Webinar recap: plain language hiring practices

This Clear Language Lab webinar took place on May 9, 2024 as part of the Plain Language Foundations series. Check out the notes below, or access the webinar recording and slides.

Key points

Why plain language matters in hiring

Plain language hiring practices can help us:

• Hire the right person

• Respect people’s time and effort

• Be Accessible and equitable

Plain language is about sharing information in a way that your audience can find, understand, and use what they need. In hiring this looks like:

• Anticipating questions

• Sharing clear expectations

• Being transparent about the process

• Using clear, concise language

• Keeping information where people can find it

Things to think about

When preparing to write a job posting, think carefully about:

• Must haves: what skills and knowledge do they need to be successful from day 1?

• Can be learned: what skills and knowledge can they learn after they start?

• Do not consider: what information do you want to ignore to reduce bias? (e.g. blacking out the names of the schools they’ve attended) 

When writing job descriptions:

• Use simple, everyday language 

• Avoid jargon that applicants may not know, especially if it falls into the “can be learned” category 

• Consider writing directly to applicants (e.g. you should apply if…) 

• Use lists strategically to group content and breakup dense information 

Throughout the process:

• Be mindful of Accessibility concerns that could accidentally weed out disabled applicants (e.g. “must be able to lift 40 lbs.”)

• Use a spreadsheet to keep track of candidates, their skills, and relevant notes 

• Prepare people for your interview by providing questions and topics in advance

• If you can’t compensate people for a performance task, think about how you can get similar information during an interview 

• Follow-up with everyone. If you expect to get too many applicants to respond to everyone, say so on your application and give them a time frame.

Resources

General resources

• Center for Plain Language 

• US Government Plain Language Site 

• Oxford Guide to Plain English by Martin Cutts

Hiring practices 

• Thread Strategies YouTube Playlist: The Nonprofit Hiring Landscape

• Must Haves and Biases

• Resume redaction benefits everyone (including me) – bioinformatics beyond the information age (diamondage.com)

Equity + diversity

• Study Finds Racial Discrimination in Responses to Emails Asking for Help

• For Black Women At Work, Exclamation Points Are Necessary

• Women in the Workplace 2023 report

Interested in learning more about professional development at Clear Language Lab? Check out other past webinars, find upcoming events on our training page, or contact Sarah Glazer, Sr. Program Manager, at sarah@litworks.org to learn more about our offerings.

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