HR documents and templates

Recruitment and selection of new employees should always be considered carefully by any business regardless of their size. The people you employ will form an essential part of your business strategy and will contribute greatly to the success of your business.

Staff recruitment templates

To ensure you attract the best people, you will need to ensure that your recruitment process is fine-tuned, non-discriminatory, and tailored to your business needs. For further guidance see the Employer's Handbook Section 2: Recruiting new employees (PDF, 420K).

For an overview of the recruitment stages and general considerations, download our recruitment process flowchart (DOC, 87K).

For sample template recruitment documents to help with particular stages of the recruitment process, see below.

Templates for advertising your job vacancy

You will need to prepare a job description, a personnel specification, and an application form to advertise your job vacancy. To help you do this, you can download and use our sample template recruitment documents and forms:

• sample job description template (DOC, 14K)
• sample personnel specification template (DOC, 15K)
• sample recruitment advertisement template (DOC, 16K)
• sample job application form template (DOC, 18K)
• sample monitoring questionnaire for job applicants template (DOC, 20K)

Templates for shortlisting candidates

Once you receive replies from candidates to your job vacancy advertisement, you will need to draw up a shortlist and invite those shortlisted to an interview. To help you do this, you can download and use our sample shortlisting documentation templates:

• sample shortlisting record table template (DOC, 15K)
• shortlisting guidance (DOC, 13K)
• sample letter of invitation to first interview template (DOC, 13K)
• sample rejection letter to applicant following shortlisting exercise template (DOC, 13K)

Templates for interviewing candidates

The more preparation you do for the job interview, the easier it will be for both you and the candidate. To help you prepare and carry out the interview process correctly, download and read our factsheets on interviewing, and use our sample record of interview templates:

• sample interview record document template (DOC, 14K)
• sample interview report document template (DOC, 14K)
• preparing for job interviews factsheet (DOC, 14K)
• interview practicalities and structure (DOC, 14K)
• do's and don'ts of interviewing job applicants (DOC, 15K)
• sample rejection letter to applicant following job interview template (DOC, 12K)

Read more on advertising a job and interviewing candidates.

Recruitment and selection tutorial videos

The embedded video below is an introduction to a tutorial on recruitment and selection. You can view the full Invest NI recruitment & selection tutorial.