Tackling hiring bias: The gender gap in getting people to vouch for you on Linkedin

Men are more likely to have recommendations written by former bosses or coworkers on their profiles on hiring sites like Linkedin and Indeed than women, according to a new report. And the nature of those recommendations also varies widely by gender — while men’s recommendations often focus on their hard skills, those for women tend to focus on soft skills.

A number of factors are driving this gap that appears to be giving men a leg up in the hiring process, and it’s another issue for women job seekers and recruiters to be cognizant of to thwart hiring bias, experts say.

Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence company, analyzed internal data on engineers and found about 20% of male engineers have recommendations on their hiring profiles, compared to about 17% of female engineers. They also found that engineers with recommendations on their public profiles earn 20% more on average than those without. One likely contributor to this gap is that many women struggle with self-promoting, experts say.

“What we are seeing is that women are less likely to go out and seek that recommendation,” said Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs. “Women are sort of a little bit more shy in terms of asking for what they need.”

“What we are seeing is that women are less likely to go out and seek that recommendation."

Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs.

“Women do not receive the same positive response as men for self-promoting, and I know many women who would dread the thought of asking for positive feedback even if they had done a brilliant job,” said Stefanie Sword-Williams, author and founder of a female empowerment organization F*ck being humble.

In one 2019 study among over 14,000 participants, when women described their ability and performance to potential employers, they spoke much less favorably than men with equal performances. 

The language used to describe women compared to men when it comes to work performance is another finding worth paying attention to. While some of the phrases used to describe men include: technical, solutions-driven, and experienced, women are described as: organized, a joy, a team player, and detailed.

Hard skills are imperative for employers to vet during the hiring process so they feel confident when making a decision and know candidates can actually perform the job. And while soft skills are also important, focusing on them entirely can minimize women’s technical achievements.

“Women often take on more invisible work like organizing team away days or taking notes, things that are rarely celebrated or remunerated, so it could be that this is overshadowing their professional performance,” Sword-Williams said. 

She advises women to “be mindful of how much invisible work you take on, and ensure that if you are going to continue doing those types of tasks, to make sure you are intentionally promoting the narrative you do want to be known for.”

“This type of ‘invisible work’ no matter how intensive or invaluable to an organization, can often go unseen or undervalued by senior leaders who may consider it irrelevant to the strategic direction of the company,” said Laurie Chamberlin, head of recruitment solutions, North America, at talent solutions provider LHH.

“Women often take on more invisible work like organizing team away days or taking notes, things that are rarely celebrated or remunerated, so it could be that this is overshadowing their professional performance."

Stefanie Sword-Williams, author and founder of a female empowerment organization.

“This exacerbates existing unconscious biases that lead managers to perceive a female team member as less technically skilled than her male counterparts, who had more available time to dedicate to business priorities,” Chamberlin said. 

Sword-Williams gives this advice to women during her speaking engagements: When asking for feedback, create a list of questions encouraging yourself to focus on times you displayed hard skills like being technical, or solutions-oriented. 

“Give yourself the best chance by steering them to answer questions that will positively help to build your reputation and give you the credit you deserve,” she said.

Actively promoting and getting adequate recognition for one’s skills will be increasingly important to job seekers of all genders in the future, as employers move toward more skills-based hiring processes.

“What if women are all the things that men are anyway, and then also they’re a pleasure to work with, and organized, and a joy?” Simon said.