Avoiding discrimination in job ads
Published: November 22nd, 2011 in the Writing Job Ads in Online Recruitment.
Writing great job ads is the only way to get great candidates to apply for your job. But be careful when writing a job ad that your enthusiasm and creativity doesn’t cause you to fall foul of discrimination law.
What is discrimination in job ads?
Discrimination in job ads is rather like discrimination in life: it is, in many ways, in the eyes of the beholder. However, having a familiarity with the legislation can help you avoid the pitfalls.
The test of what might reasonably be understood as indicating an intention to discriminate is whether an ‘ordinary, reasonable person with no special knowledge’ would think the advertisement is discriminatory.
Types or discrimination in job ads
There are two types of discrimination that are possible in job ads:
- direct discrimination — this is where an employer is guilty of treating somebody less favourably on the grounds of their sex, race etc.
- indirect discrimination — this is where an employer applies a rule which in practice disadvantages one sex, race etc. and which cannot be justified
Whether direct or indirect, there are key grounds under which it is unlawful to discriminate. These are:
- sex, including pregnancy and maternity
- marital status, including civil partnership status
- gender reassignment
- disability
- race
- age
- sexual orientation
- religion/belief or lack of any religion/belief
- trade union membership or non-membership
- status as a fixed-term or part-time worker
All of these areas should be considered when writing your job ad. However, in what follows we will look at some of the areas that commonly cause problems for employers.
Sexual discrimination in job ads
The rule here is don’t discriminate against a sex, any sex, in your job adverts. With this in mind then, your job ad should not refer or imply a suitable gender. The job title you use should be gender neutral — ‘salesperson’ rather than ‘salesman’ and ‘manager’ rather then ‘manageress.’ And there is something to be said for avoiding using ‘he’ or ‘she’ and instead using the phrase ‘he/she’ or the neutral pronoun ‘they’.
Clearly there are roles where there may be a legitimate requirement for an employee to be of a certain gender. For example, within a single sex institutions like hospitals and prisons. But unless that’s the case, avoid any hint of sexism in your job ad.
Racial discrimination in job ads
The rule here is not to discriminate on the basis of race. Rather like sexual discrimination above, you should neither mention nor imply that one race is more suitable than another.
Again, however, there may be specific situations where being of a certain race can be seen as a genuine occupational qualification. In this case, referring to race may be relevant. And again, sometimes, organisations may need to encourage people from a certain ethnic group to apply for a job or training because they are under-represented in the organisation. Again this is allowed under the legislation – but do your homework on this area.
One of the most common areas where recruiters needlessly fall foul of this legislation is in language recruitment. You are looking for a language skill or competence and not a nationality. A ‘French-speaking’ IT developer not a ‘French IT developer.’ It’s clear that an IT person from the UK with fluent French could do the job equally well.
Age discrimination in job ads
Equality rules state that stipulating upper or lower age limits for job applicants is not recommended. What’s more, words which might imply an age requirement or suitability could also be unlawful. For example, ‘youthful,’ ‘energetic,’ ‘mature,’ ‘school-leaver,’ could be interpreted as excluding someone from applying for a role based on their age. It has even been suggested that asking for a certain level of experience from candidates could fall foul of the law as you could be considered to be discriminating against someone who hasn’t had the opportunity to gain that experience as they are too young.
As tricky as age discrimination can be, a simple rule of thumb is to avoid aspirational terms in your job ad and ask for demonstrable experience in certain tasks or duties. Keep requirement specific to the job.
Disability discrimination in job ads
Again, the rule here is not to discriminate on the basis of irrelevant abilities. Besides, it’s important for businesses to ensure disabled candidates have an equal opportunity to join their company just like everybody else.
Obviously, there are some jobs that will require physical activity and this may disqualify certain candidates. But in terms of your job ad you should only specify that which is a necessity of the job.
Before you post your job ad
Before you post your job advert, go through it very carefully to ensure there is nothing that could be interpreted as being in any way directly or indirectly discriminatory. If anything is dubious, rewrite it. Then, get somebody else to read it. Often-times a second person will pick up things you’ve missed — and they might pick us those typos too!
Next steps? Check out these other guides and articles:
