When it comes to striving to be more inclusive in the workplace, the first things that often come to mind are our interpersonal interactions. Were we inclusive in how we ran that meeting? Have we included a diversity of thought and experience in the latest leadership program or in-office activity?
But there’s an area that frequently gets overlooked when it comes to being truly inclusive, and it’s one that can make or break your company’s future: job descriptions and your hiring process.
The humble job description doesn’t always get the due it deserves. It’s much more than a recruiting tool. It’s essentially the way your company introduces its culture to prospective employees and the words, tone and verbal shortcuts you choose to use makes an immediate impression on potential colleagues, both for better and for worse.
As a recent Harvard Business Review article points out, “the modern-day professional vocabulary is still littered with exclusionary terms.” Think about how many times you’ve seen the leader of a board referred to as “chairman,” when “chair” would work equally well.
This is true in the hospitality industry as well. When hiring for a housekeeper or a building engineer, it’s all too easy to assume female and male roles respectively. But that is not inclusive.
As labor challenges continue to weigh on our industry, it’s more important than ever to guide your hiring managers and recruiting teams to look for new talent through an inclusive lens.
Here’s how you can review your hiring materials for truly inclusive language to make sure they are demonstrating the kind of hospitality to all that our industry has to offer.
- Check your terminology. If you’re copying and pasting job descriptions of the past, you may unintentionally sound dated at best, and offensive at worst. There was a time when it was assumed administrative assistants would attract only female candidates. Does the wording subtly suggest a role is gender-specific? Are you considering how you reference pronouns and abilities so that they match with how a candidate prefers to be addressed?
- Look for coded messages that may be hiding in plain sight. When describing the position for which you’re hiring, are there seemingly innocuous phrases which may carry a hidden meaning and unintentionally exclude potential candidates? For example, if you say a job has set hours, that could be seen as limiting by a person who is a caretaker. Try to extract any limiting factors and instead base the language of the description on qualities of the job and the skills of the person. Ask yourself what’s actually needed to be successful in this role, and then remove anything that isn’t truly required.
- Watch your adjectives. “Vibrant” tends to signal young, as does “energetic” or even asking for “a willingness to travel.” If you ask for travel up to 50 percent, you might be subtly dissuading a caretaker who is a sole provider who cannot commit to that level. Really determining what is critical to be successful in that role is key to inclusive recruiting.
- Review and diversify your interview process. Audit your interview process from end to end. Does it demonstrate an inclusive environment? Don’t limit the definition of inclusivity to just race. There are so many different dimensions of diversity that can show up on interview panels. Do you have someone from different educational backgrounds, nationalities, ability levels and even functions within your company? Apply the same level of scrutiny to your feedback process. Have you guided your interviewers to be consistent in their questions and to be as unbiased as possible in their feedback? For example, many Black candidates will be described as “articulate,” when white candidates are not. The assumption from the outset was this person was not going to be articulate, which is flawed.
- Keep evolving. Inclusivity by its very nature is an evolving process. It’s a journey that doesn’t end. The smartest companies are those that embrace that evolution and continue to push themselves to grow an inclusive culture. Ultimately, those that do so successfully will attract and hire the best candidates.
DeShaun N. Wise Porter is Hilton’s Global Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Engagement. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Vice President, HR Consulting, where she partnered with C- Suite leaders to drive transformational talent initiatives focused on attracting, developing and retaining high potentials and top performers.
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