Standard demographic question sets are part of Greenhouse Recruiting's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offerings and include pre-made, best-practice survey questions for customers looking to collect demographic data from applicants.
This question set is designed to collect data in an inclusive way. Using standard demographic questions can help you better understand your hiring pipeline and uncover biases.
Note: This question set is based on Greenhouse's own practices to collect demographic information for U.S.-based applicants. This question set does not replace the standard EEOC questions for companies that are required by law to report on candidate demographic data. Please consult with your company’s own legal counsel before enabling this question set, as there are risks inherent to collecting demographic data where it is not required to do so, and Greenhouse disclaims any legal responsibility for the wording of the questions themselves. In addition, Greenhouse will not be responsible for any liability that may arise out of your use of this question set.
Configure standard demographic questions
Locate the standard demographic question set by going to the Inclusion Tools page. (Configure icon > Inclusion Tools)
Scroll down to the Demographic Question Sets section. U.S. Standard Demographic Questions will be listed by default. Click the toggle to enable the feature.
To configure the question set for your organization, find the Add demographic questions to section. Click the toggle next to an option to turn it On.
Note: You must be a Site Admin to perform this action.
Note: Only customers with an Expert tier subscription can add demographic question sets to the candidate survey. For all other customers, this option will not appear.
Edit standard demographic questions
Because the question set is designed to be standardized, it's not possible to edit the set's title, questions or answers. However, you can edit the external description that appears at the top of the question set.
Edit description
Click on U.S. Standard Demographic Questions.
Find the External Description text box, then edit the text.
When you finish, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.
Add standard demographic questions to a job post
Make sure that Job Posts are toggled on for your organization on the Configure Inclusion tools page.
Then, go to the Job Posts page for a job. (Job > Job Setup > Job Posts)
Click the Edit icon next to a job post.
On the Edit Your Job Post page, scroll down to the Settings section. Click the checkbox next to Include Demographic Questions, then select U.S. Standard Demographic Questions from the dropdown.
Note: Expert tier customers may have previously created custom demographic questions that are similar in name to Greenhouse Recruiting's U.S. standard demographic questions. To avoid confusion, we recommend renaming any existing question sets to better differentiate between question sets when selecting an option from the dropdown.
Scroll to the bottom of the page, then click Preview to see what your changes will look like on the live job post. When you finish making changes, click Save.
Add standard demographic questions to the candidate survey
Note: This option is only available for customers with an Expert tier subscription.
Make sure to first configure the Candidate Survey your organization. Then, make sure the toggled is set to On on the Configure Inclusion tools page.
Note: If a candidate has already completed the standard demographic question set in a job post, they won't receive the question set with the candidate survey.
Report on standard demographic questions
Essential report
The Standard demographic data report displays details on the number of applicants and number of hires for a particular demographic answer.
Note: All candidate demographic data is anonymized for compliance purposes and to reduce unconscious bias in the hiring process. Your organization's Greenhouse Recruiting users can only view anonymized candidate demographic data. In addition, Greenhouse Support cannot access candidate demographic data unless given explicit consent by your organization.
Note: To protect candidate anonymity, in categories where less than five candidates have been hired, the standard demographic data report will show <5
instead of an exact number.
Other reports
The Pipeline by demographic report, Sourcing by demographic report and Candidate surveys by demographic report also include the standard demographic questions as a filter option. In addition, standard demographic questions will appear in Business Intelligence Connector reports.
Note: These reports are only available for Expert tier customers.
Standard demographic question best practices
Click here for more information on using demographic reporting.