As part of the Gender & Behavioural Insights Programme, we ran field trials with CIPD and with the Ministry of Defence, as well as a lab study on Predictiv. We worked to level the playing field for women in the world of recruitment.
The research suggests that the following actions are effective for employers to take:
- Use targeted referrals inviting women to apply
- Ensure that time out to care is not held against potential recruits by making it possible to list experience in terms of years rather than dates
- Only include requirements in job adverts that would rule applicants out if they do not meet them
More insights on gender equality
Blogs
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Targeted referrals can improve gender equality in recruitment
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Can one line on a CV support people back into work?
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Unconscious bias and diversity training – the evidence
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Women only apply for jobs when 100% qualified. Fact or fake news?
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The rise of returners: New dynamic norm opens door to gender equality in the workplace
Reports
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Increasing applications from women through targeted referrals
We partnered with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to run a two-armed randomised controlled trial (RCT) testing whether using targeted referrals would increase the referrals, applications and hires of women.
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Facilitating return to the labour market with a novel CV format intervention
We applied to 9,022 job vacancies over a 6-month period spanning October 2019 to March 2020. We found that displaying experience in terms of the number of years rather than…
