[LRUG] [OT] A blog post about writing tech job ads

Tue May 12 04:15:20 PDT 2015

*> I would avoid using twitter or any form of social media for making
candidate selections. This is because social media exposes protected
characteristics and you can not legally 'un-know' that information. This
will expose you and your company to potential
litigation. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4
<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4>*

I have no opinion either way about using twitter or other social media to
vet the inclinations of potential candidates, but based on my research what
Chris says here seems to be on point when it comes to the law and potential
litigation[0]. IANAL.

That being said, a goal for myself was to make an inclusive environment for
anyone who might find themselves working with us[1]. Some world-views are
not necessarily conducive to an inclusive work environment when expressed
openly. The best I could come up with to point us in a generally inclusive
direction was to declare all charitable contributions we've made as a
company and ask potential candidates to make sure they're on board with
them before submitting an application (every charity is offensive to
someone).

As an example, we've given to charities that specifically work with women's
issues or issues that women are more likely to experience. This is likely
to put off gamergate-inspired MRA's. If they can accept that the revenue
they work to generate goes towards causes they don't necessarily agree
with, they'll probably be able to keep themselves in check at work. If they
can't accept that we make (and will continue to make) said contributions,
they're no longer our problem.

I should make clear that we don't make charitable contributions with the
purpose of declaring the companies political leanings in order to vet
candidates. It turned out to be a nice side effect so we're putting it to
good use.

-Ali

[0]: At the same time it surprises me that someone at Barclays isn't paid
to think about these sorts of legal things.

[1]: Based loosely on the protected characteristics listed upthread of
course. I'm not all that fussed if cannibal neo-nazi's feel excluded in our
workplace for example.

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 7:31 PM, Christopher Hooks <kyristopher at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi LRUG,
>
> I would avoid using twitter or any form of social media for making
> candidate selections. This is because social media exposes protected
> characteristics and you can not legally 'un-know' that information. This
> will expose you and your company to potential litigation.
> http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4
>
> The protected characteristics are:
>
> age;
> disability;
> gender reassignment;
> marriage and civil partnership;
> pregnancy and maternity;
> race;
> religion or belief;
> sex;
> sexual orientation.
>
>
> Also I would point out that twitter and social media cut both ways. As an
> employer or recruiter expressing opinions about people's protected
> characteristics could also result in litigation. For example, if you state
> on social media that 'atheists are privileged' therefore I won't
> employ/interview 'x' because they express 'atheist opinions on twitter'.
> 'x' has a strong legal case to litigate.
>
>
> http://www.hrzone.com/talent/acquisition/social-media-screening-is-it-ethical
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/facebook-snooping-on-job/
>
> Regards,
>
> Chris.
>
> On 8 May 2015 at 16:40, Eve Braun <eve.t.braun at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Two other things we implemented which aided the recruitment process:
>>
>> We followed advice which is quickly becoming the industry norm. Never
>> look at someones Github profile until you have made the decision to hire or
>> not hire them and do not let it influence you. Github profiles tend to
>> favor CIS White men over most minorities in a number of ways. CIS white men
>> often have more spare time or chose to pursue building up an impressive
>> portfolio of code rather than women or minorities who have to deal with
>> things like raising children or instiutionalised racism. Some in the SocJus
>> community have even said that technically companies could possibly even be
>> breaking discriminatory law by allowing peoples github profiles and
>> publicly available code to influence their hiring decisions - watch this
>> space.
>>
>> (More info:
>> http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-and-the-oss-community
>> )
>>
>> We used Randi Harper's (https://twitter.com/freebsdgirl) blockbot to
>> assess applicants twitter profiles for problematic or toxic viewpoints.
>> This may sound a bit extreme but some of the staff here suffer from
>> Aspergers & PTSD and our top priority is to ensure that they don't get put
>> in triggering situations.Making a wrong hire could present a scenario where
>> the employee could be triggered on a daily basis by another employee with
>> an oppressive viewpoint. Other than from a diversity standpoint, from a
>> business standpoint these sorts of negative interactions can cost a company
>> a huge amount of time & money in employees taking off sick days. When all
>> the employees are on the same page the synergy in the office aids
>> productivity.
>>
>> (More info: http://www.theblockbot.com/)
>>
>> On the topic of PTSD & being triggered, we also implemented a safe-space
>> to help employees feel secure throughout the day and go to wherever they
>> need it. Its complete with soothing music, jigsaw puzzles, beanbags & mood
>> lighting.
>>
>> :)
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 11:32 AM, Thayer Prime <thayer at team-prime.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> That's fantastic Eve, thanks so much for sharing. Point 1 coming
>>> through so well for you is utterly brilliant. We've done that too, but
>>> never to the level you've taken it to with your range of boards, and
>>> I'm definitely going to explore & action that deeper now.
>>>
>>> Love that you've had such excellent success. Bravo! It can be done.
>>> And it's not particularly hard - it just takes forethought and
>>> planning, with some smarts that may need to be looked from outside our
>>> own bubbles - which sadly recruitment often lacks. But it CAN be done
>>> :-)
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 6:25 PM, Eve Braun <eve.t.braun at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >  Hey Thayer & Ali,
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Really great you both brought this up. I've been responsible for
>>> building up
>>> > a small tech team within Barclays and we've had a push towards much
>>> more
>>> > diversity. This has been driven by the huge lack of diversity within
>>> the
>>> > existing tech teams. We are tasked with building prototypes which are
>>> not
>>> > business critical so we have a lot of space to move around with then
>>> other
>>> > areas of the company which require levels of experience & current
>>> ability
>>> > which traditionally bias against minorities facing oppression.
>>> >
>>> > We avoided posting adverts on tech mailing lists and in places where
>>> women
>>> > and minorities are underrepresented, instead using the same budget we
>>> would
>>> > have used on places like unicorn jobs, in places such as in Ethnic
>>> minority
>>> > related magazines and publications, LGBT related publications and
>>> websites
>>> > (such as out.com). The cost of advertising was so expensive in tech
>>> related
>>> > spaces we could cover many more adverts in spaces that would reach to
>>> > minorities and we got an excellent response.
>>> > We never assume to know someones preferred pronoun. When responding to
>>> > applicants we always ask for their preferred pronoun, even if it seems
>>> > obvious (there's more than 2). The response to this has been great so
>>> far.
>>> > We've effectively had to create our own internal structure independent
>>> from
>>> > the rest of the company to ensure that diversity is catered for.
>>> Slowly but
>>> > surely though, we're affecting the rest of the business.
>>> >
>>> > So far we've grown the team to 6. 4 of us identify as female (with one
>>> being
>>> > transgender) and 5 of us are PoC.
>>> >
>>> > Eve.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > From: Chat [mailto:chat-bounces at lists.lrug.org] On Behalf Of Najaf Ali
>>> > Sent: 06 May 2015 14:14
>>> > To: Thayer Prime
>>> > Cc: London Ruby Users Group
>>> > Subject: Re: [LRUG] [OT] A blog post about writing tech job ads
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Konbanwa minnasan,
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Strong agree with everything Hannah had to say in that blog. Here's
>>> what I'd
>>> > add:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > * Include a clear description of the application process - A
>>> step-by-step
>>> > explanation of exactly what's going to happen from when a candidate
>>> sends
>>> > you an email to when you extend them an offer. This should include
>>> whether
>>> > or not they're being formally assessed at each stage and an
>>> approximation of
>>> > the time interval to expect while you're considering their
>>> application. I
>>> > stole this wholesale from here (from "Our hiring process" down). This
>>> helps
>>> > busy candidates (who've probably had plenty of horrible job application
>>> > experiences) figure out how much effort the process will take and how
>>> to
>>> > prepare.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > * Mention the downsides of working with you - Put genuine negatives to
>>> > working with you here. Be wary that you may have backwards rationalised
>>> > things to yourself that are unpalatable to the average developer (e.g.
>>> > "Rails 2.3 isn't so bad..."). Doing this serves to disqualify
>>> candidates for
>>> > whom these negatives are absolute deal-breakers, which is cheaper at
>>> the
>>> > application stage than it is during probation. It also adds
>>> credibility to
>>> > the rest of your post. Try not to insult the intelligence of the people
>>> > you're trying to hire though, they'll see right through veiled
>>> attempts at
>>> > aggrandising yourself framed as a negative.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > * Ask ideal candidates for feedback on the job post - Pick four or five
>>> > developer acquaintances of yours that fit your job description and ask
>>> them
>>> > nicely to review the post. Ask them to be brutal and uncharitable in
>>> their
>>> > reading of it. Is any of it unclear? Is there anything exclusionary? Is
>>> > there anything preventing them from applying? What other information
>>> would
>>> > they like to see? Thank them graciously for whatever feedback they
>>> give you.
>>> > You don't have to take all of their feedback on board but that's not
>>> the
>>> > point. Like in a good first UX test, you're looking for the
>>> head-slappingly
>>> > bad mistakes. In particular, if diversity is important to you, I'd
>>> suggest
>>> > that you include people from a demographic underrepresented on your
>>> team in
>>> > your reviewers. A nice side benefit of asking for feedback is that if
>>> your
>>> > "ideal candidates" happen to like your job post, they may end deciding
>>> to
>>> > apply to it (exactly what happened with us, the candidate got the job).
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > All the best,
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > -Ali, http://happybearsoftware.com
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > P.S. We were until recently hiring a senior developer using all of the
>>> above
>>> > for the job listing, but as I mentioned the position was filled before
>>> we
>>> > went public with it. It got broadly good feedback from reviewers so
>>> let me
>>> > know off-list if you'd like to see it.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 8:00 PM, Thayer Prime <thayer at team-prime.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Just came across: "Writing an effective tech job description", by
>>> > @smokingpun >
>>> >
>>> http://contentedstrategy.com/blog/2015/05/01/Writing-an-effective-job-description.html#.VUnx3qbXiw0.twitter
>>> >
>>> > It's got some really important and smart points in it, and I know
>>> > there's plenty of hiring and job description writing on this list,
>>> > figured it may help anyone in the position of writing ads to really
>>> > think about hiring for the team you want to be, instead of just hiring
>>> > for a project or work or back filling a role (likely, male) that just
>>> > opened up.
>>> >
>>> > Particularly, as I was reading I was +1ing about the diversity stuff
>>> > she writes about.
>>> >
>>> > We (Team Prime) get asked by all our clients to hire for diversity as
>>> > their number one priority (which is brilliant! Yay ace clients!), but
>>> > often that takes some changes in the org and structure to accommodate
>>> > what they're after. Well worth bearing in mind if you want to reap the
>>> > benefits of having a diverse team - it's not just about Getting More
>>> > Minorities Sat At Desks, it's about how you structure your company and
>>> > recruitment process to allow for diversity to be encouraged and
>>> > embraced.
>>> >
>>> > Cheers
>>> > Thayer
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Thayer Prime
>>> > --------------------
>>> > CEO & Founder
>>> > Team Prime Ltd
>>> > http://www.team-prime.com
>>> >
>>> > http://www.linkedin.com/in/thayerprime
>>> > http://www.thayerprime.com
>>> > @Thayer
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Thayer Prime
>>> --------------------
>>> CEO & Founder
>>> Team Prime Ltd
>>> http://www.team-prime.com
>>>
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/thayerprime
>>> http://www.thayerprime.com
>>> @Thayer
>>>
>>
>>
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