It’s something every employer nowadays strives for; to foster a diverse and inclusive company that reflects society. The recruitment process plays an important role in this endeavor. Because to have a workforce that reflects society, you’ll need to hire people from all backgrounds, cultures, genders, ages, and experiences.
So, what you need when there is a job opening in your company is a diverse and inclusive job ad. But this is not as easy as it might seem. You’ll need to write a job ad that appeals to absolutely everyone in your target group. To help you achieve this, we have six tips for you to make writing a diverse and inclusive job ad a lot easier.
Six tips to write a diverse and inclusive job ad
- Gender
Refrain from using gender-specific language. That’s the only way to show that you welcome people from all genders. To do so, you better not use specific pronouns like “he” or “she,” instead opt for “they” and “you.” Avoid the use of gender-specific job titles like “fireman,” “businessman,” and “salesman.” These would be better phrased “firefighter, “business person” and “sales agent.” - Neutral tone of voice
Make sure that your job ad has a neutral tone of voice. This is important to avoid bias. Gender bias and age bias are very common in writing, and hard to avoid. That’s because these are unconscious biases; you don’t intend to exclude people from certain genders or ages, it happens unconsciously. Therefore, it’s very difficult to prevent it from happening. Unless you write your job ads with Textmetrics’ Smart AI Writing Software. This software analyzes what you wrote for bias and gives you suggestions for a more neutral tone of voice. - Background
Another no-go in job ads is asking for a specific background. It’s possible that you’re looking for someone who speaks Spanish, but this doesn’t mean you need to ask for someone born in Spain. - Mother tongue
When you ask for someone to have a certain mother tongue, you’re asking them to have a certain background again. You should probably formulate this differently. When it’s important for the job that someone is fluent in French, you should formulate it like so – “Be fluent in French,” or “should speak French fluently.” That way, people who speak French fluently but are not from France still feel invited to apply. You never know how great a match they could be! - Religion
Unless you are a religious institution, you cannot ask for people to have a certain belief, or to be non-religious. - Physical state
When there is no heaving lifting involved in the job, there is no need to ask for in-shape candidates. Because by doing so, you might exclude someone in a wheelchair who might not be able to lift 20 kilos but is very fit for the job. You’re also discouraging older people from applying, because they might not feel as in-shape as they used to be when they were younger.
More tips for a diverse and inclusive workforce
The recruitment process plays a pivotal role in shaping a more diverse and inclusive workforce. But there are ways to promote diversity and inclusion within your current workforce. We featured an article about that a while ago, which you can read here. Hopefully, you can combine that knowledge with what you just read, and make one step closer to a workforce that reflects society.
Want an even smarter way to create diverse job ads? Take a look at our Job Ad Generator, which does all the work for you and makes sure that the job gets done.