GET THE OPTIMAL EFFECT #4 - D&I AND INCLUSIVITY

July 26, 2022

“Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is making the mix work” - Andres Tapia

Blog four! We know you want more! Welcome back (or welcome to) the fourth in our Get the Optimal Effect series. If you missed our musings on Content, Automation or Engagement & Readability, go catch up!

Over these six weeks, we’ll take you through the ‘what?’, the ‘how?’, and the ‘why should I care?’ of working with our leading diversity & inclusion job ad optimisation platform. With record vacancies across the UK, there’s never been a smarter commercial time for you to start to speak to all potential candidates (did you know you’re currently excluding 51% of the available workforce with the content and structure of job ads). This week we’re talking about Protected Characteristics & Inclusivity, and this one’s actually a legal requirement in the UK! Read on, read on…

First, a bit about us. Get-Optimal was founded in 2019 by CEO Dan Fellows, who grew frustrated at the discussions around DE&I amounting to…absolutely nothing. It was time, thought Dan, to get to work. To help businesses reduce bias in their job ads and promote diversity and inclusion, along with a world-class technology team we trained a cutting-edge AI, and a few algorithms later, Get-Optimal was born. We like to think the rest will be history.

Why do job ads need to be inclusive?

Like we said, this one’s a legal requirement in the UK. The Equality Act (2010) protects any workers, or perspective workers, from discrimination due to nine protected characteristics. That’s age, disability, gender affirmation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. For job ads, this means you can’t profile your ideal employee using any of these unless you can actively prove there is a genuine business need. You can’t, for example, express a preference for a male or female candidate, or (even if your vacancy is entirely in Spanish) ask for a Spanish applicant. Whilst this direct discrimination might be easy to figure out, the Equality Act also protects against Indirect Discrimination such as all applicants to a job being male, or asking for an unobtainable level of experience for younger potential employees (i.e. 10+ years).

How does Get-Optimal address this?

Our primary mission with our cutting-edge AI is to defend these characteristics and champion equality so all job ads are open and inclusive to the widest range of potential applicants possible. Pop your ad through our SaaS platform (software as a service), and it’ll assess and remove anything that falls under The Equality Act. Optimal takes this one step further, constantly refining our technology so it not only respects the characteristics but also removes phrases, words or concepts that might scare off a specific type of people from applying. For example, the majority of female applicants will be put off by the word ‘Driven’. Optimal replace this word with an alternative like ‘generous’, ‘favourable’ or ‘compelling’ - not frightening female applicants yet still conveying the message. In the case above, where Spanish is needed for the role, we’d use ‘Spanish-speaking’ or ‘To apply for this role, you must be fluent in Spanish’. It’s easy to make these small changes, but they’re utterly essential in opening up the big doors to attract the potential perfect person. Whilst language is incredibly important this is only one element in optimising your Job Ads for DE&I. Structure, coherence and length are also primary elements that need to be measured and considered in your final optimised Job Ad.

How will working with Get-Optimal help me?

Work with us at Optimal, and your response rate for open positions will soar. Letting our AI choose the most readable parts of your job ads to display will save you the precious time you would have spent combing through old job ads to ensure you’re conveying the correct image in the new world of attracting the right candidates. No longer will your ideal applicant be put off applying due to what’s written in the vacancy or how it’s been structured. What’s more, simply Optimise once and post in multiple places - your new ad is provided in a downloadable, editable form to drop into whichever job board or multi-poster you like! We are also integrated with Bullhorn and Salesforce. We know it works -  because using our formula, Get-Optimal had a 21% increase in female applications in Q1 2022. Numbers don’t lie, right? We ensure your ad is Diversity & Inclusion compliant, meaning you’ll be the top-choice commercially, and win business over other, less enlightened competitors.

Great! Get me started….

When you work with Optimal, you’re a partner, not a vender. Our inclusive approach means you’re always on our minds, and our team is always on hand to help you with any queries that might arise. What’s more, Get-Optimal takes just 15 minutes to set up and is now integrated with Salesforce and Bullhorn to allow ultimate usability, whether you’re a staffing agency or a direct employer.

Ready to join us? Why not book your demo today and get started with Get-Optimal.

Next week - a look at EVP (Employer brand proposition)

GET THE OPTIMAL EFFECT #4 - D&I AND INCLUSIVITY

July 26, 2022
Download Case Study

“Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is making the mix work” - Andres Tapia

Blog four! We know you want more! Welcome back (or welcome to) the fourth in our Get the Optimal Effect series. If you missed our musings on Content, Automation or Engagement & Readability, go catch up!

Over these six weeks, we’ll take you through the ‘what?’, the ‘how?’, and the ‘why should I care?’ of working with our leading diversity & inclusion job ad optimisation platform. With record vacancies across the UK, there’s never been a smarter commercial time for you to start to speak to all potential candidates (did you know you’re currently excluding 51% of the available workforce with the content and structure of job ads). This week we’re talking about Protected Characteristics & Inclusivity, and this one’s actually a legal requirement in the UK! Read on, read on…

First, a bit about us. Get-Optimal was founded in 2019 by CEO Dan Fellows, who grew frustrated at the discussions around DE&I amounting to…absolutely nothing. It was time, thought Dan, to get to work. To help businesses reduce bias in their job ads and promote diversity and inclusion, along with a world-class technology team we trained a cutting-edge AI, and a few algorithms later, Get-Optimal was born. We like to think the rest will be history.

Why do job ads need to be inclusive?

Like we said, this one’s a legal requirement in the UK. The Equality Act (2010) protects any workers, or perspective workers, from discrimination due to nine protected characteristics. That’s age, disability, gender affirmation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. For job ads, this means you can’t profile your ideal employee using any of these unless you can actively prove there is a genuine business need. You can’t, for example, express a preference for a male or female candidate, or (even if your vacancy is entirely in Spanish) ask for a Spanish applicant. Whilst this direct discrimination might be easy to figure out, the Equality Act also protects against Indirect Discrimination such as all applicants to a job being male, or asking for an unobtainable level of experience for younger potential employees (i.e. 10+ years).

How does Get-Optimal address this?

Our primary mission with our cutting-edge AI is to defend these characteristics and champion equality so all job ads are open and inclusive to the widest range of potential applicants possible. Pop your ad through our SaaS platform (software as a service), and it’ll assess and remove anything that falls under The Equality Act. Optimal takes this one step further, constantly refining our technology so it not only respects the characteristics but also removes phrases, words or concepts that might scare off a specific type of people from applying. For example, the majority of female applicants will be put off by the word ‘Driven’. Optimal replace this word with an alternative like ‘generous’, ‘favourable’ or ‘compelling’ - not frightening female applicants yet still conveying the message. In the case above, where Spanish is needed for the role, we’d use ‘Spanish-speaking’ or ‘To apply for this role, you must be fluent in Spanish’. It’s easy to make these small changes, but they’re utterly essential in opening up the big doors to attract the potential perfect person. Whilst language is incredibly important this is only one element in optimising your Job Ads for DE&I. Structure, coherence and length are also primary elements that need to be measured and considered in your final optimised Job Ad.

How will working with Get-Optimal help me?

Work with us at Optimal, and your response rate for open positions will soar. Letting our AI choose the most readable parts of your job ads to display will save you the precious time you would have spent combing through old job ads to ensure you’re conveying the correct image in the new world of attracting the right candidates. No longer will your ideal applicant be put off applying due to what’s written in the vacancy or how it’s been structured. What’s more, simply Optimise once and post in multiple places - your new ad is provided in a downloadable, editable form to drop into whichever job board or multi-poster you like! We are also integrated with Bullhorn and Salesforce. We know it works -  because using our formula, Get-Optimal had a 21% increase in female applications in Q1 2022. Numbers don’t lie, right? We ensure your ad is Diversity & Inclusion compliant, meaning you’ll be the top-choice commercially, and win business over other, less enlightened competitors.

Great! Get me started….

When you work with Optimal, you’re a partner, not a vender. Our inclusive approach means you’re always on our minds, and our team is always on hand to help you with any queries that might arise. What’s more, Get-Optimal takes just 15 minutes to set up and is now integrated with Salesforce and Bullhorn to allow ultimate usability, whether you’re a staffing agency or a direct employer.

Ready to join us? Why not book your demo today and get started with Get-Optimal.

Next week - a look at EVP (Employer brand proposition)