A diverse and all-inclusive workforce benefits everyone. Since you’re here, you must be aware of its importance already. Now, for most organizations, the challenge is how to write an inclusive job posting that attracts a diverse pool of candidates.
Inclusivity culture is changing rapidly. Organizations all over the world are willing to attract people of color, differently-abled folks, LGBTQ+, women, people of different classes and age groups, etc. Even if you think you have done everything right, there’s could still be room for improvement. You could be sabotaging your efforts by sticking to a stale job description.
Not sure how to improve your job posting or write inclusive descriptions, to begin with? Here’s how:
1: Get Rid of Gender Coded Words
What are gender-coded words, you ask? Society has certain expectations of what men and women and other genders are like, and how they differ. This expectation sometimes seeps into the language we use. Bossy and feisty are terms used to describe men.
According to studies, gender-coded words can reduce the number of women applying to a job even if it’s an unconscious bias. Other words that are considered gender-coded include dominating, ninja, rockstar. Revisit your job description and remove any gender-coded words that describe men and women in general. Run your text through sites like Gender Decoder, and Textio for identifying gender bias and potentially harmful language.
2: Remove Any Unnecessary Corporate Jargon
Keep the description as simple as you can for a person to understand. For instance, if you’re searching for a recruiter for your sales staffing agency, don’t load the job post with words like KPIs, P&L, procurement, and so on.
Jargon and corporate lingo keep young and talented folks from applying. Subtle word choices can make a potential candidate think they don’t qualify for the job. This candidate could be the best fit for the role.
3: Emphasize Your Company’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity
Yes, you must mention this in the job description because it’s not apparent. A simple way of doing that is to mention you are an “equal opportunity employer.”
You can even have a section where you mention that candidates from diverse backgrounds are welcomed. Make sure to remove phrases like “top tier university.” Similarly, get rid of terms like specialist, expert.
4: Reconsider the Qualification Requirements
It’s so common to list minimum educational or experience requirements for certain employees that it’s mistaken for a mandate. This is a common practice on several job boards. Experts have a different opinion.
Don’t mention educational credentials if you don’t want to reject people from low-income families who couldn’t afford to go to university. Skills and experience are mostly learned outside of the university atmosphere. if we don’t recognize this now, we would be missing out on many talented candidates .
Focusing the description on the core of the work/responsibility makes it more appealing to a wider range of qualified candidates clipgrab review.
5: Be Vocal About Inclusive Benefits
Benefits such as childcare subsidies, health insurance, parental leaves, remote work, childcare allowance, paid family sick time, flexible working hours, etc. go a long way in supporting inclusion. If your company has these benefits, mention them in the job description.
This doesn’t mean you must include every single benefit. Just add the perks that promote inclusivity and might as well attract the right candidates.
From time to time, revisit your description and make the necessary tweaks to sound more inclusive. Don’t miss the chance to brag that you’re an employer that pays great attention to diversity and inclusion.
Keep in mind that many candidates, particularly those from historically underrepresented groups, view job advertising as lists of necessary requirements rather than wish lists, which might have an impact on responses. Women and other minority groups won’t apply for jobs that need a perfect candidate. The right approach is to stick to the essentials and you will start attracting diverse applicants. Consider this while setting talent acquisition plan for your organization to attract candidates.
6: Be Open to Revising the Job Description
There’s no such thing as a perfect all-inclusive job description. Which is exactly why you must collect feedback and revise the description from time to time. The type of applications you receive will give you a clear picture of how the JD is performing.
If that information is not enough, then conduct a survey of minority candidates to learn how they would respond to a job description and revise it based on the results. Alternatively, send the drafts of the JDs to the diverse talent on the teams and ask them for feedback. Is the JD giving them the notion that they’d be welcome on the team? Continue revising the description based on the feedback.
Hopefully, these tips will help you craft inclusive job postings and build a diverse workforce that eventually benefits your business.
