Why is it important to include years of experience in a job description?
At Datapeople, a cornerstone of our guidance is that you can improve the efficiency of recruiting processes by giving candidates clarity around a job. Describing the seniority of the role through articulating the minimum experience levels is critical.
Specifying minimal experience levels improves candidate and hiring team experience in 5 key ways:
- Sets Clear Expectations: It helps candidates correctly assess their suitability for the role before applying since titles can often vary in their seniority.
- Indicates Job Complexity: The years of experience required can signal the complexity and level of responsibility associated with the position. For example, a senior role requiring 10+ years of experience suggests a need for extensive industry knowledge and leadership skills.
- Attracts Appropriate Talent: Experienced candidates looking for roles that match their level of expertise are more likely to apply if the job posting specifies the desired experience level.
- Enhances Job Posting Credibility: Providing specific requirements, such as years of experience, can demonstrate that the employer has a clear understanding of what is needed for the role.
- Supports Salary Negotiation: Years of experience can correlate with salary expectations. Including this information helps align the expectations of both the employer and the candidate, facilitating smoother salary negotiations.
Combined, the clarity and transparency helps candidates self-assess their suitability for the role before applying, saving time for both the applicants and the hiring team.
💡How Datapeople Helps
At Datapeople, we support clarity around experience levels in 3 ways:
- Clarifying years of experience is table-stakes: Relevant jobs are prompted to include years of experience.
- Our Policy Guide enables comprehensive coverage: Exclusions to the guidance include junior roles, contractor/temporary positions or geographic locations where years of experience are less common. However, our Policy Guide enables you to turn on guidance so you can have it apply where you need it.
- Our Confidence Gap Report enables easy identification of open jobs missing years of experience (and other markers of seniority including reporting structure or appropriate titling).
Is a years of experience requirement ageist?
In general, we suggest talking to your in-house counsel about employment law issues. But our view after analyzing 40 million jobs is that using years of experience on a job post in a good-faith way is not problematic or illegal.
If it’s just about establishing the minimum amount of experience someone should have to apply for a position, then it’s perfectly fine and actually beneficial to job seekers. As long as you’re listing the bare minimum years of experience required, not a range. Putting a cap on years of experience would tilt the candidate pool away from older workers (i.e., don’t include a range of years). And inflating years of experience for a job could tilt the candidate pool away from younger workers.
💡How Datapeople Helps
In addition to identifying jobs that are missing years of experience, we also address in two ways:
- Guidance that suggests alternatives to ranges.
- Kudos for listing minimum years of experience.
Other ways to ensure candidates from a range of backgrounds apply to jobs that include years of experience include:
- Use Flexible Language like "typically requires 5+ years of experience, or equivalent skills and knowledge" can attract candidates with a range of different backgrounds.
- Provide Context for why a certain level of experience is necessary. For instance, "Experience with complex project management, typically gained over 5+ years, is crucial for this role due to the need for advanced planning and coordination skills."
However, using years of experience to exclude candidates based on age is problematic. And there’s a chance it could also be illegal, depending on the employment laws governing your organization. In most cases, age discrimination harms older workers, and the laws on the books primarily address ageism against older workers. But discrimination against younger workers does happen, and laws are starting to address that as well.
In the United States, for example, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits discrimination or harassment against employees over the age of 40 on the federal level. It doesn’t apply to younger workers who may feel the impact of a years of experience requirement. However, some states and local jurisdictions have laws on the books that do apply to younger workers. So it’s best to stay abreast of age discrimination laws and regulations.
Including years of experience in a job description isn't inherently ageist; it's a practical tool to ensure candidates possess the necessary expertise. Specifying experience helps match job complexity with candidate capability to ensure effective performance. It sets clear expectations, aiding applicants in self-assessing suitability, and streamlines the hiring process by filtering out underqualified individuals. While it's crucial to avoid rigid criteria that might exclude capable candidates of any age, emphasizing relevant skills alongside experience ensures a fair, competency-based approach, fostering an inclusive and efficient recruitment process.