Working Toward Gender Inclusivity: 5 Ways You Can Integrate Pronouns Into Your Recruiting Process
Whether they’ve known about your company for ten years or ten minutes, the first time new employees experience your company culture for themselves is during the recruiting process. Hiring managers and recruiters know that the start of the process is an important opportunity to tell candidates what kind of organization they would be joining. In this post, we’ll explain how to effectively integrate personal pronouns in this key step of the employee journey—and why it’s important to do so.
1. Share your pronouns first
How - Before a candidate submits their application, they will learn about your organization through either an organic experience like a career fair or a more purposeful interaction like an email or an informational interview. In any of these moments of first contact, you should include your own pronouns where it is appropriate to do so. In a presentation, you can add them to your slides or in a verbal introduction; in an email, you can include them in the body of your message or in your signature.
Why - Leading with your own pronouns shows candidates a level of authenticity that may not come across in the more mechanical parts of an application. Building this rapport will make candidates feel safer and more comfortable sharing their own pronouns with you when you ask for them.
“Leading with your own pronouns shows candidates a level of authenticity that may not come across in the more mechanical parts of an application.”
2. Ask all candidates for their pronouns—after anonymous rounds
How - Anonymizing resume submissions by removing names and other identifying information is a great way to reduce bias in the earliest phases of your talent pipeline. For every candidate that makes it through the anonymous step, you should request that they share their pronouns along with their other personal information.
Why - Asking all candidates for their pronouns is part of a general best practice of not making assumptions about people in the workplace. While including pronouns may be especially important for trans or gender-expansive candidates, people of all gender identities want to be addressed accurately and respectfully. Additionally, you do not have any way of knowing if someone’s pronouns or gender identity align with your perception of their gender expression unless you ask.
“Asking all candidates for their pronouns is part of a general best practice of not making assumptions about people in the workplace.”
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3. Offer flexible options for sharing pronouns, including a write-in and opting out
How - As you create and revise your application systems, your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for a candidate to give you their information and for you to receive and use it. The most inclusive structure for asking for pronouns is offering a free-response text entry: this allows for a candidate to list pronouns you may not have heard of or to list multiple pronouns that they use. If this is not compatible with your information management structures or is infeasible at the scale of your operation, you should at least include common options (she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs) and appropriate alternatives (not listed/other, prefer not to say).
Why - On top of the functional importance of knowing a candidate’s pronouns, adding this question signals your commitment to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. LinkedIn recently added the ability to add personal pronouns to a user profile, in part based on research that indicates “70% of job seekers believe it’s important that recruiters and hiring managers know their gender pronouns, and 72% of hiring managers agree and believe it shows respect.”
4. Include pronouns in referrals throughout process
How - In addition to formal interviews and assessments, your recruiting process may include less structured interactions like coffee chats or office visits. In all of these instances, you can use an introduction as an opportunity to share pronouns for everyone involved.
“Arman, meet Isa (she/her), a member of our marketing team. Isa, Arman (he/him or they/them) is interested in learning about the graduate internship opportunities in your department. Would you be able to find some time to tell them more?”
Why - This simple addition to an introduction can prevent awkwardness or harm when these people meet. Since these personal meetings are so key to generating rapport with candidates, it is especially important to make sure they provide a safe and welcoming environment.
“This simple addition to an introduction can prevent awkwardness or harm when these people meet.”
5. Apologize and move on when you make a mistake
How - In spite of your best efforts, you may slip up and use an incorrect pronoun for someone. If this happens, briefly apologize, correct yourself, and move on.
Why - Misgendering someone is a big deal, so you might feel that you should make a proportionately big deal of correcting your mistake. In practice, stopping a conversation to apologize profusely might make someone even more uncomfortable than they were due to your original error. Think of it like forgetting a person’s name—which of these sounds better?
“Jennifer—sorry, I meant Jessica. Jessica, would you tell Angela the idea you mentioned earlier?”
“Jennifer—oh gosh. Jessica, Jessica! I am so embarrassed; this never happens. My brain is just totally elsewhere today. OBVIOUSLY I know your name is Jessica. …what was I saying?”
Integrating personal pronouns is crucial to building a more inclusive recruitment process. By taking these steps, your recruiting team can show potential hires that your organization is committed to ensuring their sense of belonging and psychological safety.
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Interested in learning more about how to make your recruitment and hiring processes more inclusive? Look back at this blog post from Seen@Work’s CEO, Natalia Eileen Villarmán, on how to address four common biases in this area.
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