Check My Job

We check your job description for unconscious gender bias, length and recruitment best practice.

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Feminine or neutral coded job description:

You’ve used mostly feminine or neutral words in your description. Nice one!  
Research has shown these are the best words to attract the widest possible pool of candidates. Men display only a slight preference for masculine worded jobs adverts. Gender wording does not affect men’s anticipated feeling of belongingness. So you've used the right words to appeal to the widest pool of candidates.

 

Masculine coded job description

 

We've highlighted the masculine words you've used, in case you want to swap them out

 

You’ve used too many masculine words in your job description. Based on academic research by Gaucher, Frisen and Kay, women may be deterred from applying for jobs if masculine words are used in the job description. For women, masculine job descriptions mean a decreased sense of belonging. Women struggle to see themselves fitting in, irrespective of factors like qualifications and ability.

Feminine or neutral words you used:

 

Full list of feminine and neutral words

 
Affectionate Cooperates Kinship Support Warm
Child Co-operates Loyal Supports Warms
Children Co-operate Loyalty Supporting Yield
Cheer Cooperative Loyally Supported Yields
Cheers Depend Modesty Sympathy Yielding
Cheerful Dependable Nurture Sympathetic  
Cheerfully Depends Nurtures Sympathetically  
Commit Emotional Nurturing Tender  
Commitment Emotionally Nurtured Tendering  
Committed Empathy Pleasant Tenders  
Commits Empathetic Pleasantly Tendered  
Communal Empathetically Polite Together  
Compassion Feminine Quiet Togetherness  
Compassionate Flatter Quietly Trust  
Connect Gentle Respond Trusts  
Connects Honest Responsive Trusted  
Connected Interpersonal Responsively Trustworthy  
Considerate Interdependent Sensitive Understand  
Cooperate Interdependence Sensitively Understands  
Cooperative Kind Submissive Understanding  
 

Masculine words you used:

 

Full list of masculine words

 
Active Autonomously Courageously Headstrong Lead Self-sufficient
Adventurous Boast Decide Hierarchy Leads Self-sufficiently
Aggressive Boasts Decisive Hierarchical Leader Self-reliant
Aggressively Boasting Decision Hostile Leading Self-reliance
Aggressiveness Boastful Decisions Hostiles Logic  
Aggression Boastfully Decisional Hostility Masculine  
Ambition Challenge Determine Hostilely Objective  
Ambitious Challenging Determines Impulsive Opinion  
Ambitiously Challenged Determined Independent Outspoken  
Ambitiousness Challenges Determining Independents Persist  
Analytical Challengingly Dominant Independence Principle  
Analytic Challengingly Dominate Independence Principles  
Analyst Competition Dominates Independency Principled  
Athlete Competitive Dominated Independently Reckless  
Athletic Competitiveness Dominating Individual Stubborn  
Athletically Competitiveness Force Individuals Superior  
Athletes Competitively Forces Individually Superiorly  
Athletics Confident Forcible Intellect Self-confident  
Autonomy Courage Forcer Intellectually Self-confidence  
Autonomous Courageous Greedy Intellectual Self-confidently  

Equal opportunities statement

Although not strictly necessary, equal opportunity statements are recruitment best practice, and may encourage candidates to apply.  
The wording is up to you, but some standard text like this is a good place to start: 
 
“We are an equal opportunities employer”;  
or “We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age”.

 

Job description length:

There is such a thing as an ideal length when it comes to online job descriptions.  
Job board Appcast.io’s study of 400,000 job seekers revealed jobs that were between 2000-10000 characters get a click to apply rate of around 7%. Anything less than 2000 and there is not enough detail, anything more than 10000 and there’s too much.  
However, the optimal length for job descriptions is between 4000-5000 characters. At this length, the click to apply rate reaches a pinnacle of 15%.

 
  
 

And finally….

 

Check My Job is designed to offer help and suggestions for writing the best possible job description. All of the suggestions are based on findings, research and best practice from very clever people. However, it is not intended to be a hard and fast rule, so please do not treat it as one.
 
 
Check My Job owes itself to:
 

  • Research from Gaucher, Frisen and Kay, available here:
https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=gendered-wording-in-job-adverts.pdf&site=7
 
  • The excellent work of Kat Matfield, available here:
http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/
 
  • Findings from Appcast.io and Monster.co.uk, available here:
http://www.eremedia.com/ere/long-job-descriptions-and-titles-can-hurt-you-and-so-can-short-ones/

 

 
 

 
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