This post was written by the Tucows team and originally appeared on the Tucows blog. It has been re-published here with permission.
Would you say you have great or phenomenal listening skills? Would you describe yourself as energetic or positive?
It seems arbitrary, but the words you choose can mean the difference between having a man in their 40s or a woman in their 20s applying for your role.
Words matter
We’ve long understood that one of the critical barriers to inclusive hiring is the language we use on job postings.
Whether generational or gendered, the choice of words has a real impact on how we communicate opportunities and showcase our priorities.
People in their 60s might be more inclined to apply to a job that prioritizes a “winning” attitude than 20-something folks who might respond better to a “flexible” work “culture.”
This means that the words in your job listings might be narrowly attracting a small demographic of people, and you’re missing out on the vast amount of talent that exists out there in the world.
We saw this as an opportunity to rethink our approach. By focusing more on the language we use, we can appeal to a broader range of talent.
Working on what we say
Over the last year, as we massively ramped up our hiring, we set out to streamline our writing and look for ways to represent our inclusive values better.
This is when we found Textio.
When we started using Textio in April, we noticed that a good portion of our writing wasn’t very inclusive. We used terms that might alienate people of a certain age or gender.
Once we identified what wasn’t working, through Textio’s augmented writing tool, we slowly improved and revamped our writing style to make every one of our job posts suitable to a broader audience.
In our first month on the platform, we already saw a significant improvement. Within the first six months, we managed to improve our scores significantly through constant iteration and practice.
Setting a clear goal.
We didn’t stop there, though.
Being in the predominantly male-dominated tech industry, we wanted to diversify our talent pool and prioritize hiring more women.
Using Textio, we made a conscious choice to tailor our language to meet this need, and it has helped us improve our applicant pipeline.
The same with age, our focus was to make our language reflect our commitment to hiring across age groups.
A team effort
We’re steadily getting better and proud that we’re making sustainable changes to the way we work, think, and write.
We’ve got more and more people at Tucows using the tool. Everyone that writes content in any way is starting to get on board.
We hope that by having everyone in the company on Textio, we can further our collective learning and better represent what it means to be part of the herd.
We’re happy to be recognized with Textio’s Leadership award. We love what they’re doing, and they’ve been a great partner in helping us make our hiring practices at Tucows more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Learn with us
If you want to read more #LearningsFromTheHerd, please give us a follow and on Twitter and LinkedIn.
We’re always looking for people to help us Make the Internet Better. You can find our open roles on our page here: https://bit.ly/2FqO8Wu.
Learn more about Textio
Learn more about Tucows
Thank you to the Tucows team for sharing their story, and another congratulations on earning the Leadership Award!