Appcast Launches Gender Bias Decoder, A Free Tool to Support the Removal of Unconscious Gender Bias in Job Ads and Improve Recruitment Efforts

Aimed at optimizing job ad performance, the tool instantly identifies gender-coded words and suggests gender-neutral language to help attract top talent

Appcast, the global leader in programmatic recruitment advertising technology and services, today announced the launch of its Gender Bias Decoder, an intuitive online tool that helps hiring organizations eliminate unconscious gender bias in their job ads, develop more inclusive hiring processes and increase the overall volume of quality job applications. Leveraging an academic study done by the University of Waterloo and Duke University, the Decoder, created by a team of linguists and data experts, detects and identifies gender-biased terms in job ads, highlights them and suggests alternative words where possible.

Over the past two years, the dynamic variables of the labor market have resulted in a workers’ market. Employers face a number of challenges when it comes to attracting and retaining talent – including record-high quit rates, particularly among women. As employers look to improve gender diversity, as part of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, companies will need to implement a wide range of strategies to attract the diverse talent they seek.

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“At Appcast, we recognize that word choice plays a critical role in the effectiveness of job ads. Specifically, our research consistently indicates that the inclusion of gender-coded words in job ads can reduce the number of job applications from both men and women,” said Heather Salerno, chief marketing officer at Appcast. “We are pleased to offer this free tool to hiring organizations to bring greater awareness to the issue of unconscious gender bias and enable employers to be part of the solution by eliminating biases in their job ads.”

Available for use free-of-charge, the Gender Bias Decoder is an extension of Appcast’s longstanding commitment to helping organizations create more inclusive hiring strategies. In January 2021, Appcast unveiled the findings of its “Impact of Gendered Wording on Candidate Attraction” report that explores how gender-coded words can impact recruitment outcomes. The report finds that job ads with gender-neutral language (i.e., language without male- and female-coded words) overwhelmingly perform best, enabling organizations to reduce cost per application (CPA) while increasing apply rates (AR) and the number of applications per job. In fact, the report revealed that job ads with gender-neutral language resulted in 41% lower CPA than ads with both male- and female-coded words. Further, job ads with gender-neutral language resulted in 29% more applications per job than ads with male- and female-coded wording.

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