Women Friendly Recruiters

What is the Women Friendly Recruiter Checklist?

 

The Women Friendly Recruiter checklist is a tool to support you to be an inclusive employer and demonstrate that you have considered the needs of women during the recruitment process. It can help to develop women friendly practices, benefits and opportunities.

The initiative is open to any organisation or business in Leeds and is packed full of benefits. It demonstrates:

  • you are an inclusive, supportive and compassionate employer
  • actively encourage women and other to join your business
  • foster a positive workplace environment
  • create a healthy and happy work life balance
  • increase staff productivity

It is a working document to be used and added to over time, when your organisation offers more benefits and policies to encourage and support prospective employees.

It has three standards that employers can work towards and achieve: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Once a standard has been achieved, you will receive a Standards Badge that can be used on all internal and external publication.

Bronze Standard

A low-level commitment for even the smallest employers to evidence they are a women friendly recruiter.

In your designated Women Friendly recruiter webspace employers are to show the following pledge:

“We are committed to becoming a visible Women Friendly Recruiter, will work towards achieving as a minimum the Bronze Standard, so women can make informed choices about our organisation and we will work towards achieving the Silver Standard.”

What evidence is required:

  • A designated women friendly recruitment space on your website promoting women’s opportunities
  • All Women Friendly Employee policies your organisation offers.
  • Any Women Friendly benefits your organisation offers.

Silver Standard

A medium-level commitment for smaller organisations to aspire towards and for more well-established businesses and organisations to have as a minimum offer demonstrating their commitment in supporting women into and being employed with them.

In your designated Women Friendly recruiter webspace employers are to show the following pledge:

“We are committed to enhancing our offer and will build on Bronze foundations and have as a minimum a designated Women’s Workplace Champion and have at least ten women friendly benefits on our website”

What evidence is required:

  • A designated women friendly recruitment space on your website promoting women’s opportunities
  • All Women Friendly Employee policies your organisation offers.
  • A minimum of Ten Women Friendly Employee benefits your organisation offers.
  • Have a named Women’s Workplace Champion and their role publicised.
  • Recognition and open-mindedness of how transferrable skills in recruitment processes as a public statement.

Gold Standard

A high-level standard designed for all employers to work towards as a minimum offer.

In your designated Women Friendly recruiter webspace employers are to show the following pledge:

“We have enhanced our Silver status to include having a women’s workplace network; have at least 15 Employee benefits; all our policies and recruitment processes and resources are publicly available to download. We Peer mentor *named* organisation to help them work towards achieving a Women Friendly Leeds Recruiter status.”

What evidence is required:

  • A designated women friendly recruitment space on your website promoting women’s opportunities
  • All Women Friendly Employee policies your organisation.
  • A minimum of 15 Women Friendly Employee benefits your organisation offers.
  • A Women’s Workplace Network with Terms of Reference available.
  • Have a named Women’s Workplace Champion, with their role publicised.
  • Recognition and open-mindedness of how transferrable skills in recruitment processes as a public statement.
  • Recruitment processes, resources and how to apply are available – regardless if there are no current opportunities available.

We are interested, so what do we do?

If you want to work towards being a Women Friendly Recruiter – email us and download the tool kit.

By doing this, we can monitor your progress online via your website and award you with the appropriate standard once it has been evidenced publicly.

Download Tool Kit & Guidance

Download The Tool Kit
Download the Guidance
Speak Out Group

“I would definitely want to apply for a job with somebody that is a women friendly recruiter. It evidences an understanding of issues that affect women, and it would probably be a nicer organisation to work for.”

“This is unbelievably important and would make such a difference to my family life and wellbeing.”

“I’d see an organisation that said these things as being more caring and ethical. I’d be drawn to one that did, rather than one that didn’t”

Recruiters Hints and Tips

Flexible Working

  • Practices include flexi-time, working from home or hybrid working, part-time roles or job shares and compressed work weeks.

  • Flexible working can increase productivity, promote a healthy work-life balance, improve job satisfaction and attract top talent from a range of diversities and ages.

Women's Workplace Champion

  • Appointing a women’s workplace champion or developing a women’s network offers gender focused advice and support for employees, and can increase female employees’ confidence and help them to reach their full potential. These schemes also demonstrate commitment as an inclusive employer.

  • The Workplace Champion should have the confidence and be in a position to effectively challenge their own employers’ internal functions to become women friendly recruiters and to take forward proposals from colleagues with the same confidence.

Career History

  • Encouraging candidates to recognise and demonstrate the positive aspects of gaps in career histories and non-work experiences on their application forms can attract a wider range of applicants who have the skills you need and promotes a healthy work/life balance.

  • Have better return to work inductions after long period of absence due to maternity, paternity, caring breaks, sabbaticals or career breaks.

Personal Experiences

  • Explicitly encourage non-working/soft-skills experiences to be included on CV’s or application forms. Recognising these skills as transferable and relevant can attract talent.

  • Recruiting managers to concentrate on potential and to be more open-minded about these skills and how they were developed and to include a statement that these will be considered in recruitment processes. How about giving examples of how people can match their skills and experience required?

Benefits and Policies

  • Encourage women to join and stay with your organisation by adopting robust maternity, dependents, carers leave policies and policies that recognise menopause and other women’s issues. Promote these on websites and provide them in advance and have a zero-tolerance gender discrimination policy during the application process.

  • How about being inclusive and having a paternity policy, or even a policy for safer travel at night?

Job Share

  • Advertising for job shares can attract more candidates and job shares have been shown to improve productivity, flexibility and job satisfaction.

  • Why not share recruitment policies and procedures so women understand the application process more and provide them with application templates available to download.

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