Guide for employers
How to write inclusive job adverts
A practical, evidence-based guide to writing UK job adverts that don't filter out good candidates before they apply — from salary transparency to interview format disclosure. Written by people who read job adverts for a living.
The short answer
An inclusive job advert does five things: states the salary range, lists a short set of genuinely essential criteria, specifies hours and location concretely, explains the interview format up front, and names a contact for reasonable adjustments. Everything else — cutting "fast-paced" and "rockstar", removing degree requirements that aren't needed, describing flexibility in facts rather than adjectives — follows from one principle: a candidate should be able to decide whether to apply from the advert alone.
Most exclusion in job adverts isn't deliberate. It's the accumulated effect of marketing language, copied templates and unexamined "requirements". The patterns below are the ones that show up most often in the adverts we analyse.
The seven principles
1. State the salary range
Pay transparency is the single highest-impact change. 'Competitive salary' tells the reader nothing and shifts the outcome onto negotiation confidence, which is exactly where pay gaps widen. CIPD and EHRC guidance both recommend publishing the band.
2. Separate essential from desirable
List genuinely essential criteria as a short, scannable list, and label everything else desirable. Ten 'essential' items filters out strong candidates who self-assess strictly — a pattern well documented among disabled and neurodivergent applicants.
3. Be specific about hours and location
'Hybrid' can mean one office day or four. State core hours, named office days and travel expectations so candidates can plan caring responsibilities, travel and energy before they apply.
4. Publish the interview format
Say how many stages there are, what each involves, and whether there's a task, presentation or panel. Offering questions in advance is a recognised hallmark of employers who handle adjustments well (Buckland Review, 2024).
5. Name an adjustments contact
One line — 'contact X to discuss adjustments at any stage' — removes the single hardest moment for disabled candidates: raising it cold. Disability Confident employers already commit to this.
6. Cut intensity and personality language
'Fast-paced', 'rockstar', 'bubbly', 'thrives under pressure' screen on social style and tolerance for chaos, not the work. Replace them with what the role actually involves: 'you'll juggle several client accounts with shifting weekly priorities' is honest and informative.
7. Describe flexibility concretely
'Great benefits' and 'flexible working' are claims; 'core hours 10–3, office Tuesdays, Friday early finish' are facts. Concrete detail is what inclusive candidates trust and what skeptical candidates test.
Why this is worth doing beyond compliance
Inclusive adverts are not just a fairness measure — they're a quality filter working in your favour. Long essential lists and hidden requirements depress applications from exactly the candidates who self-assess most rigorously. Pay opacity means you spend interview time on candidates who would never have accepted the band. Vague interview formats produce candidates who are unprepared rather than unsuitable.
The evidence base we draw on includes EHRC guidance on objective, job-related criteria; CIPD inclusive recruitment and pay transparency guidance; Acas guidance on flexible working and reasonable adjustments; the Buckland Review of Autism Employment (2024); and the Centre for Ageing Better's age-friendly recruitment research.
A note on "meritocracy" language
One counter-intuitive finding worth knowing: organisations that describe themselves as meritocratic show more bias in pay and promotion decisions, not less — stating the value appears to license managers to stop checking themselves (Castilla & Benard, 2010). "We hire purely on merit" reads as reassuring; the research says it often predicts the opposite. Show the process instead: structured interviews, published criteria, named adjustments contact.
Common questions
What makes a job advert inclusive?
An inclusive job advert states the salary range, lists essential criteria separately from desirable ones, describes working hours and location specifically, explains the interview format and stages up front, and names a contact for reasonable adjustments. It avoids intensity-culture language like 'fast-paced' and personality proxies like 'bubbly' that screen on style rather than skill.
Is inclusive job advert writing a legal requirement in the UK?
Not directly, but the Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate in recruitment arrangements, and job adverts are part of those arrangements. Age-coded phrases like 'young and dynamic team' or requirements not genuinely needed for the role can amount to indirect discrimination. EHRC guidance recommends objective, job-related criteria as the safest approach.
Do inclusive job adverts actually get more applicants?
Published pay ranges, stated interview formats and clear criteria consistently widen applicant pools. Long 'essential' lists and pay opacity are documented to depress applications from disabled, neurodivergent and female candidates in particular — groups who tend to self-assess strictly against stated requirements.
How can I check my job advert before posting it?
Paste the text into Neuromine's free analyser. It checks for pay disclosure, hidden requirements, intensity-culture language, vague interview formats and missing adjustment information, and reports what it found with the reasoning. No sign-up needed.
Check a real advert
Neuromine's free analyser reads a job advert against every pattern on this page and tells you what it found — no sign-up, no employer score.
Written by Theo, who runs Neurodiversity at Work and builds Neuromine.
Theo's speaking and training practice works with UK employers on neuroinclusive hiring.