Quick Summary
Diversity tools scan job descriptions for biased language and score them for inclusivity. Most catch gender coding; fewer also flag race, age, or disability bias. Ongig’s Text Analyzer, Textio, and Gender Decoder are the most established options.
In this guide
What Are Diversity Tools for Job Descriptions?
Diversity tools are software that scan your job descriptions for language that could discourage certain candidates from applying. They flag gender-coded words, racial bias, age bias, and other exclusionary phrasing. Most tools then suggest inclusive alternatives, so you can fix the language before you post the job.
Here are 9 of the best diversity tools to write more inclusive job descriptions to attract a more diverse team.
Bias & Language Checkers
1. Text Analyzer by Ongig
Ongig’s Text Analyzer software takes out bias and makes ad copy better. When you’re writing job descriptions, best practices to make them diverse include replacing gender-coded words and other types of bias (e.g., race, age, disability, etc.)
So, we created Text Analyzer after rewriting thousands of job descriptions for some of the largest brands in the world. Ongig’s software has improved branding and engagement (video, pictures, maps, chat, etc.) for job descriptions since 2011.
Text Analyzer has a super-easy interface that acts as a bias decoder. Some have even called it:
“a diversity job ad proofing tool.”
How Text Analyzer works
First, you get a dashboard of Total Score and Gender Bias Scores. This is filterable by team, location, recruiter, and hiring manager. So, you even see how you compare to your top competitors. Then, you dive into each piece of job description language with easy recommendations on how to easily improve your scores.
Text Analyzer’s early focus in 2017 was being a gender bias tool. So, the main focus was to flag gender coding in job descriptions:
But we quickly found that employers wanted to write more inclusive job descriptions. And that goes far beyond gender and “manly terms”. To have diverse friendly job descriptions, you also need to get rid of bias re:
- race
- country of birth
- age
- disability
- sexual preference
- neurodiversity
- former felons
- veterans
What is gender coding?
“Gender Coding are the signals that individuals manifest externally and that indicate their sexuality or relative masculinity or femininity.”
source: Springer Link
Fast forward to today: Here’s a more recent Text Analyzer screenshot showing an example of the phrase “Brown Bag sessions”. The image also show that might offend people of color:
At Ongig, we want to ensure that we are setting you up for success. So, we go out into the field to speak with employers we speak with who’ve compared Ongig vs. Textio. And they tell us that Ongig goes much deeper as a job description bias tool. Whereas Textio focuses more of its features on augmented writing. There are hundreds of terms on the software’s biased words list with inclusive replacements. So, we don’t just tell you what’s wrong and leave it at that. We also give you what you need to make it better right away.
Beyond bias, Text Analyzer makes your content more readable. This includes proper length of sentences, paragraphs, and the entire job description. Check out below to see how the tool flags an unnecessarily complex phrase. You will also notice the punchier suggestion provided to swap right in:
Text Analyzer also scans your job descriptions using AI to find missing sections candidates care about. These include, for example, salary, benefits, mission statement, diversity statement, and more. So, here’s a snapshot of the “Section Finder” in action:
2. Textio
Another such tool is Textio (aka “text io”). It’s an online writing platform made by job posting outcomes from recent job openings. These outcomes allow Textio to analyze your job description language and provide a score of how it stacks up in terms of diversity, neutrality, and overall success. Feedback is given in the way of color-coded words with suggestions for improvement.
Textio also uses gender writing analysis to flag and offer replacements for “manly terms”. You can see the scale in the bottom right below showing “masculine tone”:
Note: Here’s a list of 7 Textio Competitors.
3. Gender Decoder
Gender Decoder is a simple (and free) job description tool for gender writing analysis. It was created by Kat Matfield based on a study that looked at the psychology of how different words attracted males and females to certain jobs (aka gender coding in JDs). The tool compares your text to feminine and masculine word listings created from the study using a list of gender words.
For small businesses, Gender Decoder is a good free alternative to Textio and Ongig if you care just about flagging gender-biased words. Here’s an example of its gender checker results:
4. Clovers
Another alternative is Clovers (formerly Talvista). Clovers is an online platform created to guide hiring
teams through a more efficient and more inclusive hiring process. Its interface follows a step-by-step progression. And it’s also very user-friendly.
In particular, the integrated job description builder lets you type new or paste existing job description content into predetermined sections. The tool also reviews text for word choice, and positive or negative language. In addition, it has a gender decoder feature, giving alternative options to the user. We haven’t heard anything about how this product compares to Textio or Ongig. But, you notice below the tool uses text gender analysis by flagging feminine words in green and masculine words in red (similar to the other tools).
Here’s a screenshot of Clovers’ job description optimizer in action:
5. The Polite Type
A top goal for heads of recruiting is diversity and inclusion. So, job description software is an easy place to start. The PolIte Type is not exactly made for JDs, but it’s good at “disarming bullies one word at a time.” The Polite Type is a free open source tool that auto-rewrites hurtful words (e.g., “kike” or “negro”) and replaces them with more inclusive words (e.g., “jewish person” or “Black person”). This software is not a gender analyzer, but more focuses on other types of bias and words used in bullying.
Here’s another example of the tool in action:
The terms for this tool are co-created with high-school-aged teenagers and kids from diverse backgrounds in Finland. And this is also done in partnership with The Children and Youth Foundation.
DEI Analytics & Culture Tools
6. Allie
Allie is your dependable chatbot companion in the workplace. This is a versatile tool for fostering inclusivity and diversity within your organization. Here’s a breakdown of Allie’s capabilities:
To start, Allie specializes in maintaining seamless communication on Slack. She excels at disseminating D&I surveys, affording every employee the opportunity to express their perspectives on inclusion and company culture. These surveys delve into crucial areas such as the consideration of diverse viewpoints in recent organizational decisions.
But Allie’s utility extends beyond survey administration. She also serves as a conduit to the latest developments in diversity-related news. Allie adeptly delivers articles directly to your company’s D&I Slack channel. Thus, ensuring that you remain abreast of current events and trends in the diversity landscape.
Moreover, Allie is committed to driving substantive change. Through her feedback feature, employees can proactively propose enhancements to diversity and inclusion efforts. Whether it involves combating stereotypes or ensuring the inclusivity of all individuals, Allie stands ready to facilitate tangible progress.
Additionally, Allie offers invaluable diversity training sessions, equipping team members with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate diverse workplace environments effectively.
Whether through survey administration, news dissemination, or training provisions, Allie empowers organizations to effect positive change and foster an environment where every voice is heard and valued.
7. Blendoor
Blendoor is a diversity analytics and hiring software company that’s all about making hiring fair and inclusive. Here’s what you need to know about Blendoor:
First off, they’re big on unbiased hiring. Blendoor promotes fair hiring practices by using blind recruitment and sourcing candidates from diverse backgrounds. So, this helps tackle unconscious bias in the hiring process.
But here’s where it gets interesting: Blendoor’s software isn’t just about making things fair – it’s also super smart. They use data from the government and the marketplace to give organizations a score. This score shows how well they’re doing compared to other companies in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
And it doesn’t stop there. Blendoor helps organizations improve their hiring processes by providing ratings on their diversity efforts, giving insights into where they can do better. They also offer tools for tracking diversity over time, so organizations can see how they’re progressing.
Plus, Blendoor’s assessment tool helps organizations identify areas where they can make their hiring processes more inclusive. It’s like having a personal coach for your hiring team, guiding them towards making better, more inclusive decisions.
8. Diversio
Let’s take a closer look at Diversio and how it’s shaking things up in the world of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI):
First off, Diversio’s got this cool tool called the Bias Corrector. It’s like having a personal assistant for your communication platform, such as Slack. This nifty tool flags any cultural insensitivity or unconscious bias in your company’s communications. Thus, helping you stay on top of things and create a more inclusive environment.
Then there’s the Social Media Barometer. So, this clever tool keeps an eye on what people are saying about your company on social media. If there are any complaints about your D&I record, you’ll know about it. This way you can take action and address any concerns.
But that’s not all – Diversio’s Recommendation Engine is where the magic really happens. Using algorithms, it matches up your company’s challenges with the best course of action to tackle them head-on. So, it’s like having a personal advisor, guiding you towards making the right decisions for your organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
Special Features:
- Powered by AI technology and a Recommendation Engine, Diversio’s DEI platform helps quantify experiences and uncover biases. It’s like having a super-smart assistant, giving you insights into where you can make improvements.
- Their analytics tool, recognized by ComputerWorld, helps organizations identify bias blind spots and figure out where they need to focus their efforts.
- With benchmarking features built into their cloud-based tool, Diversio makes it easy for HR and DEI teams to compare their efforts to industry standards and identify areas for growth.
- And don’t forget about measurement and tracking – crucial for fostering inclusivity and diversity. The Diversio Platform helps organizations measure, track, and improve every employee’s experience, ensuring everyone feels valued and included.
In a nutshell, Diversio provides a comprehensive suite of DEI tools that are essential for driving meaningful change in organizational diversity and inclusion efforts.
AI Job Description Generators
9. Recruitment SMART
The Recruitment Smart job description generator automatically creates optimized ads according to your company’s hiring goals. Each JD focuses on role and company specifics, resulting in the most impactful and engaging promotions to secure qualified talent.
Benefits of using Recruitment SMART’s diversity tool includes the following:
- Standardizing JDs across your TA pipeline, ensuring that every ad retains the same structure, tone, and inclusiveness in reaching a target audience.
- Clear and user-friendly interface to maintain transparent communications between hiring managers and candidates.
- Easy customization that enables users to tailor roles according to specializations and experiences. This is particularly effective at highlighting the unique skills (i.e., soft and technical capabilities) required for each role.
Recruitment SMART’s team reports that users benefit from an 80% time reduction in JD posting and a 70% increase in content consistency. These improvements raise the success of candidate matching and the quality of hire.
The AI-driven platform also features a built-in equitable hiring tool that reveals diversity analytics, empowers anonymous hiring processes (by removing identifiers like name, age, and location), and a bias checker for objectively scoring candidate data in their job fits.
10. Manatal
Mantal is an advanced recruitment automation system that makes it extremely simple to create inclusive JDs at scale. The program offers a 14-day trial, featuring a wide range of intelligent AI tools to automate quality JDs.
Manatal presents an intuitive interface for recruiter agencies, where users can generate a JD by filling a series of fields. These include the name of the company, the vacant role, location, and the name of a target recipient. Manatal’s AI assistant generates JDs based on the provided details of the open position.
The platform currently offers subscribers with 200 JD generations per month, limited to English ads. Manatal also provides a prompt refinement tool, supporting users in generating the most suitable JD outcome based on their company’s hiring process.
Benefits of using Manatal’s JD generator”
- User-friendly buttons that enable you to reset your descriptions or prompts until you have an ideal outcome.
- Easy accessibility to JD edits, so users can make minute changes accordingly.
- One-click checkbox for posting generated JDs directly to your company’s career page.
11. Jasper Chat
Jasper Chat is an advanced chatbot that uses AI to generate structured JDs in minutes through an intuitive interface. Users simply need to input the details of their vacancy to the AI via chat through natural language processing (NLP). Jasper Chat interprets the information and generates JDs based on the information received in the conversation.
The smart chatbot provides scalable JD creation with the following features:
- Repurposing content into JDs: Submit existing talent write-ups, such as career page drafts and lengthy job profiles, to the chatbot and reformat them into quality JDs with key sections.
- Multilingual support: The chatbot supports over 30 languages, making it ideal for enterprises hiring distributed teams across remote settings.
- Brand voice matching: Jasper Chat can scan company content (i.e., career page or social media posts) to identify and align a company’s unique employer brand voice across all JDs. As such, TA teams can maintain the same professional tone and style in every candidate engagement.
12. Skima AI
Skima is an advanced AI solution that empowers hiring teams to generate quality JDs by filling out job titles, key skills, and other details (i.e., perks and benefits). The platform’s expert algorithm derives trending analytics (the winning recipe) from top-performing JDs to create similarly impactful descriptions.
Users can also conveniently edit, remove, or regenerate JD sections if they fail to meet expectations, all at the push of a button.
Like other top-functioning AI solutions, Skima improves results with practice, constantly learning from your JD best practices. As such, the platform ensures that your TA team consistently fulfills the latest industry compliance requirements, streamlines candidate matching, and significantly reduces the time taken to draft a winning job ad.
I hope the above diversity tools for writing more inclusive job descriptions are helpful to you! For more tips on writing job descriptions, check out How to Write a Job Description — Best Practices & Examples.
Diversity Tool Checklist: What to Look For
Before you commit to a diversity tool, check for these:
- Bias categories covered: gender, race, age, disability, and more, not just gender
- Integration with your ATS or careers site
- Team, location, or hiring-manager-level reporting
- A “missing sections” check for salary, benefits, and mission statement
- Ongoing scoring or benchmarking, not just a one-time scan
FAQs on Diversity Tools for Job Descriptions
1. What is an inclusive job description tool?
An inclusive job description tool scans your job posts for biased language and flags it before you publish. It looks for gender coding, racial bias, age bias, and other exclusionary phrasing. Some tools also score your JD and suggest replacement words.
2. Are there free diversity tools for job descriptions?
Yes. Gender Decoder is completely free and checks for gender-coded language. Many paid tools, including Ongig’s Text Analyzer, offer free trials or demos too. Free tools tend to catch less than paid ones, since they usually only flag one type of bias.
3. What’s the difference between a diversity tool and a bias checker?
A bias checker is one type of diversity tool. It scans language for specific bias patterns, like gendered or racial coding. Diversity tools cover more ground — they also include DEI analytics platforms, sourcing tools, and culture-tracking software. Check out our job description bias tools post for a deeper look at that category specifically
4. How do diversity tools score job descriptions?
Most tools scan your text against a list of flagged words and phrases, then generate a score, often split by bias type. Some tools compare your score to industry benchmarks or past job posts, so you can track whether your language is improving over time.
Why I wrote this?
Ongig is on a mission to help you create the most attractive, engaging, and effective job descriptions in your industry (if not the world!). Ongig’s Text Analyzer software transforms job descriptions to free you up your recruiters and hiring managers. And if you don’t want to rewrite your job descriptions yourself, one alternative for you is to hand the task over to Ongig’s pro copywriting. And we will get them done for you. Click the demo request button above if you’d like to learn more about Text Analyzer.
