All around the globe, companies are increasing their efforts in creating more inclusive working environments. Most of them seem to be focusing on communicating the importance of inclusion on their website, and social media channels and sometimes showcasing culture videos in their job ads.

However, not many of them are aware that how you write and disperse job postings is an equally important factor in creating a more inclusive workplace. Since many still don't realize that job postings are the first touchpoint a candidate has with your company, it is essential to manage to successfully and truthfully represent your company, in this short form - making the task even more difficult.

For that reason, HRavailable decided to write an article explaining how you can create a job posting that will be as inclusive as possible and make sure that you're not excluding a particular group of talent unconsciously!

Unconscious bias affects our day-to-day decisions

Unconscious bias is a dangerous thing that affects most of our opinions and actions. Yet, so many people are not even aware of it - it makes sense since it's an unconscious bias we are talking about.

So, for anyone unaware of this term, unconscious bias is often defined as social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their conscious awareness.

How to create inclusive job postings?

There are multiple things you should have in mind when making sure your job postings are as inclusive as possible:

1. Accurately communicate your values
2. Avoid gender-coded language
3. Offer benefits that appeal to a diverse audience
4. Focus on diverse channel dispersion

Communicate your values

Even though they are in a relatively short text form, job postings should always reflect company values. And what's even more important is that they should do it truthfully! There is no point in writing down some buzzwords to explain your culture if those buzzwords don't stand for anything happening in the workplace.

Avoid gender-coded language

We believe not many people are even aware of this - but the language we use can be highly stereotypical and non-inclusive for all genders. Here is how the European parliament defines gender-neutral language:

When it comes to job postings, it should be the recruiters' priority to write them in a language that will resonate with both men and women without excluding one or the other.

Here are some examples:

· Pronouns he and she replace with you or they

· Some masculine gender-coded words are: strong, lead, analysis, individuals, decisions, driven, competitive, and so on

· Some feminine gender-coded words are support, share, responsible, understand, together, committed, interpersonal, collaborate, and so on

Offer benefits that appeal to a diverse audience

Creating a culture of inclusiveness requires a genuine effort from the company leadership. This means that the benefits should also be designed to appeal to a diverse workforce. More specifically, if you're offering benefits such as bonuses for high performers and an office environment with gaming corners and space to relax, this may be appealing to some candidates but not to everyone. For instance, women are more likely to apply for a company that offers parental leave.

Here are some benefits that you could consider to create a more inclusive environment for your employees:

· parental leave

· childcare allowances

· mental health and wellness programs

· flexible working hours

· remote work

· paid sick time

· paid volunteer days

When it comes to writing a job description, it would be beneficial to mention such benefits to portray your candidates first-hand what they can expect when joining your company.

Focus on diverse channel dispersion

Besides the pure content of your job description, it is equally important to know where to post your jobs to attract diverse talent. Though this may be a difficult task, it should be a priority to investigate various job boards and know what talent spends time on which job board. In addition, you could consider multiple specific portals besides the obvious choices like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, or Indeed.

Keep learning about your biases

Once you have your job decision written in inclusive language by communicating important company values and dispersed across diverse channels, you may think the job is done. However, the thing about biases is that they are likely to sneak up on you throughout your entire life without you even realizing it. Unfortunately, there is truly no way to learn a few tips and tricks and eliminate bias since our whole lives we form opinions and therefore stereotypes arise.

The only proper way of decreasing personal biases, and from there on, creating a working environment reflecting such values, is continuous learning. Learning and turning unconsciousness into conscious behavior is what you can start doing for yourself and the company you work for, and there is no way that the company culture won't benefit from it!

HRavailable keeps you updated on the latest news in the UAE job market.

Get to know more in-depth knowledge on various HR-related topics visit HRavailable.

HRavailable keeps you updated on the latest news in the job market.

Get notified about the latest job openings through HRavailable and never miss a chance to get noticed by the recruiters.