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Making Job Descriptions Gender Neutral

Making Job Descriptions Gender Neutral

Are you a recruiter? Have you, at some point of your career, wondered why is it that most applicants applying to the jobs you put out are male? One of the most obvious answers is how your job descriptions are worded. Is it calling out to male candidates? While you may not have been gender exclusive on purpose, you haven’t been gender inclusive either. In order to defeat the ever-growing glass ceiling when it comes to women at work, every stakeholder needs to plays a more active role. It is important to approach recruitment with sensitivity and to ensure that you are gender inclusive in your call for applications.

In this post, we are going to share some very powerful words from powerful women that Undercover Recruiter put together, in their article How Can Job Descriptions Be More Gender Neutral?

To understand the dynamics of what we are trying to explain, can be best done through knowing how and why gender exclusive job descriptions affect women. Here are their voices –

Angela Bortolussi, Partner at Recruiting Social

A few years ago I sat with my hiring manager, a Director of Engineering, and he said “Angela, I asked my wife to review the job description for our Front End Engineering role – she is also a Front End Engineer, and she told me ‘I wouldn’t apply for this role.’”

He of course asked her “Why?” She mentioned the job description had so many hard stops in terms of qualifications. For example, you must have 8+ years of experience, React experience is a must, and a Computer Science Degree is a must. She felt that she was somewhat qualified but didn’t have the exact qualifications needed for the role, and ultimately wouldn’t attempt applying.

He decided to take this into consideration and re-write the job description to become more gender neutral to hopefully increase the attention of women applying. (Guess what? It worked!)

Keep in mind though it’s a tough to really understand the thought-process when it comes to candidates applying for roles. Whatever the reason is, I think we (women) respond to job ads/posts differently.

Rebecca Fraser, National Executive Committee, Career Development Association of Australia

It is quite interesting how some words can be perceived as being more attractive depending on your gender. Removing gender specific words, an example may be he or she and Chairman or Chairwoman. This is challenging in some languages where they have grammatical gender and this may require job adverts and job titles to specifically confirm that they are being offered to all genders. Other language could be seen as more attractive to the male gender, such as describing the work environment as fast paced and challenging, or dominant and determined. Although many females will be attracted to this environment, research has shown that these words can be perceived as being about a male dominated work environment.

Lysha Holmes, Owner and Recruiter, Qui Recruitment R2R

It is essential that a job description is written as a narrative to the potential employee regardless of gender. Avoid assumptions, focus on skills and attitude, potential and opportunity rather than a “person” per se and therefore stereotypes can be avoided. This should include imagery used to promote any post on social media.

Poonam Mawani, Director, Azuki Accounts

Job descriptions are so important. They are the first impression of a company’s culture. There is software available now that can remove and replace gendered descriptions and words. There are certain phrases that can either attract more men or women. These should be identified and replaced to attract a more balanced candidate pool. How a firm describes itself in a job description is also important.

Amanda Bell, Director of Recruiting, Lever

Luckily, this can be pretty easy. Review your job descriptions with the lens of “Who is the audience here?” If your answer is “any qualified candidate, regardless of gender,” you’ve done a good job! It’s not just about the presence of gender-specific pronouns – it’s also about using language that is inclusive of all genders. Stay away from phrases like “kick ass,” “ninja,” and, believe it or not, “brah.” You can also ask a few employees of various genders to read the descriptions and solicit feedback.

Making sure that job descriptions are crafted in a neutral manner is in fact one of the primary steps towards implementing gender equality at the work place. Have you read our post on implementation of gender equality at the work place? You can read it here. You can also read more posts from our gender series by clicking on the following links:

Gender Equity Before Gender Equality: Why Women Need More
The Importance of Gender Diversity in The World of Work
5 Unconventional Career Tracks Women are Making it Big In

5 Tips For a Successful On-boarding Process

5 Tips For a Successful On-boarding Process

Most recruiters believe that the toughest part of the recruitment process are the steps leading up to finding and hiring an employee. That however, is as far away from truth as can be. The first week after hiring a new employee is the most crucial time for the recruitment process. It is the on-boarding process that helps the employee settle in to his/ her new role, and more importantly the culture of the organisation. While the ‘settling in’ definitely takes much longer than a week, the induction or on-boarding week is what makes all the difference to how comfortably, and effectively the new employee adapts to your organisation. Here are five ways you can make the On-boarding Process a success.

  1. Personalize the On-boarding Process

    The usual process of on-boarding to complete the process of recruitment, requires the new employee to go through and submit a pile of paper work and documents. That however, shouldn’t define the first day of a new employee. In the process of recruitment, on-boarding is not just about filling up a zillion forms to check off the recruitment checklist. It is also, and more so about showing the new team member that the organization is happy to have him/ her on board. Personalize the on-boarding process by introducing the new member to the rest of the team and by giving him/ her a tour of the work place. Having a small welcome process in place, could be a great way to make help build sensitivity about welcoming a new member into the culture of your workplace.

  2. Explaining the values and culture of the company

    Are the values and the culture of the company more than just a few words on your website? If they are truly what you believe as the foundation of your organization, you will agree to the importance of ensuring that the new employee understands them. Speaking about the organizational values and culture to a new employee, as a part of the on-boarding process is a very important step towards stressing on how important it is, for the new employee to adapt to the values and culture of the organization. And of course, letting them know that you believe they are a great match and that’s why they are here in the first place!

  3. Explaining responsibilities and setting goals

    While the role and responsibilities may already have been put down on the offer letter, this is another way of personalizing the on-boarding process. Having a conversation about the responsibilities attached to the role of the new recruit, and speaking about the expectations that come with it right at the outset is a good idea. This is also a great time to bring him/ her up to speed with the existing projects that they may be associated with and giving them a heads up about what to expect.

  4. Assigning them a mentor

    This is yet another great way of personalizing the on-boarding process. Being in a new work environment can be quite confusing, as many of us would have experienced. Assigning a mentor to a new employee is an effective way of helping the new employee understand the workplace, and also to have someone he/ she can go to with their questions. It is important to put some thought into who you choose to assign as the mentor, since the mentor needs to be equipped with the knowledge relevant to the new employee’s role, to be able to guide him/ her accordingly.

  5. Equipping the employee with all necessary resources

    To make the on-boarding process smooth, and successful, make sure that you have put together all the resources the new employee will require, a day prior to his/ her joining. Things like the HR policy, documents on the culture of the organization, any handbook your organization may be having for employees, the necessary software on his/her computer, and all other tools including stationary that might be required. Putting in some effort to get these things ready shows that you are excited to have the new team member on board, and want to make sure that they have everything they need!
    Also, a nice note saying welcome, on the desk is a very sweet way to say ‘welcome’!

Bringing a new team member on board isn’t just about the CV, the interviews and the negotiation processes. It is also about welcoming the team member in. That is what on-boarding is all about. Once you have successfully completed the process of on-boarding, you can be proud of yourself of having done a good job as a recruiter!

Post by Shreeradha Mishra
Shreeradha is a development professional who loves her work. She is an avid observer of life and enjoys penning down her experiences and learning from the world of work. You can get in touch with her at shreeradha@obolinx.com.

Gender Equity before Gender Equality – Why Women Need More

Gender Equity before Gender Equality – Why Women Need More

What is Gender Equity?

In one of our earlier posts, Implementing Gender Equality at the Workplace, we briefly spoke about the concept of equity, and how gender equity is a precursor to gender equality. In this post we explore the concept of equity in a deeper sense. It is not enough for women to have equal rights. Equality does not put them at the same footing with men. Without really understanding the concept of equity, equality will remain a distant dream. To achieve gender equality, women need more – they need equity.

To address gender discrimination, we first need to acknowledge the deep-rooted history of gender inequality and discrimination world over. In doing so, we realize that women have been deliberately subjected to a backward footing, as compared to men. Hence, more than equality, they need equity. But what is the difference between equality, and equity? Here is a common yet effective anecdote that brings out the difference beautifully –

Imagine that you are at a baseball game and have to look over a fence in order to see the game. There are also several others who are in the same situation as you are. The fence is quite high so everyone needs a stepping stool of some sort to see over the fence. In equality, everyone would get the same sized stepping stool. Thus, one can immediately see a glaring problem! Not everyone is the same height. This is where equity steps in. In being equitable, everyone would get different sized stepping stools so that they could all see over the fence. Everyone would get a chance to view the game.

Positive Discrimination to bring about Gender Equity

One of the ways we can bring about gender equity, is through what has been termed positive discrimination,i.e., the practice of favoring individuals who have suffered historical discrimination. Policies at the work place are one of the most effective instruments of bringing about equity. An effective way to practice positive discrimination to ensure equity for women, is by looking into and analyzing the existing workplace policies.

One way to do this, is to ask questions. Questions are always a great way to begin constructive and meaningful dialogue.

  • Does your organisation promote work from home for women?
  • How inclusive is your organisation when it comes to recruiting women staff who have been on a career break?
  • How fair do you think the over all recruitment policy of your organisation is? Are they transparent about their reasons for rejecting one candidate over another? Are women asked questions like, “are you going to start a family any time soon?”, during the interview process?
  • How high is the glass ceiling in your organization?
  • How stringent are the sexual harassment policies of your organisation?
  • Does your work place have a POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) committee?
  • How about the much debated, and controversial maternity rules – what is your organization’s stand on them?

To understand what a manifestation of gender equity would look like, let us have a look at companies who are leading by example –

Fortune.com has come out with their list of 100 best workplaces for women, and these are the five companies on the top of the list:

  1. Texas Health Resources
  2. Ultimate Software
  3. Edward Jones
  4. Marriott International
  5. Pinnacle Financial Partners

They explain in their methodology of curating this list that factors such as flexibility, paid leave and no harassment are only the basic factors that lend these companies the title of being ‘the best’ work places for women. What are the other factors?

  • Healthy work-life balance
  • Transparency
  • Environment of Inclusion

We don’t need to look to as far as the USA for good practices when it comes to gender equity in the workplace. Some companies in India are leading by example of being the best work spaces for women, some of which are -Accenture, Cummins India, Deloitte in India,  Hindustan Unilever Limited, IBM India, ICICI Bank, Intel Technology India and Mindtree.

Above everything else, the presence or absence of gender equity at your workplace is about the larger culture of the organisation in question. The foundation, and the culture of an organisation is what influences all other factors. At its inception, an organisation or a corporate entity makes a few choices about being fair, or unfair, inclusive or exclusive, supportive and nurturing or extorting. These choices are reflected in the recruitment and human resource policies, and in the larger culture and environment of the organisation.

How would you score your organisation in terms of gender equity? Need ideas for organizing work shops to bring about awareness regarding gender equity at your work place? Write to us and we will be happy to help!

Social Media Resume – The Basics

Social Media Resume – The Basics

Before we delve into the basics of the Social Media Resume, and what makes for a great one, let us understand what a social media resume really is. Simply put, a social media resume is your online presence, across platforms of social media. Lets tweak that a little bit, a social media resume is the ‘quality’ of your online presence.  It is the quality of your social media cv that attracts recruiters and hiring managers to you, rather than you scouring for job opportunities. About 80% of job opportunities are channeled through networking, and a strong social media resume is a powerful way of changing the meaning of networking in the current day context.

Simply existing on various forms of social media, most importantly on LinkedIn does not qualify for a great social media resume. It is your engagement, and the quality of content that you put out which determines the strength of your social media resume. Earlier, we ran a hugely popular series on personal branding. Building a good social media resume is strongly intertwined with the principles of personal branding. Through social media, you put out who you are, i.e., you put out your personal brand, because you are your own personal brand.

Based on the strength of your social media resume, you can attract your dream job opportunities. Here are 5 ways of building a strong social media resume.

  1. Consistency is everything

    You may have an account on every social media platform that exists. However that is to no avail unless you are consistently active on them. Being regular and updating frequently is an imperative to having a consistent and powerful social media presence. Make sure your profiles are updated. It is also important to engage in conversations and discussions relating to topics of your interest. The form of engagement could range from commenting on articles to writing your own articles and posting them.

  2. Understand the unique use of each platform

    Every social media platform has a unique selling point. In order to make the most of the social media platforms you use, understand the uniqueness of each of these platforms. For example, Instagram is a very visual platform, allowing you a number of tools to express yourself and the work you do through photographs. Facebook is a multipurpose platform that also allows you to network. While LinkedIn serves as an information base, and the best place for off-line professional networking. By understanding the unique use of each platform, you can curate the content you put out accordingly. This also helps you to keep in mind the very specific target audiences for each kind of platform.

  3. Integrate your social media profiles

    If you have a blog or a website, you could integrate all your social media profiles into it for keeping them all synced, and easily accessible to recruiters. Most platforms allow you to create social media badges which you can embed into your blog/ website. One pointer before you go ahead and integrate your social media platforms is to keep in mind how your profiles would appear to a potential recruiter. Before you integrate your social media profiles, go through them with a fine tooth comb and scour for anything that may come across as unprofessional. In short, look for any social media mistakes that may stand out for a recruiter.

  4. Be responsible

    We began this post by stressing on how a social media resume isn’t very different from having a personal brand. A social media cv is powerful because everything about you, your qualifications and your aspirations are out there. This kind transparency and outreach lend a kind of validity to ‘you’, which is why a powerful social media resume has the potential to attract recruiters.

    Being responsible about what you speak and choose to put out is a ground rule for not just personal branding, but any form of social media interaction (and otherwise!). Remember that when you put out or say certain things on interactive platforms, people listen to it and engage with it in a conscious as well as subconscious manner. That is the power of personal branding and social media. Therefore while you have access to a wide range of liberties to make speak your mind and make yourself heard, make sure that you do so responsibly.

The secret to a great Social Media Resume is having an impressive online presence. Have you come across a great social media cv, you’ve had a chance to learn from? Comment with links below and we’d be glad to feature your thoughts in our upcoming blogs!

What Makes for a Good Profile Picture

What Makes for a Good Profile Picture

Social media today, is a crucial part of the world of work. It would not be far-fetched to stress on the inter-dependency of these two realms. It is true that a potential employer can decide whether or not to give you a chance for that much awaited interview simply by going through your social media profiles. Also, as a candidate, one would be extremely naive to think that potential employers don’t do a background check, of which your social media profiles play a big, big role.

When we speak about social media profiles, what is the first thing that stands out? Your profile picture. Your profile picture speaks volumes about you on social media. Why? Because that little image is what you chose out of the several, hundreds of photographs you may have of yourself, as your identity on the given platform. A picture speaks more than a thousand words. Therefore, it is true that your profile picture is the very first impression you cast on your employer.

So what makes for a good profile picture? Here are a few things that will help you.

  1. The resolution of the photograph

    The first, most basic requirement for a good photograph is that it should be clear and visible. Not grainy and pixelated. Ensure that the photograph you choose to use has your face visible in it. Ensure that the photograph has been taken in proper light, and is not a cropped out version of another photograph. Cropping a photograph renders it grainy and pixelated, in most cases. The idea behind a profile picture is that the person looking at it should know how you look, and not have to imagine a ‘version’ of you based on what is visible in the picture. The first most important quality of a good profile picture is that it should be high-resolution, or at least clear.

  2. You in the photograph

    The second most important thing about a good profile picture – how you come across in the picture, or what you seem to be doing. It’s very difficult to get this wrong, but strangely enough there are examples we have seen which compel us to include this pointer as a part of the post. Remember that regardless of which social media platform you are choosing a profile picture for, they are all fodder for recruiters or potential recruiters. Which means, irrespective of whether or not the said social media platform is a ‘professional’ one, it is highly recommended that you choose a professionally appealing photograph. While it doesn’t necessarily have to be a corporate head shot, take care that it isn’t at least a photograph of you playing beer pong.

  3. A selfie never works

    Yes, no matter how good it is. A selfie comes across as unprofessional. Let’s not be lazy and get a decent photograph!

  4. It needs to be a recent photograph

    It is probably not a good idea to have a photograph from years ago as your profile picture, in which you look absolutely nothing like you do presently. If in doubt, show the photograph to colleagues or friends. You know that it won’t work if you get a response akin to “no way, that can’t be you!” The whole point of having a profile picture is to be visible, be found. So make sure you look like who you look like, for real!

  5. Not inappropriate and not boring

    Now that is a real challenge. While you certainly don’t want to have a party picture on, you also don’t want to appear boring. It is a good idea to try and find a photograph which reflects your field of work in some way. Once again, if you are unsure about whether or not the chosen photograph would work, run it by a trusted friend or colleague.

    Ending this post with a re-affirmation of why it matters so much to invest time in choosing the right profile picture.

Employers spend an average of 6 seconds looking at a LinkedIn profile and 19% of that time is spent looking at the user’s profile picture. Research suggests that it only takes 1/10 of a second for someone to form an impression about you. So make sure it’s a good one! Source.