There’s a reason why realtors use the words like “cozy” and “quaint” instead of “small” when describing homes. Descriptors can change perceptions. They can also affect who does and does not respond to job advertisements.

Research has shown that language can dissuade otherwise qualified job applicants from applying to jobs. But, as Michael North, assistant professor of management and organization at NYU’s Stern School of Business, explained via email, HR can help eliminate ageist language from job descriptions.

New meets old. A multigenerational workforce can have a positive effect on an organization, North wrote, thanks to “the unique combination of newness and old guard.”

As he explained: “It can be a recipe for a unique form of beneficial diversity, because younger workers aspire to be late-career workers one day and older workers know firsthand what it’s like to be just starting out.”

Words matter. Seasoned professionals can’t impart wisdom on younger employees if they are turned off from the jobs before they even apply. A July study from academics from the University of California Irvine and the University of Liverpool, UK, found that ageist language in job descriptions, including terms that focused on “stereotypes related to communication skills, physical ability, and technology skills,” is likely to deter older workers from applying.

“Job-ad language related to ageist stereotypes, even when the language is not blatant or specifically age-related, deters older workers from applying for jobs,” David Neumark, an economics professor at UC Irvine and the paper’s co-author, explained.

Culture shock. North recommended that HR departments use language more intentionally so as not to exclude older workers.

Case in point: In January, UK insurance company Phoenix Group announced plans to change some of the language it was using in its job descriptions to be more inclusive of older applicants. Keep reading here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

On Wednesdays, we schedule our weekly 1:1 with HR Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Lauren Herman is SVP of people and talent at career marketplace Jobcase. She transitioned to HR following a successful career in product development, taking the people reins in January 2020. Herman recently spoke to HR Brew about how her product skills have translated well to developing a people team.

How would you describe your specific job to someone who doesn’t work in HR? My job is to ensure Jobcase has the right talent, in the right organizational structure, [and] working on the right problems. All of this, plus developing a culture that attracts top talent who are motivated to bring their best each day, all while rapidly growing the business.

What skills did you learn in product roadmapping that translate well to a career in HR? As a product leader, when you’re scaling the product organization, or as an engineering leader, when you’re scaling the engineering organization, a lot of it comes down to initiatives, talent, culture—all things that I get really excited about [and] that I get to do company-wide now. So, a specific example: When I was in product and engineering, I’d get very excited about the next hire that I brought on to lead [a] product initiative that I felt like was going to drive results for Jobcase. Another example is [when I put] in career pathing within our engineering department to make sure that engineers could see themselves here and grow and stay at Jobcase, because they felt like they had a clear ability to understand how they could grow their career.

What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked? Keep reading here.

Want to be featured in an upcoming edition of Coworking? Click here to introduce yourself.

What happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas—and apparently the same can be said for what happens on some of the most popular productivity apps. As IT Brew’s Eoin Higgins recently reported, a new study by University of Wisconsin Madison researchers suggests that Slack and Teams may have security flaws that allow third-party apps to not only access and read users’ information but post on their behalf.

The vulnerabilities exposed by the paper include the capability for third-party apps to read messages sent in private channels that they are not given access to. That revelation earned the paper authors a mid-level bug bounty from Slack, [paper author Professor Earlence] Fernandes said.

While the research has unearthed some unsettling vulnerabilities, it should be taken with a grain of salt, cautioned Brian Donohue, principal security specialist at cyber-threat detection service provider Red Canary. In order for bad actors to infiltrate systems and cause problems, they’d have to get in through the apps and then use that access for ill.

“Your adversary would have to have that level of administrative access to kind of perform some of the nastiest stuff that they’re talking about in this research,” Donohue said. “That said, a lot of organizations allow a lot of sensitive information to be passed into their Slack and Teams workspaces through these API integrations that this research focuses on.”

Keep reading on IT Brew.—EH

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 70% of 1,000 US workers surveyed reported working from an office full-time. (Indeed)

Quote: “People are missing their work hours, they’re showing up late for their shifts…back in 2019, the policy was ‘one strike and you’re out, I’ll get a better person to do the job.’ Right now, it’s ‘10 strikes, maybe you’ll be out.’”—Sinem Buber, lead economist at ZipRecruiter, on US workers’ declining productivity (the Washington Post)

Read: The US Supreme Court is hearing two cases about affirmative action in college admissions. Here’s why the rulings will matter for diversity initiatives in the workplace. (the Washington Post)

Next-level leadership: Plan and lead organizational initiatives and inspire teams with a Master’s in Human Resources Management from Georgetown. Attend a virtual sample class on November 15.*

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