CooperCompanies Makes Job Descriptions More Accessible and Inclusive

A job posting is more than an alert about employment opportunity. For many job seekers, it provides a powerful first impression – a proxy for a company’s culture and core values. Companies need to choose their words wisely when writing job posts, otherwise they risk losing access to a more diverse and adept talent pool.

That’s the conclusion that led CooperCompanies and its business units to update job descriptions with more inclusive and accessible language.

With software tools like Datapeople and TalVisata, talent acquisition teams at Cooper can analyze the content of job descriptions and troubleshoot for areas to improve, such as approachability, people-first language and eliminating corporate cliches. For example, familiar terms like “salesmen” can be replaced with more inclusive language like salespeople or sales team. Likewise, changing words like “utilize” to “use” and “serve as” to “be” ensures that job posts have more accessible language, which many candidates appreciate. Additionally, Cooper job descriptions are scanned for problematic words that may discourage underrepresented applicants from applying.

“Our process allows for real-time feedback to select more inclusive language in our job descriptions that equally attracts male, female, and underrepresented candidates,” said Jennifer Forty, Talent Acquisition Manager, CooperVision.

In addition to improving job descriptions, we are also increasing the skillset of our recruiting teams by incorporating a pilot e-learning platform that provides inclusion and diversity training to assist with the overall hiring experience. We plan to expand the initiative globally in the upcoming months. Across Cooper, these efforts continue to increase the effectiveness of our recruiting process allowing open positions to attract an even wider and more diverse pool of applicants.

For more information on Cooper’s commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, read our 2020 ESG Report.