The good news is that there are lots of easy ways to make your processes more effective and inclusive.
A job description checklist
A good job description is engaging and showcases why your company is a great place to work.
This is an opportunity to highlight what makes your company stand out in terms of its mission, values, culture and the impact of the new role. It’s also a chance to showcase how candidates can grow.
Check out OpenOrg’s template for creating a job description.
Get off to a good start when creating your job ads by following these steps:
- Make your job titles as clear as possible. Avoid overcomplicating titles and consider SEO to help different candidates find your role.
- Where appropriate, including a pay range and benefits fosters transparency, builds trust and attracts a wider range of applicants.
- Use clear and concise language. Avoid industry jargon to describe the role’s responsibilities and focus on core skills and responsibilities, rather than unnecessary qualifications.
- Distinguish between essential requirements and “nice to haves”.
- Determine if qualifications such as degrees are strictly necessary for the job and avoid specifying numbers of years’ experience. This discourages candidates with CV gaps and people looking to use transferable skills from other careers.
- Check for biased language to make sure there are no gender-coded terms, age bias or language that could deter otherwise qualified candidates. This gender decoder is a helpful tool to analyse your job ads.
- Think about how you can showcase your company’s commitment to inclusion. Describe how policies in your company support underrepresented groups and diverse hiring to widen the candidate pool.
- Candidates from underrepresented groups are sometimes discouraged from applying if they don’t believe they have the relevant experience, even if they could be great applicants. A good way to mitigate this is by including a line in your ads like: "we value a diverse range of experiences and skills. If you don't meet all the requirements but believe you can excel in this role, please apply."
- Clearly outline the day-to-day tasks and expectations to ensure clarity for all applicants.
- Explicitly highlight accessibility accommodations available during the hiring process and within the workplace itself, demonstrating a commitment to inclusivity for candidates with disabilities.
- To enhance readability and accessibility, particularly for individuals with dyslexia, sentences and paragraphs should be kept concise, with ample white space and the strategic use of bold text for emphasis.
- Direct candidates to a named contact if they need to discuss any access requirements or request the advert in a different format.
- Include a call to action with clear instructions on how to apply, what candidates need to include and application deadlines.
Reducing bias in assessment
Once you have a steady flow of candidates, you will want to make sure that your recruitment processes screen for the most promising and capable people.
Read Grow London's guide on effective qualifying and shortlisting, covering how to review applications, screen candidates and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs).
How you can reduce bias
These are some simple steps you can take when recruiting to make sure you reduce bias.
Work sample tests provide a realistic trial run of actual tasks the candidate will face in the job, offering direct insight into their abilities and working style. Effective work samples should mirror real business challenges, be time-bound (eg one to two hours) and be assessed using consistent, predefined criteria.
Blind CV review tools, which are often built into an applicant tracking system (ATS), offer a way to anonymise personal details like names, ages, genders and educational backgrounds. This approach will not work for all roles, but it can mitigate unconscious bias when quickly reviewing applications and allow hiring managers to concentrate on a candidate's skills, experience and achievements.
Structuring an effective interview process
The interview is likely when you'll get to meet candidates face to face for the first time, so it's important to get it right and make the best impression of yourself and your business.
To ensure fairness and objectivity, it’s best to implement a standardised approach. Structured interviews involve asking all candidates a consistent set of questions and evaluating their responses against a predetermined set of criteria focused on skills.
This way of interviewing has been shown to more accurately predict job performance compared to unstructured interviews, while also improving interviewer efficiency. Google ReWork has a helpful guide on how to organise structured interviews.
Make sure you have diverse and equitable hiring panels that represent your company and the team you are trying to build.
Avoid culture-fit traps by considering what a candidate can add to your culture. Ask questions that explicitly focus on their work style, values and how they work with others, rather than focusing on “vibe” or team fit. Remember that polish is not always the same as potential.
Make sure that your interview logistics are inclusive and consider different candidates’ requirements, including accessibility, neurodivergence, caring responsibilities and remote needs.
Read Grow London's guide on the interview process covering interview techniques, mitigating bias, scoring and how to reject in the right way.
You may also find Grow London's guide on creating a positive experience for candidates helpful.
Decision-making and offer stage
After all the interviews are done, meet with the panel to discuss each candidate’s performance.
Make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding the key skills and competencies for the role.
To keep discussions objective, use all the data you gathered during the process, such as scorecards, test results and feedback from any practical tasks.
Your goal is to reach a consensus that includes a fair and balanced opinion from each panel member. Take everyone’s insights into account, but make sure the decision is made based on evidence and data, particularly if opinions diverge.
Read Grow London's guide on offer-stage optimisation, covering how to make a winning offer and secure your preferred candidate.
Handle rejections constructively
For candidates who weren’t successful for the role, following these steps can help make the rejection process smoother for everyone:
- Always let candidates know if they have been unsuccessful in a timely manner via a phone call. Failing to do so can harm your brand and prevent other candidates applying to future roles.
- Offer constructive feedback and highlight areas you were impressed by. Read Grow London's guide on creating a positive candidate experience.
- Define where your position is in the market (eg 50th percentile) to standardise offer structure to ensure consistency. Use a defined salary band matrix, aligning offers with candidate’s experience level and market value rather than their negotiation.
- Perform an annual audit to assess pay gaps across demographic groups (e.g. gender, race and disability). Benchmark current compensation against market rates to ensure you are not falling behind and risking attrition. Make corrections where necessary.
Onboarding for belonging
First impressions matter. A welcoming and structured onboarding experience is crucial to encourage a sense of belonging and promote talent retention.
Focus on building community early, providing clear guidance on KPIs and responsibilities from week one, plan a training schedule where relevant and offer a buddy or mentor to check in with the new hire.
Workable has a helpful guide along with the Harvard Business Review’s onboarding guide aimed at first-time managers.
Get feedback on the process. You can use templates for candidate experience surveys by People Managing People.
More resources
Find even more useful resources, including templates, guides and data to make your recruitment process a win-win experience for you and your candidates.