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University of Minnesota · on Coursera

Recruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding Employees

Beginner English SpecializationFREE
SkillsRecruitingHiringOnboardingSelectionEmployment basicsPeople management

Is this course right for you?

Our take
The front end of people management, from the University of Minnesota's HR for People Managers specialisation: finding the right people, choosing them well and legally, and onboarding them so they stay.

Good for: Managers who hire, and want to recruit and onboard well and legally.

Skip if: You want deep HR strategy or you never hire people.

It's aimed at managers who hire rather than at HR specialists, and it stays practical — covering current wrinkles like the role of social media in hiring alongside the fundamentals. That focus tells you the fit: useful for anyone stepping into hiring, and too narrow if you want deep HR strategy or you never actually hire anyone. One important caveat — the legal specifics lean US, so treat them as a starting point and check your own jurisdiction's employment law.

Audit it free on Coursera; the certificate needs a subscription (about $49/month) or Coursera Plus, with financial aid available, and it records the coursework rather than a professional HR qualification. The core hiring principles hold up well (as of 2026).

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About this course

Recruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding Employees covers the front end of people management: how to attract and select the right people effectively and legally, and how to onboard them so they stay engaged. From the University of Minnesota, it's part of the HR for People Managers specialization and touches current issues like social media in hiring and recruitment analytics.

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Instructor

AS
Amy Simon
Coursera instructor

Taught by Amy Simon and Stacy Doepner-Hove at the University of Minnesota. Amy covers recruiting and selection with practical examples; Stacy brings deep employee-engagement experience to the onboarding module.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. It is a course within a University of Minnesota human-resource-management specialization on Coursera, covering the hiring lifecycle as one part of a broader HR program. You can take it standalone for the recruiting-and-onboarding material, but it is designed within that sequence, so if HR management interests you the wider specialization builds naturally around it.

Partly — this is worth knowing. As a US university course, its legal and compliance content (employment law, hiring regulations) is framed around US rules, which differ from other countries'. The general principles of good recruiting, hiring, and onboarding are universal and transfer well, but treat the specific legal material as US-oriented and check your own jurisdiction's laws where compliance matters.

HR professionals, managers who hire, small-business owners, and anyone responsible for bringing people into an organisation. It assumes no deep HR background, so it works as a structured introduction to doing recruitment and onboarding well. People moving into HR or taking on hiring responsibilities for the first time are the natural audience.

Yes, you can audit it on Coursera and watch the lectures at no cost. The graded assignments and the certificate require a subscription, with financial aid available if you apply. Since much of the value is understanding the concepts and process, auditing gives you the substance if you want the ideas rather than the credential.

As a single course within a specialization, it typically runs a few weeks at a modest weekly pace. It is concept-focused rather than a hands-on build, so the time goes into absorbing the recruiting and onboarding material, with the wider HR specialization a longer commitment if you continue through it.
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