Overview
If the algorithm discriminates, it is your discrimination
AI has moved into every stage of hiring: sourcing tools that decide who sees your advert, screeners that rank CVs, chatbots that sift applicants and platforms that score recorded interviews. These tools promise speed and consistency, but they learn from historical data, and historical hiring data carries historical bias. When a tool systematically disadvantages candidates who share a protected characteristic, that is indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, and the employer using the tool carries the liability. Tribunals, the EHRC and the ICO have all made clear that “the software did it” is not a defence.
This course gives HR professionals and hiring managers the working knowledge to use recruitment AI safely. You will learn how algorithmic bias actually arises, including proxy discrimination, where a tool never sees a protected characteristic but finds a stand-in for it. You will cover the legal framework across the Equality Act and UK GDPR, including transparency duties to candidates and the rules on automated rejection. Then the course turns practical: the questions to put to vendors before you buy, how to test a tool for adverse impact, what meaningful human review of AI recommendations looks like, and how to handle reasonable adjustments and candidate challenges.
The course is fully online and self paced, taking most learners three to four hours, with twelve months of access from enrolment. Pass the closing assessment and your CPD certified certificate is generated straight away, dated and named, ready to download and print.
What you’ll learn
What you’ll be able to do
By the end of this course you will be able to:
Map where AI sits in your recruitment and HR processes, including inside platforms you already use.
Explain how the Equality Act 2010 applies to AI-assisted decisions, and where liability falls.
Describe how algorithmic bias and proxy discrimination arise, and spot the warning signs.
Apply UK GDPR to candidate data, including transparency and the rules on automated rejection.
Put the right questions to vendors before buying an AI recruitment tool.
Test and monitor tools for adverse impact across protected characteristics.
Keep meaningful human review in the process, and evidence it.
Handle reasonable adjustments, candidate queries and discrimination challenges involving AI.
Course content
Six modules to work through
Each module builds on the last and ends with the material you need for the final assessment. Work at your own pace and return to any module during your twelve month access window.
1Where AI Sits in the Hiring ProcessThe AI you are already using, including the AI you do not know about.⌄
- AI in sourcing and advertising: who sees your vacancy and who never does
- CV screening and ranking tools, and how they actually score
- Chatbot sifting, game-based assessments and video interview scoring
- AI inside your existing ATS and HR platforms: features that arrive by update
- Beyond hiring: AI in performance, promotion and redundancy decisions
2The Equality Act 2010 and Automated DecisionsThe legal framework that applies to every AI-assisted employment decision.⌄
- The nine protected characteristics and how AI decisions touch them
- Direct and indirect discrimination in an algorithmic context
- Why the employer is liable for a vendor’s biased tool
- The duty to make reasonable adjustments in AI-driven processes
- What tribunals and the EHRC expect employers to have done
3How Algorithmic Bias HappensThe mechanics of biased outcomes, so you can spot the risk before it hires for you.⌄
- Training data: how yesterday’s hiring patterns become tomorrow’s rules
- Proxy discrimination: postcodes, career gaps, hobbies and other stand-ins
- Real-world failures: lessons from documented recruitment AI cases
- Accuracy is not fairness: why a “well-performing” tool can still discriminate
- Bias in scoring video, voice and language, and who it disadvantages
4Data Protection in Recruitment AICandidate data has UK GDPR rights attached, and AI processing raises the stakes.⌄
- Lawful basis and transparency: what candidates must be told about AI in your process
- Automated rejection and the rules on solely automated decisions
- Candidate rights: access, objection and challenging an automated outcome
- DPIAs for recruitment AI: when one is required
- Retention of candidate data and AI-generated scores
5Procuring and Auditing HR AI ToolsDue diligence before you buy, and monitoring after you switch it on.⌄
- The vendor questions that matter: training data, testing, bias audits and updates
- Contract terms: audit rights, liability and data processing
- Adverse impact testing: simple checks your own data can support
- Piloting a tool safely before it touches live hiring
- Ongoing monitoring: what to review, how often and who signs it off
6Fair Process in PracticeRunning an AI-assisted process that is fair, defensible and humane.⌄
- Meaningful human review of AI recommendations: making it real
- Communicating AI use to candidates clearly and honestly
- Reasonable adjustments: alternatives when AI assessment disadvantages someone
- Handling complaints and discrimination claims involving AI decisions
- The records that defend your process: assessments, overrides and reviews
Who it’s for
Is this course a good fit?
This course is written for the people who run hiring and people processes, and for anyone who approves the tools those processes use.
HR managers & directors
People leaders accountable for fair, lawful recruitment and HR decisions.
Recruiters & talent teams
In-house and agency recruiters working with screening and sourcing tools daily.
Hiring managers
Managers who rely on AI-ranked shortlists and scored assessments.
HR systems owners
Those who select and configure ATS and HR platforms with AI features.
EDI leads
Equality, diversity and inclusion specialists auditing hiring outcomes.
Business owners
SME owners who hire without a big HR function and carry the risk personally.
Assessment
How it’s assessed
The course is assessed by a single online multiple choice test taken after the modules. It can be retaken as many times as you need at no extra cost.
End-of-course assessment
Study details
You can pause and resume at any point, and your progress is saved automatically. There is no time limit on the assessment itself.
Certification
Your CPD-certified certificate
AI in Recruitment and HR: Equality Act Compliance — CPD Certified
On passing the assessment, your CPD certified digital certificate is available to download and print immediately, with your name, the course title and the completion date. If your hiring is ever challenged, dated evidence that the people running the process were trained on algorithmic bias and Equality Act compliance is a meaningful part of your defence, and it demonstrates the proactive approach the EHRC and ICO expect. We recommend refresher training every two years, or when you change recruitment platforms.
FAQs
