Why is it important to use pronouns in hiring ?

No matter what the field is, at the end of the day, every company has a primary motive: profit. Companies will do anything in their power to ensure they are more profitable. One way to do so is to ensure that an organization’s workplace is free and fair. This means ensuring that no individual, irrespective of their age, gender, or sexual orientation, should feel discriminated against either in the workplace or during hiring.

While several of the biases have been acknowledged, discrimination based on sexual orientation was never seen even as a bias. It is only recently that issues like using the right pronouns and gender-neutral language have become important.

Such issues are now being addressed, especially in hiring, as companies deploy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices. In fact, October 19 is now celebrated as the International Pronouns Day to promote diversity and respecting people and their preferred pronouns.

Advantages of using pronouns 

Pronouns are words which are used to refer to a particular noun. There are various types of pronouns and people generally used to address someone on a day-to-day basis. This is why using correct pronouns is a big issue as it is an important part of someone’s identity. 

However, are there other advantages of using pronouns in hiring that can help improve the dynamics of a workplace?

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Reduces bias 

One Of the importance of pronouns in hiring is that it helps companies reduce or at the very least minimize it. Using correct pronouns immediately guarantees that gender and sexual orientation bias are tackled at the earliest making candidates feel at ease. Addressing people with correct pronouns during an interview also assures candidates that the company respects their personal beliefs and does not discriminate based on it.

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Promotes inclusive behavior

Employees are humans and do not join a company just for the payday but also care about being acknowledged over their identity. An identity is an integral part of any human being and thus using pronouns creates an environment of inclusivity where employees know they are valued. This will ensure they are motivated at their job thus resulting in an efficient workplace.

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Makes your workplace desirable 

While an interviewer will always try to talk positively about a company’s work environment, word of mouth and online reviews on sites like Glassdoor massively help improve the profile of a company. And employees like a company which respects their personal beliefs and does nto discriminate against them. This ensures that there is a steady stream of candidates who will want to work at your organization.

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Ensures your workplace is diverse and skilled 

Encouraging diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices also ensure that the workplace attracts the best talent in the industry. As mentioned earlier in the article, a company’s main function is to increase its revenues and profit. Therefore, having an inclusive workplace that does not discriminate among its employees is bound to attract the best talent. 

It also means that the company will have a high employee retention rate, decreasing the amount of resources that a company might have to spend on the resources.

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How to encourage inclusive hiring 

Use gender-neutral terms in job postings 

Hiring begins from a job posting and more often than not they use wrong gender neutral terms. A study involving over 160,000 job postings in the last year found inconsistencies where the language used in the job posting was incorrect and discriminatory towards the female gender. Therefore, using gender neutral terms in an interview immediately increases the probability of candidates that will apply for the job posting.

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Train your interviewer to use the correct language 

The importance of pronouns in hiring is more evident in the interview.  Having a trained interview team thus is of great help during such an issue. A professional interviewer is one who knows to conduct an interview without being susceptible to any kind of bias. However, for a recruiter to be unbiased, they have to first learn to recognize bias. It is because bias can also be subconscious or unconscious which means that most of the time it is hard to recognize.

An interviewer should never assume and first ask the candidate what their pronouns are. This ensures that the candidate feels at ease during their interview, making it a smooth and robust process.

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Conduct sensitization sessions 

The job of being unbiased does not solely rest on the shoulders of the interviewer but also on every other employee. This is because several companies conduct joint interviews, and there might be other people who would be present. Therefore, to ensure that there are no instances of incorrect language, companies should conduct time-to-time sensitization sessions to teach their employees about the appropriate behavior by an employee in the workplace.

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How BarRaiser helps in conditioning unbiased interviews 

Despite taking all the measures, there are still chances of a candidate being addressed incorrectly because of the human factor. However what if companies had access to a tool which could raise an alert whenever an employee is asked a question that may be discriminatory. This is where our interview intelligence tool, BarRaiser, comes into play.

With our interview platform you will be getting to use our AI Interview Copilot which assists the interviewer.  Also known as the AI Interview Assistant, it transcribes the entire interview and immediately raises an alert if the interviewer asks a question that may be discriminatory to the candidate.

On top of that, our tool also asks for feedback from the recruiter and raises an alert if any of the feedback is biased. This ensures that the recruitment process is transparent.

We also provide interviewer training to ensure organizations  have the perfect team for the job. Furthermore, we also provide interview as a service in which we will conduct the entire interview process on the behalf of an organization.

Using BarRaiser we guarantee you quality hiring that will also bolster diversity and inclusion. BarRaiser is the best AI interview platform that features structured interviews, AI-generated interview notes,  and tools to ensure quality hiring while eliminating biases from the recruitment process. With BarRaiser’s support, you’ll be well-equipped to build a strong team of sales associates who will drive sales and deliver exceptional customer service.