EOAA Services: Employment Advising: Equal Opportunity and Effective Searches

Equal Opportunity and Effective Searches:
Guidance for search committees and hiring authorities

I.  Why we have search procedures:

1. Promoting a diverse faculty and staff is a core academic value.

• The 1994 Mission Statement for the Board of Regents clearly identifies the University’s mission to:
  
  share that knowledge, understanding, and creativity … in a strong and diverse community of learners and teachers, and prepare … students … for active roles in a multiracial and multicultural world….In all of its activities, the University strives to sustain an open exchange of ideas in an environment that embodies the values of academic freedom, responsibility, integrity, and cooperation; that provides an atmosphere of mutual respect, free from racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and intolerance;....
  
  
• The Board of Regents policy on Diversity, Equal Employment Opportunity, and Affirmative Action states that the University:
  
  Shall seek to provide equal access and opportunity to its programs, facilities and employment…establish and nurture an environment that actively acknowledges and values diversity and is free from racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice, intolerance or harassment, for men and women, faculty, staff and students from varying racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, and of varying sexual orientations, as well as people with disabilities;…

2.  The University of Minnesota is legally required to engage in equal opportunity and affirmative action, to gather data, and to adhere to its’ policies and procedures.  This includes:

• Following search/requisition procedures and other guidelines;
  
  
• Assuring equal opportunity and nondiscrimination based on the following characteristics/statuses:
  
  Race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation;
  
  
• Engaging in affirmative action for the following people:
  
  Women, people of color, disability status, Viet Nam veterans, disabled veterans, other eligible and recently separated veterans (see UM Form 1599, Applicant Tracking Record)

• Reporting the results.

3. Words and policies matter, but evidence of true commitment as evidenced by personal statements and actions is critical. A supportive environment can attract more employees than a high salary.  Make sure the workplace demonstrates inclusiveness.  Check turnover rates and patterns to see if that data identifies issues.

II.  Functions of search committees (and hiring authorities):

1. Role:

• Search committees screen, evaluate and recommend.
  
  
• Committees do not make the final decision.

2. Membership: 

• Diversity is important, not only in terms of gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, etc., but in terms of role within the university and its hierarchy.
  
• Community representation adds a different perspective and knowledge base, which can help other members critique their own assessments of candidates.  They also lead to improved relationships with our external communities, and provide leads on candidates.  The role of a search committee member, however, needs to be clearly explained to and accepted by external members.  In particular, they need to commit to full participation in and presence at meetings (whenever possible, no subs).

4. Participation:

• Members need to be prepared, and present at meetings.
  
  
• If unavoidable conflicts occur, taping interviews can help fill the gap.
   
• All members need to be working from the same pool of information about each candidate in order to evaluate him or her fairly.
  
  
• Be sensitive to spiritual and religious observances when scheduling meetings, including candidate interviews.  Check Religious Holiday Calendar at www.eoaa.umn.edu.

4. Process and Discussion:

• Include the unit EOAA Liaison at your first meeting to discuss incorporating equal opportunity, affirmative action and nondiscrimination.
  
  
• Consider a designated person to assist the chair in checking out the discussion and process to assure equal opportunity. All committee members are still responsible, but it can help to have a ‘reminder’ person.  Refer to this guidance throughout the process.
  
  
• At the beginning, the committee should discuss and agree that differences of opinion are welcomed and will be listened to respectfully.
  
  
• Discussions should be ‘kept in the committee room’ and not spread elsewhere.
  
  
• Providing lunch is a useful way to develop relationships, comfort and bonds between members, creating the ‘safe space’ for disagreement.  It also can be an effective way to use time and remove barriers of ‘rank’.

5. Potential conflicts of interest:  Members should remove themselves or abstain from participating at a step if they have a significant personal or professional relationship with an applicant or bias.  In many situations, it is advisable to disclose the nature of any relationship with an applicant to colleagues on the search committee.

6. Staff:  High quality staff support is very valuable and should be recognized.

7. Appreciation:  Appointing authorities should always thank committee members after their work is done and keep them generally informed of developments.

III.  Recruiting considerations:

1. The committee should be in recruiting mode from the start.  A full meeting may be used to address recruiting sources and methods. Each contact should be made with the idea of promoting the U of M and finding out what the candidate needs more information about, in order to attract and keep the best candidates in the pool.  Advise all who are nominated or recruited about the application process and provide equitable treatment of all potential candidates.  It is often advisable for the committee to discuss what information will be made available to candidates. 

2. Current employees can be our best recruiters - if they are happy, they will get the word out.  If they aren't, start by working on the office environment first.

3. Consider promotions from within.  Does the unit have a professional development plan for staff to grow from within?

4. It is ok to use personal contacts – search committee members are appointed because they know something about the field and the job.  Use that knowledge.  Contact anyone who might be interested or know of someone who might be interested.  Don’t promise the job or favorable consideration, of course.

5. Advertise in diverse media outlets.  Try Milwaukee, Chicago, and Indianapolis newspapers - the populations are much more diverse and many people have moved from those large cities to Minnesota.

6. Contact professional organizations in the field, particularly organizations or caucuses within a broader organization that support groups of people who are underrepresented in that field. (Remember that, particularly in a tight job market, the candidate we want may not be looking for a job now - so the standard want ad approach won't reach her or him.)  Get the word out that the U of M is looking (either for a particular position or in general) and ask people to refer candidates.

7. Build and use a database.  Where are graduates – or the potential grad student the department recruited but who enrolled elsewhere?  Where is the person who the unit wanted but couldn’t get last time they hired? Has the department made a point of connecting with potential candidates when at professional conferences or University programs and stayed in touch?  This is a long-term process, even as we work for more immediate results.

8. Recruiters of students can identify faculty (or other) candidates (and vice versa). Track underrepresented students in graduate programs, stay in touch, and recruit them when faculty positions become available. We may attract a potential star faculty member by offering a tenure-track spot instead of that 2d post-doc.

9. Provide personal attention to the candidate during the search and hiring process:

• Offer information to all candidates regarding benefits, community connections, spousal/partner hires, even before it is requested – we want the candidate to develop interest and comfort with the job and community before the job offer is made. Include written information in correspondence.
  
  
• Offer to make the contacts – don’t just give the candidate a phone number to call.   E.g. “I’d be happy to arrange a meeting with professors in your discipline/community members interested in same issues/members of African American community/our relocation assistance program staff, etc. during your visit – would you like me to set something up?”  This phrasing neither assumes the candidate is or is not interested, nor does it suggest that the committee is focusing on the candidate’s race, marital/partner status, etc.

10. The search chair/appointing authority can contact Relocation Assistance Office to anticipate the candidate’s spouse/partner’s needs - information can be provided before an offer and actual work can begin with the offer, before acceptance.

11. Check EOAA's recruiting resources list online at www.eoaa.umn.edu and click on the EO/AA Employment Advising page.  It links to a list of contacts for academic and professional organizations, caucuses, subcommittees, etc. focused on women and people of color, the CIC directory of minority Ph.D., M.F.A., and M.L.S recipients, and the CIC Women in Science and Engineering PhD recipients and postdoc appointees.   Locally it includes agencies across Minnesota that can assist in locating a diverse pool of candidates.  Minnesota's diversity is growing because of migration in, and that means a more mobile population.

12. Consider using the President’s Minority Advisory Committees, Office for University Women, GLBT Programs Office, and Disability Services as networking resources.

13. In addition, check with the relevant professional associations for committees, caucuses, or allied association focusing on women, people of color, or other underrepresented group.  For example:

• American Educational Research Association Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Educational Research and Development. www.aera.net.
  
  
• American Psychological Association’s Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training in Psychology.  www.apa.org.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights maintains lists of postsecondary minority institutions at www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/edlite-minorityinst.html, including Hispanic Servicing Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges.

IV.  Evaluating candidates:

1. Appointing authorities need to clearly explain and committee members need to fully understand, what competencies are needed in successful candidates.  Members need adequate information regarding the college or unit.

2. Candidates should be treated in the same way in all parts of the process, regardless of their internal/external status or other variables. Each step is important:

• Be consistent.
  
  
• Use the same process to evaluate applicants.
  
  
• Use the same measurable and quantifiable criteria for all applicants.

3. At the beginning of the process, develop, clarify and apply appropriate job qualifications and selection criteria.  Critically examine what truly is required -- e.g., is an advanced degree or a specific number of years of experience truly necessary? Is the need for a particular typing speed or broader communication skills? Can the degree be obtained by the appointment date rather than the application date?  More diversity in pools is possible when there are fewer requirements.

4. Discuss how the qualifications/criteria will be evaluated before discussing any particular candidate (in light of the discussion with the hiring authority regarding competencies, see IV.1 above.)  Remember, all candidates who meet the essential qualifications are qualified for the position.  Also, while one or more of the qualified candidates might satisfy a greater number of the unit’s preferred criteria for the position, ‘more’ is not always the same as ‘better.'  There is no such thing as ‘more qualified’ – we are looking for people whose qualifications and experiences will contribute in many ways to the unit and the university.

5. There should be explicit consideration of each candidate that any committee member wants to support (or at least consider).  Chairs need to draw out concerns.  Each member should be asked for his or her opinion, and those who appear reticent should be ‘nurtured’.  Active advocacy for a candidate (as opposed to asserting an outside or personal agenda) is encouraged to the extent appropriate to assure full consideration.  Consider a discussion format that insures participation by all committee members.

6. Diversity of the candidates and their support for equal opportunity policies and programs is an important qualification for all positions and should be a consideration for each candidate.  Discussions about what diversity means, particularly in relationship to this position, are valuable.  Candidates should be asked questions about their actions (not just support for policies):  What have they done to support equal opportunity concepts, policies and programs?  Committee members should consciously review their process and discussion to assure equal opportunity.  Question challenges to candidates that refer to ‘credibility’ or ‘perceptions’ – of what and by whom?  (E.g., suggestions that a woman or gay man is ‘perceived’ as not what is ‘expected’ in a leader or questioning whether a person of color will be received well by a predominantly white group.) These concerns can, even unconsciously, contribute to differential negative treatment on the basis of race, gender, and other protected characteristics.

7. Set the interviews in an accessible location and ask all interviewees whether they need an accommodation when scheduling the appointment.  Off campus interview locations for senior appointments can help neutralize or equalize candidates (particularly if some are from the U of M) and aid more objective evaluations.  To the extent possible, have identical logistical arrangements for each campus visit and interview.

8. Be open to non-traditional routes to the same skill level – women and people of color are more likely to have breaks in or extended time periods of education/work experience, to attend schools perceived as less prestigious, to have work experiences outside of the “traditional” direct-to-academic administration path.  Evaluators should check their biases about what the profile of the ideal candidate looks like.  If they got to the same destination, the route taken probably doesn’t matter.

9. Interview questions should be directly job-related.

• Ask similar questions, but avoid overly structured formats.
   
• Check the interview question dos and don'ts at www1.umn.edu/ohr/toolkit/hiring/academic/guidelines/appendixe.html in Appendix E to the Guidelines for Recruiting and Appointing Academic Personnel.
  
  
• Get specifics – what did you do?  What was a challenge and how did you handle it?  What would you do if….?
    
• Follow-up with more specific questions based on the response.
  
  
• Check your cultural perspective as you design questions and assess answers.
  
  
• Provide internal and external applicants the same information and opportunities for interaction with the committee.
  
  
• Make sure sign language interpreter or other accommodation is organized in advance.
  
  
• Take factual notes.
  
  
• All members should attend all meetings and interviews if at all possible – audiotapes are a second choice for interviews.
  
• In person interviews are far better than by telephone.

10. Care must be taken with information received outside of the committee process.  Rumors and suspicions have no place or value.  Job-related information can be shared with the chair, who can determine if it should be shared with the committee.  An option is to provide that information to the appointing authority instead.

11. Maintain confidentiality:

• Do not divulge the names of applicants to others.  Only the names of those applicants accepted as finalists by the appointing/hiring authority are public unless they agree to participate in a public forum.
  
  
• The appointing authority and others have access to data on a need-to-know basis.
  
  
• Search Committee members should only review the 'Applicant List' report on the online Applicant Tracking System, not the EEO Summary or Faculty/Academic Pool Summary.
  
  
• Do tell the applicant that references will be contacted or that background checks conducted (where applicable) and when that will occur.
  
  
• Do check references and verify degrees for all potential employees.
  
  
• If an applicant is a current/former University of Minnesota employee, do contact the former supervisor and review the employee’s departmental and central personnel files.

12. International candidates:

• If it is possible that the successful candidate will be a resident of another country, contact International Student and Scholar Services at the very beginning.
  
  
• The appropriate language (and standard) to use in reference to work eligibility is that the candidate/successful applicant “must be able to demonstrate authorization to work in the United States at the University of Minnesota by the start date.”
  
  
• Do not limit eligibility to citizens and people with permanent resident status, as there are several types of visas that permit employment even as a faculty member.
  
  
• Do not ask what type of eligibility the candidate possesses until after an offer is made. The job offer may be conditional on confirmation of work authorization, as the University is prohibited from employing anyone who is not authorized to work under federal requirements.
  
  
• If there are additional questions, contact International Student and Scholar Services.

V.  Search Committee records:

1. Document the selection and non-selection of applicants in the total process, including application, interview, and final offer or hire.

2. Document posting, recruiting, selection criteria and reasons for decisions at each step.

3. Document contacts with nominees and applicants.

4. Each applicant has access to information about him/her and the search process.  Determine who will provide that information (usually, only the chair).

5. Keep records for seven (7) years (the hiring/appointing unit is responsible for this). Contact the Office of General Counsel before final disposition.

6. Enter actions taken on each candidate (e.g., referred for interview) in the Applicant Tracking System.

Revised August 2006