1. Janis Terpenny Associate Professor Engineering Education & Mechanical Engineering Affiliate of Industrial and Systems Engineering Director, NSF Center for e-Design Advance Professor Diggs Teaching Scholar Dean’s Faculty Fellow Recruitment and Search Committee Practices Invent the Future

2. Highlights of Major Strategies  Increase Awareness and Skills of Search Committees –Meetings, Materials, Skits  Meetings with Candidates and Advance Representative –Informed (and Confidential) Answers to Questions  Materials to Candidates

4. Best Practices for Diverse Hiring Advance VT Beate Schmittmann Mechanical Engineering Department January 28, 2005

5. Points for Discussion:  Preface  Why diverse hiring?  Best practices: –Reviewing dossiers –Unintentional bias –High touch interviews  References  Questions and discussion

6. Preface:  EO Office has primary oversight of the search process.  Best faith effort counts.  Resources: –AdvanceVT –Dean’s and Provost’s Office –EO Office

7. The bottom line  Catalyst study: Gender diversity and financial performance for 353 Fortune 500 companies (5 industries, 1996-2000): Companies with highest representation of women on their top management teams had –35.1 % higher ROE (return on equity) –34.0 % higher TRS (total return to shareholders) than companies with lowest representation of women.

8. The pool: women 2001: 9.6% of doctorates were awarded to women 8.6% of postdocs were women

9. The pool: minorities 2001: 1 Am. Indian/Alaskan 32 Asian/ Pacific Isl. 16 Black 10 Hispanic

10. Faculty searches: the challenges…  Conduct searches thoroughly and professionally.  Attract outstanding candidates.  Give women and ethnic minorities fair consideration.  Construct a competitive and affordable offer. “It did help that there are two other women in my department, that played a big role actually, because at the other schools I interviewed at, I would’ve been the first and only woman......I felt like I didn’t want to be the first woman in a department at other schools…” 2004 S&E Hire

11. … and how you meet them:  Cast the net broadly.  Review dossiers carefully.  Conduct a candidate-centered, “high-touch” on-campus interview.  Follow up after the interview.

12. Unintentional bias  Whose vita is more impressive? (Steinpreis, 1999)  What do these reference letters tell us? (Trix & Psenka, 2003)  Who is more productive? (Wenneras & Wold, 1997)  We will never be able to attract this person! (Smith, 2000)

13. The interview  Equitable AND customized  Request candidate input  No illegal questions  Sell your department, VT, and Blacksburg  How to approach sensitive issues

14. Follow up with your candidates  Clarify communication paths:  Chocolate works! “The sense that I got, not just from what we worked out, but from the way the conversation went was that the chair was committed to doing what it took for me to be productive here, that attitude was very important to me.” 2004 S&E Hire Candidate Department Department Head Search Committee Dean

15. 7/15/2015AdvanceVT Assessment15 What attracted new faculty to Virginia Tech? 2003 hires: The majority of responses fell into three categories : “Ranking of course had a big influence on the decision. Probably, however, more than that, during my interview, I really liked all the people I met.” - New Faculty Hire, 2003

16. What went well during the hiring process?  73 % (8) new faculty members felt that it was conveyed to them that their departments were positive and supportive work environments.  The ability to network with current faculty members was an important element of the interview process for 36% (4) of new faculty.  The department’s willingness to help with spouse employment was also important to 36% (4) of those interviewed.

17. Resources and References  AdvanceVT/OEO “Bias Brochure”  NSF statistical reports and tables  Resources at Hunter College site  Local Resources

18. Dual career issues are frequent in a town like Blacksburg “When I interviewed here I made it very clear that I could not come unless there was something for my spouse. He had a tenured position at X and to leave that without something here for him was just not an acceptable option.” 2004 S&E Hire 1. Inform candidates: create links to guidelines, distribute brochures 2. Identify Possibilities: get candidate’s suggestions, discuss with Provost’s Office and Deans 3. Target Unit: initiates and evaluates potential hire; standard review process Cases where funding is available: need to develop appropriate job description; exemption request must be approved by DH, Dean, and EO Office Cases where new position must be allocated: position may be shared between hiring dept, receiving dept, and Provost (bridge funding may be available)

19. Family status of tenured professors Chronicle of Higher Education, December 5, 2003