Applying for one of our roles is quick and easy. This page takes you through our recruitment process so you know what to expect, and also has some tips to help you with your application.
Inclusive recruitment
We're committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace with an environment where everyone can feel like they belong, be themselves, give their best, and thrive – whoever you are, whatever your lived experience.
We're proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident Employer and a Visibly Better Employer, and we’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. We welcome applicants regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality.
Our Talent Acquisition (TA) Team is on hand to support you at any stage of your recruitment process. If you have any questions, concerns, or support requirements, or would like to discuss recruitment adjustments, contact our friendly team and they'll be more than happy to help in any way they can.
To help us monitor the inclusivity of our recruitment process and to ensure we're supporting applicants from all backgrounds you'll be asked to share your demographic data within your application form. Sharing this information is voluntary and completely confidential. It's not shared with the hiring manager or used in any hiring decisions - it's only used to help us continuously improve our hiring practices and recruitment process.
Safer recruitment
Guide Dogs is a place where we work side by side, and come into contact, with a wide variety of people, on our sites and in communities both physical and virtual. We have a duty of care to anyone who comes into contact with the charity. To help with this we follow safer recruitment practices.
Safer recruitment helps us to do the best we can to make sure the people we recruit have the right motivations for working with us. This may mean that our recruitment processes are a little different to what you have experienced before.
Criminal convictions and record checks
We only use criminal record checks where it's necessary to help us assess an individual’s suitability for certain positions within Guide Dogs. If a check is required for a role, we will make it clear in both the job advert and contract of employment. Depending on the location of the role, we may use the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) in England and Wales, Disclosure Scotland (DS) or Access NI in Northern Ireland to carry out checks. If information directly relevant to the position is not disclosed, or if the check reveals information which we believe would make you unsuitable for the role we reserve the right to withdraw an offer of employment.
You are not required to disclose spent convictions covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and subsequent amendments, in the UK or under your equivalent national legislation. A conviction becomes 'spent' after a certain length of time, which varies depending upon the sentence and your age at the time of conviction. You should contact your local Probation Office, the Citizen's Advice Bureau or your solicitor for specific advice or general advice can be found on the Disclosure Service websites, linked below;
Our recruitment process
We follow a standardised framework for the recruitment of every role at Guide Dogs which is then tailored by our Talent Acquisition team, in partnership with the Hiring Manager for each role.
To give you an idea of what to expect during our recruitment process, here are the key stages you will work through:
All our available vacancies can be found on our job board. If we don’t have one that is quite right for you at the moment, you can register a profile and set up job alerts to be notified when we post a job that matches your criteria.
Once you have found a role, you will need to create an account on our job board to be able to apply.
When you register on our job board, you will be asked to provide a copy of your CV. This will help speed up your application process as the system will pre-populate some of your information into your application form from your CV. It’s important to double check the information has populated correctly when you fill out the rest of the form.
It's always a good idea to make sure the information you provide is tailored to the role to highlight your relevant skills.
You'll also need to make sure that your work history is complete and you have explanations for any gaps in your employment. This is in accordance with our safer recruitment practices.Read our tips for completing an application form for more help.
Once you submit your application, you will receive an acknowledgement from us to your email address. Remember to check your junk file as sometimes our emails can go in there.If you need any support in completing your application or have any difficulties in submitting it, please contact the TA team who will be able to offer you support:
Email: recruitment@guidedogs.org.uk
Phone: 0118 3554 0345- Once received, the hiring manager will shortlist your application. Our managers are looking for evidence of your experience against the person specification criteria from the job description. We only shortlist against the information included in your application form so please make sure you include everything relevant to the role that you want us to know about.
You will always receive an email notification from us on the outcome of your application once a decision has been made.
We understand that it can be frustrating if you are unsuccessful at this stage and where we are able we will provide feedback on request; however, for some of our vacancies we receive large volumes of applications and in these case we are unable to provide individual feedback at shortlisting.
AI and recruitment
Our recruitment process is designed to help us get to know each other. While we think there are a lot of benefits associated with AI, no technology can truly capture your individuality as well as you can.
These tools can be useful in applying for a role or preparing for interviews. We understand that they can be a big help to many people, but we want to balance the benefits of AI while still getting to know the real you as a candidate.
If you choose to use AI, or not, in your application is up to you. But, if you are planning to use any tools, we encourage you to consider how you use them and not rely on them too much. Remember that we want to get to know you, to discover what makes you unique and to understand what only you can bring to Guide Dogs.
Tips for applying
- Please remember to fully read the advert and any supporting documents to make sure you’re clear on what the role involves and the type of candidate we’re looking for.
- Within the job description, review the person specification section and identify all the criteria required - both essential and desirable (as a guide, each element could be viewed as an individual criterion).
- Review your work history, skills and experience and identify how they match the essential and desirable (if applicable) criteria.
- Prepare to be questioned on any examples you give in your application in your interview.
- For each skill and/or experience you have identified, provide a clear, specific example that demonstrates your suitability for the role. To make sure your examples demonstrate the criteria, the following format can help you be specific:
S – What was the situation?
T – What was the task you had to do?
A – What action did you take?
R – What was the result? - The STAR format is also a good approach to take when answering interview questions to ensure you provide a well-structured and comprehensive response.
- For each skill and/or experience you have identified, provide a clear, specific example that demonstrates your suitability for the role. To make sure your examples demonstrate the criteria, the following format can help you be specific:
It may sound simple, but our top tip would be to re-read your application, the advert and supporting documents before submitting the application. It’s a useful opportunity to make sure you have:
- Included everything you think is relevant.
- Checked that your spelling and grammar are correct.
- Addressed all the essential, and if relevant, the desirable criteria from the person specification with clear and specific examples that showcase your skills and knowledge.
- Remembered to save a copy of your completed form – this will be useful for you to refer to when preparing for your interview.
Things to avoid
To help you put forward a strong application, here are some common errors that people can make:
Sometimes it’s hard to think of specific situations. For example, if you deal with difficult customers, you might be tempted to say “Whenever I get a difficult customer, this is what I do...”. Don't fall into this trap! You need to talk about specifics, for example “On one occasion, I spoke to a customer who was angry and I...”. This explains exactly what you did in this situation, rather than what you might hypothetically do.
We’re interested in what you did, more than anything other people did, so make sure you say ‘I’, and not ‘we’.
If you’re using examples where lots of people have been involved in making something happen, don’t be tempted to say “We decided that... We did this...”. We want to know how you work and what your skills are so you can only be given points for things that you personally did – “I talked to my colleagues and I agreed that I'd do this...” Always talk about 'I'.
Assumptions cannot be made about your contribution so if you don’t specify exactly what you did, the recruiting manager will not know.
The information you put on your application form needs to demonstrate what you understand about the criteria in the person specification. Make sure your answers show you understand the skill or ability you are demonstrating. Remember, if you don’t specify exactly what you did, the recruiting manager will not know.
Sometimes, people feel that examples should always be taken from their experiences in work. Not true! You can use examples from any area of your life, a lot of skills are transferable.
While it’s good to be aware of all your skills and experience, only provide those relevant to the person specification as this demonstrates your understanding of the role and means you don't waste time writing detail which will not be useful in shortlisting.
Do you have any questions or support needs?
Contact our Talent Acquisition Team who are happy to help: