How to Recruit more Women: improve your Job Postings

There is still a lot to improve when it comes to a have better balance of men/women in organizations. Adapt recruiting strategies helps leaders attract and bring in more women. Knowing the difference in job search behavior, your company can make immediate changes to hiring more women. Changing Job Descriptions has a bigger impact than one would think and a great place to start. In your Job Description:

Focus on learning skills, not past/technology education. Especially in the tech industry the “talent pipeline” is a problem. Women are less studying computer science at university or taking up tech opportunities during school period, so there are less female postgraduates to recruit. As a result, women are less likely to have a traditional background or computer science degree and they may have fewer years of experience. But if you get development programs in place, dedicated, motivated workers can learn new programming languages in no time. Focus on learning skills, instead of an x-amount of years of tech experience or education.

Stop looking for rockstars. Masculine words like “rockstar”, “hacker” and “ninja” are not appealing to women. Masculine words imply a masculine culture, which alienates female applicants, not only to women but to all minority groups. Removing “kick-ass” from your job descriptions is going to help. Look for collaborative team-players instead.

Show you have an open, inclusive culture. An open and inclusive culture that supports personal development and learning. If you encourage collaboration over competition this will attract even more female candidates. Words like “adaptable” and “creative” are attractive to women, whereas “ambitious” and “assertive” appeal more to men. Focus on the environment, context and expectations of the role, and be pretty straightforward.

Hire with a “growth mindset”. Company Textio analysed their database of 50 million job descriptions and they found that roles where someone can learn and grow rather than focus on proven experience were twice as likely to be filled by women. Focus on words like: “loves learning” or “develop”. Roles that ask for “the best and brightest,” “top-tier talent,” or “high performer” were filled 11% more slowly than other roles, as both men and women were less likely to apply.

Minimize essential requirements. Time after time, research has shown that women only apply for jobs if they meet 100% of the requirements, where men apply if they meet 60%. Men generally overestimate their abilities and performance, while women underestimate both. Women experience a lack of confidence or fear to be rejected and are reluctant to apply to a job if they don’t meet all of the criteria. An easy way of getting around this issue is minimizing the number of “requirements” in job descriptions. Simply leave the not really necessary requirements out or split them into “essential” and “nice to have”.

Focus on diversity and mean it! Women look for signs that companies encourage diversity. If you’re actively focusing on diversity, show it! Show what you’re doing on your careers website or in your job description. If you don’t yet have diversity policies in place, clearly communicate that you’re actively seeking applicants from candidates of all backgrounds and act on it. 

Encouraging “forced fun” doesn’t work. Not everyone drinks beer. And “work hard, play hard” cultures are changing as industries become more diverse. Encouraging women to participate in “playing hard” reinforces a masculine culture. Historically social activities and “perks” have taken place after work, especially in companies where most employees are under 30. It can be hard for mothers with children to say no, they might risk missing out on face time with managers or networking opportunities. Drinks or activities after work can give the impression employees are expected to be in the office for long hours or that the company isn’t flexible. They could also contribute to the idea that new employees must be a good “cultural fit”. Unfortunately, many managers hire people who are like them, and a good “cultural fit” could mean young, male and white.

Include family-friendly policies. By including family-friendly policies in job descriptions and on careers websites women can see that you care. For many women it is the most important factor when applying for a job. Many companies have good benefits for parents, but don’t think to mention this in job descriptions. And if you don’t offer flexible working, the opportunity to work part time or remotely, or fair maternity and paternity policies, make it a priority and discuss them openly during the interview process.

Behaviours vs characteristics. Research found that words used in job descriptions not only influence candidates but also influence recruiters’ decisions. Certain characteristics conjure up pre-conceived images. Candidates won’t apply if they don’t think they match the image, and recruiters will be more likely to judge potential candidates against preconceived assumptions. This is easy to change: change characteristics to behaviours. For example: “results-driven” = “ability to take initiative and produce results”, “team-player” = “ability to collaborate effectively with a diverse team”, “action-oriented” = “ability to come up with practical actions to deal with issues”.

Storytelling attracts. Get rid of these bullet points! Traditionally, job postings have been broken down into bullet points listing off responsibilities, requirements and needed skills. This format doesn’t capture the dynamics of a Start-up or Scale-up like environment. If you want to attract a diverse pool of candidates, you’ll need to tell and explain the role and show what the team looks like. You can add a paragraph explaining who the new hire would work with, and explain exactly what the person would do. If you have a job description with jargon-y terms, cross them out and try to think of ways you might describe them differently. Get rid of the bullet points and tell what the role is about and how one can be successful in a storytelling format.

Share stories of women who are succeeding across all levels of your organization. Share stories, show different backgrounds, interviews with women on your career page, or create a Life@ blog/vlog and add a link to your Job Postings. When women see themselves represented in your company, they’re definately more likely to apply. 

Many leaders care about gender diversity and this is a hiring priority for many companies. Women remain underrepresented at all levels, so there is work to be done. Once in the pipeline, women are more likely to get hired, but the challenge is getting them there. Making your Job Postings more inclusive has a bigger impact than one would think and a great start to get great women involved.