undertake routine pre-employment checks.

Find out more about our application and interview process.