How to write inclusive job ads
Tags: Diversity, Inclusive Design, Hiring, Careers, Diversity In Tech

How to write inclusive job ads

When searching for a new addition to your team, it’s worth thinking about whether or not your job ad is stretching as far as it can. Language, format, and tone are incredibly important and we’ve seen how much of a difference specific changes can make, which we’ve listed below.

1. Make sure you describe a job (not a person)

So many job ads describe a person, rather than a job: instead describe the job and let people self-select for whether they can do it.

Some questions to ask yourself — the stronger and more inclusive option is in italics:

Are you describing the person or the job?

Are you describing the outcomes or the activities?

Are you saying what you want or what they want?

Do you focus on satisfying criteria or selling a dream?

2. Remove the university degree requirement.

When it comes to software engineering roles, a computer science degree requirement means that you’re instantly limiting the search to a very white male demographic.

Even requiring a degree at all immediately narrows the search.

Many of the top companies in the world no longer require a university degree (Google, Apple, IBM and Bank of America).

Sparky from Google

Sparky VanDyke from Google spoke at our recent Tech Talent Forum and reminded us that to build a diverse tech team, a team where everyone has computer science degrees isn’t necessarily a very diverse team:

“They’re likely all from the same socioeconomic background regardless of country or gender, and they all have a university degree, so they all have a very similar educational and career experience. Pulling in people who are self-taught, who’ve gone through alternative education experiences, bringing in people from other fields, talking to the sales and marketing teams, tech support, getting all of them in a room to talk about the product or whatever that team is building — that is going to provide a much more interesting result for the company.”

3. Long, exhaustive bullet pointed lists are off-putting

Job descriptions are different from job adverts. You need to be selling the job in the job advert, not excluding people. The purpose of the job advert is to inspire excitement and encourage top candidates to even consider the role.

Like any ad, the job ad should be concise and punchy and easy to read. Really interrogate whether every point on the job ad is essential, and if you’re questioning it, remove it.

Typically women will only apply to jobs if they meet 100% of the outlined criteria: for men, it’s more like 60–80%.

Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst

4. Put the ad through a decoder and be original

You can put your job ads through a decoder to help identify problematic words and phrases, removing lists of ‘essential criteria’ which tend to put women off applying if they feel they don’t meet 100% of the points.

While it’s tempting, avoid copying and pasting job adverts. Even though the role may be very similar to another one you’ve seen, directly copying then pasting it makes it incredibly very generic.

If the advert was written to appeal to a limited demographic the first time it was put together, going forwards it will keep the talent pool limited for future roles.

5. Be explicit on flexibility and transparent on interview process

The scope for flexibility might include flexible working, or the potential for job-share.

If it’s not stated on the job ad, people with other commitments (such as parents or carers) might be inclined to assume that there is no flexibility, and won’t apply.

When it comes to the interview process, be transparent about what it entails. This is particularly important for the inclusion of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Don’t make last minute changes. For people with ASD, sending questions to them in advance is one way to help them to excel at interview.

Want us to help with your search for top tech talent from all walks of life? Download our tips on winning the tech talent you need here.