How to draft a female friendly job advert ?

[Blistory]

So as part of my mission to embark on positive discrimination, I.m having to reexamine how to draft our job adverts.

Women are not under- represented in any of our organisations so I'm on sticky ground in the legal sense but it's occurred to me that whilst I've always ensured that the interview stage is somewhere I can put across a positive message, the actual ad itself may not be attractive to women. I'm absolutely not looking to exclude men but I do want to avoid corporate wankery and terminology that appears to be gender neutral but is really male orientated.

I've thought about specifically referring to our maternity and flexi time policies but have been told by a recruitment company that these are code for crappy jobs rather than careers. One of the roles is ideally suited to someone with life experience, a prior career but just in need of a confidence boost and a bit of on job training. It would suit someone looking to return to work after a break but how do I get this across without it sounding like a waffly non job or scaring people off ?

Keywords like dynamic, ambitious, goal orientated are absolutely not allowed. So, what would attract you to a job ad as a woman and make you think I really, really want to work in that kind of organisation ?

We're also looking to develop a couple of 1 year paid placements for women leaving prison but that's longer term as it needs skilled input from various parties but if any one has any comments on that, feel free to chip in.

It is positive action. Blistory just hasn't used the terminology in its legal sense.

I know. We apply positive action in as much as any disabled applicants automatically get an interview.

It was lazy in my OP to apply the term positive discrimination to an employment situation. What I am trying to do is to increase the number of women who apply. This role tends to attract a 70/30 split of male/female applicants. And none of them are women returning to work so I wondered if the ad itself is a barrier and I think that it is.

The process thereafter will be on merit unless it's a tie break. I'm comfortable with my actions from a legal sense, just a bit more casual about how I post on a forum when merely thinking out loud.

X post with penguins.

I'm job hunting. The two phrases that always jump out at me and make me look for longer are flexible and possible job-share.

Rather annoys me when I get to interview and that's blatantly not the case but that's another matter.

Otherwise, in skills required seeing things like 'good time management', 'ability to adapt / react to new situations' and 'mature approach' etc. would be nice as they're the sort of things I put to justify my career break.

Term time working is something I'd like to offer but the problem is that this organisation is small in terms of staff numbers. We have an existing member of staff on term time hours but her children are no longer at school. I can't and don't expect her to change an established working pattern but it means that I don't have the option to offer another term time role.

on the job training?
continuing professional development?
opportunity to develop your skills?
flexible, supportive environment?
investors in people award?
healthy workplace award?
other work/life balance recognition?

but my question i guess is whether or not it's true... you can say all that but if the job / workplace is actually full of blagging twats giving it all the ego and the 'apprentice-style' chat then basically you're setting up people attracted by the above phrases up with false hope.

What made me apply for a job last week was "There is scope to work additional hours term time in order to work fewer during school holidays". So flexibility and the correct use of "fewer". Fingers crossed I hear back!

I always liked jobs that had something saying:

"X company is an equal opportunities employer" at the bottom.

Also you could look at sites such as women like us and capability jane, and see how the job ads on there are worded.

I work FT BTW and happy doing so but things that woudl put me off would be things that are code for "we have a long-hours culture".

Ability to work from home is a big plus for the parents in my workplace (male and female ).

Some great suggestions. Clearly something that needs to change in our organisation so thanks all.

Still don't know how I've missed something so obvious for so long.

I wouldl agree about things on training and flexibility on working patterns as good phrases.

I am sure you know, but you need to watch quite a few of the suggestions on 'life experience' etc as they'll get booted out for possible age discrimination.

A friend of mine works for this company in Sweden. They make a big play on the fact that competence has no gender, as you can see from their campaign. The board is one third female and so although there isn't actually one, I would be encouraged by looking at their website's Board photos to see it isn't, yet again, the parade of the middle aged white man.

I'd play up the fact you're looking for well-rounded candidates who can bring diversity - of experience, of opinion, of approaches to problem solving.

I may steal that final sentence, tribpot. Much more the type of phrasing that I'm after.

I'm not sure it's stealing when I've suggested it for you to use, Blistory

This is my main frustration, I think - there is such a desire for conformity (I also work in IT) - of education, of opinion as well as of race and gender. To me it's evidence of weak and lazy management - too weak to deal with differences of opinion or style, too lazy to sort out who is disruptive in a good, creative sense and who actually is just a royal pain in the arse. I had the problem of my face not fitting - in the obvious sense of being the wrong gender, and in the less obvious sense of not sharing majority opinions (including on some areas in which I was by far the most knowledgeable - made no difference). I have a real problem with 'traditional male' models of business - as do many of my male colleagues, I might add. If you could, I would put in the advert "bullshitters need not apply".

Yes, I have some comment in my annual review (which I must read properly, comment on and sign tomorrow,) about being the most vocal in the department about giving feedback. It's partly positive, in that it's acknowledged I can always be relied on to give feedback, but the way it's phrased, there's an undercurrent of different opinions are not welcome (well, I know that in our department anyway.) Whereas, I think that different opinions mean you'll make better decisions, because you'll have considered more options, more pros and cons. Plus they should listen to me on account of me always being right.

It's very noticeable to me that our department is nearly all male and all white. One of the development team is very Indian. Another application support team is remarkably mostly female, which really stands out. We have only one black guy working in the techy departments that I can see. Most of them are all white males, though. I remain to be convinced that for all our equal opportunities policies (and to be fair, they're really improved on diversity in the last 3 years or so, and most of these teams were built and have had headcount freezes since before then) - I remain to be convinced that there are fully diverse recruitment techniques going on, with no conscious or unconscious bias going on. Because if there were, we would see it when we look round the office.

I think unconscious bias plays a huge role.

I know the tendency with us when considering diversity previously was to say 'but ethnic minorities don't apply so how can we offer them a role'. Whereas now it's more the case of 'what are we doing wrong that we don't attract ethnic minorities ?'

Exactly. In IT, there is an issue with there are not that many women around - but there aren't as few as we get applications.

I have seen an IT manager go through a pile of CVs and discard some on the grounds that it's not an English name, so he won't be able to understand what he says (when whoever it was probably grew up somewhere exotic like Slough.) Now I'm older and more confident, I would speak out against that, and possibly go to HR. I wish HR would actually remove name and similar identifying info when they gave out CVs, but when I asked about this a few months ago, they said that managers should have sufficient training that it shouldn't be an issue. And I agree, they should have and it shouldn't be, but...

Primadonnagirl no need to apply, blistory wants the best candidate regardless of gender. Best candidate will certainly have basic reading comprehension as a minimum.

You need to get some proper legal advice..you are clearly intending bias . I won't be applying

i think a mention at the bottom that you are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all regardless of gender, race, sexuality, disability, religion etc

How about adding: We take our duty as an equal opportunities employer seriously and welcome applications from those underrepresented in this industry.

BTW what's the job and where? I'm job hunting.

And you could add that the right candidate will be supported with any special needs requirements / extra training.

How about something like "we are a company that recognises potential in our staff. We are looking for someone who brings with them enthusiasm, a willingness to cooperate and a mature attitude. We are hoping to nurture a great candidate who needs the opportunity to take the next step in their career. We do not expect perfection - we expect a willingness to learn and a desire to succeed."

Those are the roundabout ways of saying it, but would it be possible to say something more direct, like:
"We encourage applications from people at all stages of their career -whether you're starting out with a great desire to learn, looking for the next step in your career, or you've have had time out from paid employment are looking to put your skills back into the workforce. We value all types of experience, be it voluntary, part time, paid or unpaid. You are more than just a CV - we appreciate you and your life experience."

I think what puts a lot of people off when they're returning from time out for children/caring is the dread of having to account for that time on their CV and the feeling that voluntary work during that time counts for nothing. I think you need to make it explicitly clear that the standard full list of unbroken employment is not a requirement and that voluntary work does count.

As Buffy says, generally women will only apply if they can tick all the boxes, while men will apply even if they only tick 20%, and rely on blagging and confidence for the rest. Some kind of wording that suggests the qualities/skills/experiences on the list are not all essential, but that willingness to learn, life experience, team player etc (or whatever is appropriate to the job) are more important, would help women see this.

I don't think of flexitime as equating to a crappy job - I know some pretty senior people on flexible hours. I'm a woman and it would be very important to me. I'm self-employed but if I had a job again, I'd want one where they recognise that what matters is the work getting done well, rather than the bums on seats / jacket on chair attitude that you have to be visibly present all the time. I would love to see it mentioned on a job ad.