Do We Have an Ethical Responsibility to Make Job Descriptions More Inclusive?

I often read job descriptions to understand what skills and qualifications are in demand for business and technology-related fields. Recently, I was on the ‘careers page’ for a notable AI non-profit organization whose founder famously dropped out of college. As I read the job description for the Research Scientist role, I noticed something interesting. The first bullet point under the What You’ll Need section stated, “PhD.” However, in the following section titled Who We Are, the second and third bullet points read, “We value diversity” and “We value inclusion.” These seemed like conflicting narratives.

As employers, we must consider the ethical implications of our hiring processes and whether the language we include in job descriptions unintentionally excludes qualified applicants. To value diversity means not dissuading those who don’t fit an archetype. An archetype that may be a proxy for access to resources more so than ability or intelligence.

Higher education’s purpose, in all its forms, is to help people become their future selves. Its function bridges the gap between where someone is today and where they want to go tomorrow. That delta and the underlying skills needed to overcome that delta are non-uniform. In other words, education is not a one-size fits all solution, and the amount of education one requires varies based on the person and their goals. Two equally qualified job applicants may take different educational paths to qualify for the same position. For example, someone with an undergraduate degree and five years of real-world experience may have a different, equal set of qualifications than someone with a graduate degree and no real-world experience. In both cases, their education is a function of their access to resources and not a proxy for their ability.

Many young people today need more resources and opportunities to pursue a path through higher education. That privilege and access often fall disproportionately to those raised in families from the highest socioeconomic brackets who can afford to live in high-performing K-12 school districts or afford tuition for private schools. By selecting job applicants solely on PhDs, we inadvertently select based on privilege, further stratifying the socioeconomic divide.

Ethics is inherently about actions. Therefore, we must consider what actions to take if we believe that being ethical means being more inclusive. One solution is adding additional language to each job description to mitigate the risk of exclusion and encourage a more diverse candidate pool. There are no hard-and-fast rules around creating this language, but there are examples to draw from. Stanford included the following language in a recent job posting for the position of Associate Director of Academic and Public Programs. Notice how the language promotes inclusion by creating a viable channel for non-traditional candidates to apply rather than defaulting to an exclusionary checklist of qualifications.

“Don’t meet every single requirement? At the Cantor and Vice Presidency for the Arts, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. Let us know in your cover letter how your experience makes you a good fit for us. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles!”

Be mindful of job descriptions. Think critically about what the job description says about the values of your company and its culture. Remember, diversity isn’t relegated to gender and ethnicity; it includes diversity in education, experience, and thinking. Ultimately, the goal isn’t simply to hire diverse people but to hire people who know how to create diversity.