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Recruiting new staff using Airtable

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Euan’s Guide is the disabled access charity. They’re best known for their disabled access review website, described by Ian Rankin as “Trip Advisor with wheels on”. They also make tens of thousands of accessible loos safer and run the UK’s largest and longest running access survey.

Use this guide to streamline your recruitment process and make it more inclusive. Airtable lets you create application forms that allow candidates to apply in the format that suits them best. It makes it easier for your team to manage and review applications. And it reduces back-and-forth communication because you can set it up so applicants can choose their interview times.

Jump to steps
Key software:
Airtable
How they set it up:
Followed simple on screen instructions
Setup costs:
Staff time
Ongoing costs:
Team plan - with 20% charity discount
Guide in use since:
February 2025

Steps to recruiting new staff using Airtable

Map out:

  • who’s involved in your recruitment process

  • the parts of the process they’re involved in

  • what their role is

  • what information you need from applicants

This will help you see who needs what information and when.

Choose the information you need to collect from applicants to shortlist fairly. And don’t ask for details that you don’t need.

CIPD’s guide to inclusive recruitment for employers

Employers for Change's Guide to Ensuring Accessible and Inclusive Recruitment Processes for Individuals with Disabilities

Euan’s Guide is a disabled access charity run by and for disabled people. On EuansGuide.com, disabled people, their families, friends and carers can find and share disabled access information.

The organisation wanted its recruitment process to be as inclusive as possible. It did this by offering applicants different ways to apply, so they could choose the format that worked best for them.

Applicants were invited to share their skills and experience and why they wanted to work for the charity by submitting a CV and covering letter in the format of their choice.

A small group of team and board members reviewed each application, using pre-agreed scoring criteria.

Airtable is an online tool that helps you organise and manage information. It looks like a spreadsheet, but works more like a database — giving you more control over how data is stored, viewed and shared.

Information is organised into workspaces, which are like folders. Each workspace can contain one or more bases — individual databases for different projects or tasks. Within a base, data is stored in tables (also called sheets), similar to tabs in a spreadsheet.

You can create custom views of your data to show the information you want and hide anything that’s not relevant. You can share these views with others, without giving them access to all the data in the base.

You can use Airtable to collect information using online forms and to display selected data on web pages.

Euan's Guide has a small staff team and does not recruit often. So it didn’t want to invest time and money into a recruitment system with lots of features it wouldn’t use. It needed a secure, efficient and cost-effective way to track applicants. And a way to share information with everyone involved in the recruitment process.

The organisation already used Airtable as a key tool for managing internal projects and information. But it had never used it for external recruitment or collecting applications through online forms — so this was a new way of using a familiar, GDPR-compliant tool.

Accessibility is an organisational priority for Euan's Guide. It knew that Airtable meets its accessibility needs. The tool enables applicants to apply in a range of formats:

  • free text

  • video or audio

  • CV and cover letter

  • online form

And it's accessible for staff who use assistive technology.

Decide what information you need to collect from applicants and how you’ll store it.

In Airtable, start by creating a new blank base. Add a new table to it. In the table, create a column for each piece of information you want to collect.

For each column, choose the type of data it will hold. For example, a dropdown list for multiple-choice options, a text box for free-text answers or an attachment field for document upload. Pick the best field type for the information you'll be entering.

 The template for the base Euan’s Guide created for its external recruitment.

How Euan's Guide created its applicants table:

  • created a new base

  • created a new applicants table

  • started in grid view and added the fields they wanted: CV (free text and upload), cover letter (free text and upload) contact details and preferred working pattern

The organisation also set up fields to score applications based on set criteria (a further table) which would enable them to create interview shortlist. These tables made it easy for multiple people to review applications at the same time, record their scores and comments and see all feedback in one place.

Airtable lets you create forms that are linked to your data. People can use web forms to submit or update information directly into your database - without needing to log in or create an account .

The form is built using the fields in your table, but you can customise it. For example, by hiding certain fields, adding instructions, or making some questions required.

Airtable also lets you set up automations. These are automatic tasks. For example, you can make it send an email when someone fills out a form. Or set up a series of actions that happen when something specific changes in your data.

How Euan's Guide created its application form:

  • started in to grid view

  • clicked Create New View and chose “Form”

  • created a form using the fields from the Grid View as a starting point

  • hid any fields that were only for internal use and added explanatory text for each question

  • added job title and logo so applicants knew they were in the right place and included explanatory information for them

  • set up a custom thank you page to confirm submission and link to the anonymous EDI monitoring form

  • enabled email notifications so that team members were notificed everytime there was new application

  • published the form

  • signposted to the form on job adverts

Applicants were encouraged to submit their applications using the Airtable form, but other options were available. The form made it clear that if someone preferred to apply in a different way, they could get in touch by email or phone to arrange an alternative.

The organisation created a separate form to collect anonymous Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) monitoring information. This was linked from the application submission page so it could be submitted anonymously and kept separate from the application.

Bonus Section!

The base was then adapted to manage interview scheduling. A separate table was created and form link circulated to invite applicants to choose their preferred time slot — they could see all available options and pick the one that suited them best. This helped reduce back-and-forth. Interviewers could clearly see the full schedule and had access to each applicant’s CV and other relevant information.

Euan's Guide used automations to send applicants confirmation of their interviews.

You need trial runs of your recruitment process to ensure everything works smoothly.

Testing will help you:

  • spot problems early on: testing the process from start to finish means you can catch any technical issues, confusing instructions, or unclear steps before real applicants go through it.

  • improve applicants’ experiences: dry runs help ensure the process is smooth, fair, and easy to follow. This leaves applicants with a positive impression of your organisation.

  • check if your communication is clear: it gives you a chance to review all written materials (emails, instructions and forms) to make sure the language is clear, inclusive, and easy to understand.

  • make the process more inclusive: testing with people with different perspectives can help identify barriers that might affect applicants with other access requirements.

  • ensure fairness and consistency: you can make sure scoring systems, interview questions are applied consistently and fairly.

Euan’s Guide asked staff who weren’t involved in recruitment tested the application process from start to finish. These staff members gave feedback on anything that was confusing or didn’t work well. And checked that the language used was clear and easy to understand.

Looking at what worked well and what could be improved will help you improve future recruitment rounds. For example, are there avoidable delays? Or are there parts of the process where the communication could be better?

It will also enable you to see if there are any unnecessary steps or duplicated effort for applicants and staff.

Using an online form for application submissions saved Euan's Guide a lot of time. It meant that staff didn’t have to manually input information from application forms into a database.

The organisation was able to add, and remove, board members and members of staff from the Airtable base. This meant people only had access to recruitment information when required.

Most applicants submitted their CV and cover letter as either Word documents, PDFs or Free Text but over 10% of people submitted using video - a first for us. And some applicants thanked the charity for the inclusive recruitment process.

Lastly, using Airtable will make it easy for Euan's Guide to delete applicants’ personal information, as everything is stored in one place and can be removed simply by deleting the base.

Further information

Contact: Antonia Lee-Bapty, CEO, Euan’s Guide: [email protected]

We have Guides on using Airtable for recruitment, data management and evaluation:

Airtable has a blog post on how nonprofits can use the tool to support their work.