How we hire
How we hire
We want everyone to be able to perform at their best throughout our hiring process. Here, you’ll find information about how we hire as well as tips for completing your application and taking part in our assessment process.
Our hiring process
Application stageaddremove
We ask all our candidates to apply through this portal. To apply, click on the role you’re interested in and follow the instructions. First you’ll need to register and then give some basic contact details.
From this point, our application process varies depending on the role you’re applying for. For most roles, we’ll ask for an outline of your experience and qualifications.
We may ask you to write short answers or a supporting statement about your skills and experience and how these match what we’re looking for. For roles in our science department, we may ask you to upload a publications history. For other roles, we might ask for your portfolio of work.
For roles relating to visitor experience, we’re interested in how you would interact with and help our visitors. For these roles, our process focuses on in-person assessments rather than on your written application.
When you’ve finished your application, we’ll ask you to complete diversity-monitoring information. This is really important, as it helps us to understand the diversity of our applicants. Using this data we can make sure our recruitment process meets everyone’s needs and is free from any bias or barriers that might prevent under-represented groups from joining us.
We gather everyone’s diversity-monitoring information together to understand trends rather than looking at it on an individual basis. We never share your information with those shortlisting applicants and don’t use it to make hiring decisions.
When completing your application, you can save your progress and return to it at any time before the closing date.
All opportunities will close at midnight on the closing date unless otherwise stated. We regret we’re unable to accept late applications or applications not submitted through the portal.
Shortlisting stageaddremove
One or more of our hiring managers will review your application. They’ll compare the information you’ve provided to the skills and experience set out in the role’s person specification as well as to our thriving behaviours.
Here are some tips to help you:
If we’ve asked you specific questions about your experience, keep your answers short and to the point. Describe specific examples of what you did and the outcome and impact of your actions.
If we’ve asked you for a supporting statement, structure it in line with the person specification. Give clear, short examples of how you meet what we’re looking for.
Include examples that are relevant to our six thriving behaviours. How you work is just as important to us as what you’ve achieved, so make sure you reference this in your answers.
Answer every question. We won’t ask questions that aren’t relevant to the shortlisting process, so make sure you don’t skip any questions.
Wherever practically possible, we carry out anonymised shortlisting, removing identifying details from applications before managers see them. This helps to minimise the chances of unconscious bias influencing shortlisting decisions.
Where anonymisation isn’t possible, we ask for information to be provided in a standardised format, so we can compare candidates on a like-for-like basis. For example, when reviewing publication histories for roles in our science department.
Assessment stageaddremove
If you’re successful at the shortlisting stage, you’ll be invited to take part in one or more assessments. These may be online via Teams or in person at one of our sites, depending on the role and the type of assessment.
For most roles there will be more than one assessment method. The tasks we’ll ask you to complete will be relevant to the skills and experience we’re looking for and to our thriving behaviours.
For example, you might have an interview with a small panel as well as a written or practical task. If the role involves presenting and public speaking, we might ask you to prepare a presentation. Alternatively, we might ask you to review information and discuss it with the panel. For technical roles there might be a practical test, for example coding.
For some roles, such as those relating to visitor experience, we’ll hold an assessment day. This not only gives us the chance to assess your skills but gives you a chance to understand more about the day-to-day work and to meet current team members. For some roles, there may be a second round of assessments. If we think this might be needed, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.
In all cases, we’ll provide you with information about the process beforehand, so you have what you need to perform at your best. If you’re unsuccessful, we’ll offer you feedback.
To best prepare for our assessments:
read the person specification
read our six thriving behaviours
prepare examples of how you meet the person specification and behaviours
make sure your examples explain what you did and the impact it had
practice saying your examples succinctly and fluently
Offer stageaddremove
If you’re successful, the hiring manager for the role will contact you to make an offer.
Transparency is an important principle of how we reward people, and so it’s important that you know that we don’t negotiate on starting salaries. We think this is important in preventing discrepancies based on protected characteristics. We advertise the starting salary for each role so you can be clear on the terms of the role before you apply.
For some roles, such as postdoctoral research opportunities, we have several salary points. These are clearly linked to skills and experience rather than being negotiable. If this applies to you, we’ll communicate you’re starting salary point when making you an offer.
Once you accept an offer from us, our HR team will contact you to start our onboarding process. We’ll send you a formal offer letter outlining the offer conditions as well as how you go about providing the information we need to get you onboard. We’ll also share some key information to help you settle in and feel part of the team.
All our offers are conditional on satisfactory references, evidence of right to work in the UK and a basic criminal records check. Some offers will also be conditional on evidence of qualifications and/or a higher level of criminal records check. This depends on the role and will be outlined in the vacancy posting.
Reasonable adjustments
We welcome applications from disabled candidates, and are committed to adapting our recruitment processes to make sure all candidates can perform at their best. If you require adjustments to our application process or require materials in a different format, contact us at hrteam@nhm.ac.uk.
If you need adjustments to the assessment stage of our hiring process, indicate this on your application form and we’ll contact you before the assessment to put these in place.
We’re part of the Disability Confident Scheme and guarantee an interview to all disabled candidates who meet the minimum shortlisting criteria for the role. You can find out more about the scheme here.