Want more women to apply for your job vacancies?

Step one is to write job adverts that are actually going to attract and energise the women you’re after. Far too many job adverts are littered with errors that repel the women that companies want to hire. They are boring to read, badly written and far too detailed.

Don’t take my word for it. The following eight tips that I share below have come directly from the experienced female talent that makes up the amazing community at 2to3days. They want things to change.

n Bring the culture of your company to life

Describe your company’s values and ethos. The candidate will select your company based on: n Describe how they can work flexibly n Keep bullet points to a minimum n Ask for transferable skills n Remove jargon, acronyms and bias n Invite returners to apply n You need to include the salary n What benefits do you offer?

• Will I be welcome and respected here?

• Will I feel included and be able to reach my full potential here?

Don’t just say that you’re open to flexible working. Describe what that means for the role, and state that you will happily discuss flexible working at first interview.

A job advert is not a list! It’s a massive turn-off to female applications when all they see is a long list of bullet points. Research has proven that men will apply for a job when they can only do 60% of what’s required when women will only apply when she can do closer to 100%! So keep bullet points to maximum of 3 to 5 in each section.

Far too many job adverts forget to even mention the value of transferable skills. Nowadays, so many highly skilled women have had a rich and varied career and have much to offer a company that brings diversity of thought, creativity, contacts and experience.

Unless you are ‘in the know,’ you ‘don’t know’ and therefore feel excluded. We live in a world of acronyms and lazy jargon so unless there is a very good reason to keep it in, take it out!

Don’t underestimate the value of a career returner. They’re full of life experience, emotional maturity and wisdom and ready to reignite their careers.

It’s a key metric for assessing suitability of a role to one’s experience. If you can’t include a salary, then put in a salary range – or you will automatically reduce the number of applicants.

Spell them out. Make them inclusive to all and not just of benefit to some. Be sure to differentiate between the ‘standard benefits’ that are typical for most companies from the ‘extras’ that are personal to your company.

Juliet Turnbull, Founder & CEO 2to3days W: 2to3days.com

E: juliet@2to3days.com