Be careful how you word job postings on Facebook!

For weeks, many of our jobs were being unapproved by Facebook, with only the error message “Does not comply with Facebook’s Job Policies”. After some digging, one keen-eyed team member noticed we were still using “Journeyman” in many of our job posts. And that is technically discrimination based on gender. 

Given that not long ago we had written an entire blog post on using “Journeyperson” vs “Journeyman”, there was some measure of embarrassment. Ordinarily, we just put whatever the employer used. Also, more people still colloquially use “Journeyman”, so keeping that improves the chances of our jobs coming up in searches or matching to candidate profiles. But since that time, Facebook may have updated their algorithms so that any mention of “man” or “woman” was automatically disqualified. 

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not against the principle. Language is a living thing and it changes all the time to reflect our realities. I just wish someone could have told us more explicitly what the problem was, so we could have fixed it sooner without stumbling around blindly, editing and reposting until we finally found the answer through trial and error.

So, we just wanted to share our experience in case your job ads are rejected on third party sites and you don’t know why. We do a lot of postings on a lot of sites, and no two are exactly the same. One might not allow posting phone numbers or email addresses; another might say no to job numbers or require that the salary be posted. What quirks have you found when posting ads online? 

Kael Campbell is President and Lead Recruiter of Red Seal Recruiting Solutions, a company providing recruitment services in mining, equipment and plant maintenance, utilities, manufacturing, construction, and transportation. When he is not recruiting, Kael spends as much time as possible with family in the great outdoors and on the water. He volunteers his time as a Board Member of the Entrepreneurs Organization of Vancouver Island. We have a wide variety of services to help you find the best employees. See how we can help on our Recruiting Solutions page.