Equal opportunity

Last week Governor Mike Pence of Indiana signed a “religious freedom” law that allows business owners to cite their religious freedom as a justification for turning away customers from certain groups. The governor also refuses to add protections based on sexual orientation to Indiana’s anti-discrimination laws. The combination opens the door for significant LGBT discrimination by Indiana businesses.

From customer service to hiring, we at Textio stand strong for non-discrimination in all areas of business. We encourage all companies to include clear equal opportunity statements in their job listings to let candidates know that the company doesn’t discriminate in its hiring practices. Our own job listings contain a strong equal opportunity statement, not just because equal opportunity is the law but because it’s simply the right thing to do.

In light of current events, we went to our jobs database to find out how Indiana job listings stack up in the equal opportunity statements that they include. The baseline is already disappointingly low: only 34% of jobs nationally include even a minimal equal opportunity statement. But for jobs in Indiana, this falls to just 22%.

We don’t think this is good enough, in Indiana or anywhere else.

Today we are proud to announce the launch of equal opportunity support for job listings. Textio now automatically detects the presence or absence of an equal opportunity statement in your job description. If you’ve already included an equal opportunity statement, Textio evaluates its effectiveness for you. If you’re missing a statement and want to add one, you can do that with just one click.

Indiana is in the spotlight right now, but there are actually 19 other states with similar laws. We encourage job seekers to look for employers who make a point of stating their commitment to non-discrimination. Not only are you likely to feel better about the interview process, you’re more likely to feel good about working there once you get hired.