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.
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.
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/