In today's world, companies are increasingly making efforts to create a diverse and inclusive work environment. Most of them seem to be focusing on communicating the importance of inclusivity on their website, social media channels, and sometimes in videos discussing workplace culture in job advertisements.
However, not many companies realize that how you write and communicate job postings is also an equally important factor in creating a more inclusive work environment. Because many people still don't realize that job postings are the first point of contact candidates have with the company, managing to represent your company successfully and honestly in this short format is crucial.
For that reason, the following article by Hireforce will explain how you can create the most inclusive and comprehensive job posting possible, ensuring that you don't unintentionally overlook any group of talent!
Now let's find out the answer for How to create a job posting without personal bias.
Unconscious bias influences our daily decisions.
Unconscious bias refers to an individual's subjective thoughts based on their own experiences and leads to distorted conclusions through superficial observations without relying on any factual information.
Unconscious bias is a dangerous factor affecting most of our opinions and daily actions. However, many people are unaware of it – which is understandable because we are talking about something subjective.
However, even if some people are not aware of its impact on their daily decision-making, it should at least be a standard that everyone is sufficiently trained on the existence of unconscious bias and its role in the human mind.
So, for those unfamiliar with this term, unconscious bias is often defined as social biases about specific groups of people that individuals develop outside of their conscious awareness. What's interesting about unconscious bias is that research shows people develop unconscious biases from very early stages, influencing their behavior. But most importantly, it can also change – meaning steps can be taken to minimize the impact of unconscious bias.
Because of these characteristics of unconscious bias, the most important thing becomes our awareness of our own unconscious biases! And this is what we will discuss below. Because many people are unaware that unconscious bias can silently creep in when writing job postings, Hireforce will help you gain an overview of everything you should consider when writing it!
How to create a diverse and comprehensive job posting?
As mentioned in the introduction of the article, job postings are often the first point of contact for candidates with your company. Therefore, accurately describing the position and company culture is essential to build a recruiting brand reputation in the minds of candidates. Here are some things to consider to ensure that your job posting is as comprehensive as possible:
- Accurately communicate the company's values
- Avoid using gendered language
- Provide attractive benefits for diverse candidates
Focus on distribution through diverse channels
Communicate your values
Even in a short paragraph, a job posting should always accurately reflect the values of the company. More importantly, it should do so truthfully! Adding some advertising language to explain your culture is meaningless if those words don't represent what's happening in the workplace.
Here's a great example we found in an article by Patty McCord, who used to be the Chief Talent Officer at Netflix. She's now a consultant for many successful companies worldwide and a renowned author. She found that startups often strive to be seen as a comfortable environment where employees are encouraged to "play ping pong in the middle of a big meeting." This means she was talking to the CEO of a growing IT company and asked him what the most important value for them was. The CEO mentioned: "Efficiency." As they were speaking, an employee was playing ping pong as a form of entertainment before the meeting. The author then asked the CEO what was more important to him – ensuring that person was prepared for the meeting, cutting short the ping pong game, or completing the game. The CEO replied: "I'd tell him to finish the game first!"
The author was surprised, stating that valuing efficiency as the most important company value while encouraging employees to "finish the ping pong game" shows a significant contradiction between the perceived value and reality.
Returning to job postings and how to write them – this example perfectly demonstrates the importance of being truthful when communicating your values and living them out. Sometimes, this means even CEOs need to be honest with themselves!
Avoid using gendered language
Hireforce believes that not many people realize that the language we use can be very gender-specific and not inclusive of all genders.
When posting job ads, the language used should prioritize making both men and women feel included without excluding anyone.
Here are some examples:
Replace gender-specific pronouns like he, she with the word "you." Some words traditionally associated with men include: strong, lead, analysis, individuals, decisions, and more (source: ongig.com).
Some words traditionally associated with women include: support, share, responsible, understand, together, and more (source: ongig.com).
As a solution, Hireforce encourages you to research terms before writing job descriptions and, more importantly, suggest getting feedback from colleagues – prioritizing feedback from both men and women in the office. Such changes may be challenging initially, but once they become part of your awareness, the transition will be easier.
Provide attractive benefits for a diverse audience
Creating a culture of inclusivity requires sincere effort from the company's leadership. This means benefits should also be designed to appeal to a diverse workforce. Specifically, if you're offering benefits such as bonuses for outstanding performers and an office environment with entertainment areas and relaxation spaces, this may appeal to some candidates but not everyone. For example, women may be more inclined to apply to a company offering maternity leave.
Here are some benefits you might consider to create a more inclusive environment for your employees:
- Maternity leave
- Childcare subsidies
- Mental health and wellness programs
- Flexible working hours
- Remote work
- Paid sick leave
- Paid volunteer days Source: Forbes.com
When writing job descriptions, mentioning such benefits will be helpful in directly communicating to candidates what they can expect when joining your company.
Focus on distributing information through diverse channels
In addition to the pure content of the job description, knowing where to post vacancies to attract a diverse talent pool is equally important. While this may be a daunting task, it should be a priority to research various job forums and understand which sites candidates are using. Moreover, you might also consider specific portals beyond obvious choices like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, or Indeed.
Here are some candidate groups you should consider when thinking about where to post job ads to enhance diversity and inclusivity:
- Job boards for LGBTQ (LGBTQAI+) candidates
- Job boards for women
- Job boards for older adults
- Job boards for people with disabilities & chronic illnesses
- Job boards for military personnel
- Job forums on Neurodiversity & Autism Source: Diversity for Social Impact
Continuously learn about your biases
Once you've written your job posting using inclusive language by communicating the important values of the company and distributing them through various diverse channels, you might think the job is done. However, the problem with biases is that they can persist throughout your life without you even realizing it. Unfortunately, there's no way for us to learn some tips and tricks and eliminate biases because throughout our lives, we form opinions and thus biases arise.
The only proper way to minimize personal biases, and thereby create a workplace environment that reflects those values, is through continuous learning. Learning and consciously turning the unconscious into behavior is something you can start doing for yourself and the company you work for, and there's no way that the company culture won't benefit from it!
