The Search Committee Workshop utilizes four online videos developed by the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC). HERC is devoted to helping member institutions in cultivating and retaining a talented and diverse workforce. HERC’s mission is to promote equity and inclusion, support dual-career couples and, through training and outreach, help to create a future shaped by diversity of thought and perspectives.
Each of the four HERC Search Committee videos offer a three-minute overview of best practices for conducting a diverse, equitable and inclusive search. The videos are designed to serve as the foundation for a more extensive in-person facilitated discussion led by a trained facilitator. Shaffer Coaching works with higher education professionals and mission driven organizations in the nonprofit sector. Amanda Shaffer, has written and delivered implicit bias search committee training, tenure and promotion bias reduction, and cultural competency trainings, and helmed the writing and design of the HERC Search Committee videos.
The Search Committee workshop covers five topics:
1. Search Readiness: Self-Assessment
- The goal of the Self-Assessment unit is to lay the groundwork for participants to conduct an equitable, broad search and enhance their ability to recognize how implicit bias colors many common human interactions.
- The content will include participants identifying departmental diversity strengths,diversity challenges and discipline/department specific biases. The training will help participants uncover unconscious biases (both positive and negative) that operate in their daily lives, with students, colleagues and job candidates.
2. Before the Search: The Recruitment Plan
- The goal of the Recruitment Plan unit is to help participants design an active process that does not artificially exclude diverse candidates.
- The content will include committee composition, active and passive recruitment strategies, the position description, and advertising.
3. During the Search: Candidate Screening
- The goal of the Candidate Screening unit is for participants to design an equitable review system based on objective and agreed upon criteria.
- The content will include initial review of applicants, phone/video screening, creating an evaluation rubric, and bias in letters of recommendation.
4. During the Search: Interviewing & Campus Visits
- The goal of the Interviewing & Campus Visit unit to to help participants understand and prepare for the impact of the in-person interviews on both candidate and interviewers.
- Content will include creating a consistent process, interview templates for feedback, legal and illegal questions, voting procedures and ranked vs unranked final candidates.
5. After the Search: Retention
- The goal of the Retention unit is to help participants identify actions that will help candidates make the transition to valued colleagues.
- Content will include communication with the candidate, offer letters, dual career considerations, new faculty welcome and integration, and professional development.
Contact socalherc@ucsd.edu or register here to schedule a workshop for your institution.
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