The Active Recruitment Team, including OtP, HR, and DEI, are happy to announce modules in the UO Faculty Community Canvas site to help search committees and faculty learn how to follow the expected practices described below. Please email OtP@uoregon.edu for access.
Tenure-track faculty Hiring
Active Recruitment and HR Recruitment Consultations
Active recruitment efforts focus on providing training and guidance for expected practices when discussing and selecting candidates and how to navigate challenging situations. This work is meant to be a partnership among many units on campus, working together to accomplish our goals. Where specific processes have been mandated (e.g., the search plan template), these are targeted at the beginning of the search process to help ensure a successful launch of the search. Latter steps in the process will be primarily handled within the units, with the support of HR Recruitment Consultants and the Active Recruitment Team (ART).
Each search has been assigned an HR Recruitment Consultant. As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance active recruitment, please invite your HR recruitment consultant to participate in the first meeting as you begin to plan your job announcement and advertising/outreach plans for each search. Your consultant will be available to your search committee(s) throughout the search process.
HR recruitment consultants can assist search committees in the following ways:
- Approving the committee’s Search Plan, in collaboration with the Executive Vice Provost or designee
- Providing a search committee briefing for the chair and committee at the beginning of the search (upon request - recommended for searches that are not supported by search advocates)
- Connecting search chairs and committees with key topic consultants of peer faculty across a range of search questions and issues
- Providing demographic data of the full candidate pool to the chair and search committee prior to candidate review (upon request)
- Offering advice and guidance to the search committee on strategies to broaden the pool of candidates
- Working with the committee to flag if the applicant pool is not appropriately representative
- Providing guidance and serving as a thought partner to the search committee during the review of candidates including the steps to evaluate candidates for phone or online interviews, invitations for campus visits, and final selection
The Active Recruitment Team is responsible for providing workshops and materials to support the search committees and HR Recruitment Consultants, as well as providing in-depth knowledge on key topics, such as best practices for inclusive applicant recruitment, implicit bias, diversity statements, constructive intervention techniques, interview planning, field availability estimates, search advocacy, and more.
Search Processes
Develop and Follow a Search Plan
The development of a Search Plan is required before searches may be advertised. Search Plans are required to use the Search Plan Template. The HR Recruitment Consultant will review the Search Plan as part of the MyTrack search approval process, in consultation with ART members as needed. The Office of Human Resources and Institutional Research provided field availability data as part of the IHP proposal process; this data can be consulted again to help with the completion of Search Plans. For administrative/logistical details on launching a TTF search, see the HR Start a Search page.
Evaluate the Search Response
Before beginning applicant review, search committees are encouraged to work with their HR Recruitment Consultant to consider whether the applicant pool meets the goals from their Search Plan. It is ideal for this review and discussion to happen when there is still time to impact the number of applicants (e.g., mid-point during the active recruitment period or prior to a major conference), and again after the application deadline.
If the search committee and/or dean, after discussion with the Executive Vice Provost (EVP) or designee, determine that the pool is not sufficiently diverse, they have the option to discontinue the search. If a search is discontinued at this step, it will be expected to continue as part of the 2024 IHP (for search year 2024-25).
Evaluate Candidates
After the search committee and the dean agree that a search has a strong applicant pool, evaluation of candidates can begin. There are typically several parts to this process that are very discipline-specific. For example, some units rely heavily on conferences to help with initial reviews of candidates. Other units will conduct online interviews for upwards of twenty candidates. Units are highly encouraged to refer to the Expected Practices for UO Tenure Track Faculty Searches while evaluating candidates.
An important note about Veteran's Preference: any veteran candidate who meets minimum qualifications of the position must receive a first round interview (this can be a short screening interview, as long as the same interview is provided to all candidates who are advancing to the first round of interviews). Veterans must also receive a 5% or 10% (for disabled veterans) preference at each stage of the search. If you have questions on how to apply this preference, reach out to your assigned recruitment consultant. You can also find more information on the Oregon Veteran's Preference in Employment informational webpage.
The dean is responsible for reviewing the short-list of candidates to ensure that they meet high standards, including identifying whether significant concerns exist with respect to pool/field availability data. At that time, the dean should ensure that any veterans who meet minimum qualifications are being flagged to receive the Veteran's Preference.
The HR Recruitment Consultants are available to the search chair during this stage to discuss how things are progressing, if there are any current challenges with the search, and whether any assistance, advice or guidance might be helpful. The ART will also be offering workshops in fall 2024 to provide additional tools and strategies to search committees to help assess candidates.
If a search committee member, department member, search advocate, or other party involved with the search feels that there has been bias or discrimination happening in the evaluation stage, they should contact Jenna Schuttpelz (Rakes), Director of Talent Acquisition and Classification and Compensation (jrakes@uoregon.edu), for advice and guidance.
Finalist Approval
At the finalist stage, Deans must receive finalist approval with all offer package details from the EVP before extending an offer. Before approving, the EVP may ask for a rationale explaining the recommendation. After finalist and salary approval, offers will proceed using the TTF Contingent Offer Letter Term Sheet process.
Process Review
The active recruitment process is regularly assessed for effectiveness, in the spirit of continuous improvement. If you have questions or suggestions for improvement, please contact Troy Elias at telias@uoregon.edu.
Career and Pro-Tempore Faculty hiring
Career and pro-tempore faculty hires should obtain preliminary approval to conduct a search. Approval to begin a search process differs by type of search, and may be specified by the Dean of each school/college (for career and pro tem instructional faculty) or the Vice President for Research and Innovation (career research faculty), and the Office of the Provost. Please contact your Dean's office for more information on unit-level processes.
Other steps for career and pro-tem faculty searches:
- Establish a search committee and chair
- Generate an updated position description
- Prepare a position announcement
- Prepare additional advertising and recruitment materials
- Determine scope of recruitment and establish a search plan
- Submit position desciption for approval using MyTrack
- Following notice of approval of position description, submit job requisition for approval using MyTrack
Talent Acquisition provides a an overview of the faculty recruitment process in MyTrack. The webinar includes:
- Review of the function of My Track recruitment processes
- Differences between core and faculty recruitment processes
- Tips on using the online reference letter request
- How to request an alternate recruitment process for your requisitions
Career and pro-tem searches can also be done through the faculty pools process.
Career and pro-tem offer letter templates:
Expected Search Practices for faculty hiring
Expected Search Practices for Faculty Hiring
This section outlines the practices that search committees are expected to use when hiring all faculty. These practices should be considered minimal standards, and search committees are encouraged to go above and beyond to ensure that we are maximizing the university’s ability to attract and recruit outstanding, highly competitive candidates while also increasing our representation of women and underrepresented minorities. This same content is found in the Faculty Search module in the UO Faculty Community Canvas site, including brief videos and written materials broken down for each step of your faculty search.
1. Establish a Diverse and Inclusive Search Committee
It is the responsibility of all search committee members and unit leadership to ensure an inclusive process that reflects best practices.
- The search committee should be diverse (in demographics, contributions to equity and inclusion, junior/senior status, areas within the field, etc.).
In situations where a department is unable to identify members from underrepresented groups, or where it would place a disproportionate burden of service on members from underrepresented groups, it is important that the committee includes members who have demonstrated a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and have sufficient experience to speak to these issues during the search process.
As much as is possible, ensure that committee members have effective and varied networks for outreach.
- Ensure that search committee members and other faculty who will interact with candidates understand and are committed to refraining from asking candidates inappropriate or illegal questions during the search, recruitment, and offer negotiation process. Examples of situations to avoid include:
- Asking additional questions of one candidate that are not asked of others, except where necessary to clarify an answer to a question asked of all candidates or to clarify information in a candidate’s application materials.
- Asking questions that elicit personal information rather than job-related information. Some non-job-related information, such as number and age of children, can lead to impermissible discrimination. The less non-job-related information you have, the less that information could possibly enter into, or be perceived as entering into, a selection decision.
2. Ensure All Committee Members Receive Implicit Bias Training
All search committee members must complete an implicit bias training in the three years prior to beginning candidate review. The Division of Equity and Inclusion has posted training opportunities on their website and recommend that search committees view trainings together, to discuss as a group. The first committee meeting should include a discussion on who has/not attended an in-person implicit bias training.
3. Consider Utilizing a Search Advocate
For information on the role of a search advocate, see the Division of Equity and Inclusion website.To maximize the positive impact, search advocates should be engaged as soon as you receive notice of approval for the search. The advocate will meet with the department head and search chair to clarify the appropriate expectations for the role. The advocate attends all of the search committee meetings to guide the search committee with critical parts of the process, such as writing the job description, developing the screening criteria (e.g., how not to use “I’ll know it when I see it” or “good fit”), designing the interview process (e.g., ensuring that fairness is more than “exactly the same” for candidates as some candidates may require special accommodations), and facilitating the committee’s decision-making as candidates advance through the search process. If you are interested in exploring whether a search advocate would be helpful for your search, please contact Charlotte Moats-Gallagher at cmoatsga@uoregon.edu.
4. Establish Criteria for the Position
Carefully consider and articulate the criteria that matter for the position. Use these criteria to develop the position announcement and throughout the search process as a guide for evaluating candidates.
- Ensure that the criteria have a direct relationship to the position.
- Set clear minimum qualifications that can include a degree in a relevant field, research accomplishments in a relevant field, etc.
- Include contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion in the search criteria.
- Consider whether traditional descriptions of criteria for the position may present a barrier to talented, historically underrepresented candidates.
- Consider whether there are equivalent alternative criteria that could be considered for candidates to demonstrate scholarly excellence, pedagogical strength, innovation, creativity.
- Determine whether the announcement should describe the position very broadly to signal an openness to an array of backgrounds, or if an emphasis on a particular area is more beneficial to recruiting a diverse pool of candidates (i.e., clarify that the position will work on issues specific to a certain demographic such as healthcare for Latinx populations as opposed to healthcare in general).
- Discuss how the criteria will ultimately be assessed (potentially creating a rubric for the evaluation of candidates) as that may impact how the requirements are framed in the position announcement (e.g., if the position requires excellence in teaching or research, how will the committee determine the candidate demonstrates these qualifications).
5. Develop the Position Announcement
- The position announcement should articulate the hiring criteria and the search committee should have come to agreement on how the candidate can meet that criteria before the announcement is posted.
- Consider utilizing the Gender Decoder tool to better assess if the announcement potentially includes language that candidates identifying as female may find exclusionary.
- Signal explicitly that both the Department and the University value equity, diversity, and inclusion and their contributions to the intellectual life of UO. The position announcement should provide context for this requirement, including how the statement will be used, and providing some suggestions for inclusion in their statements. For example, the ad may:
1) Address the criteria as a preferred qualification (e.g., “A successful candidate will support and enhance a diverse learning and working environment”).
2) Specify that candidates are required to submit a statement addressing their contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion in more detail such as discussing:
- An understanding of inequities in academia faced by historically underrepresented or disadvantaged groups,
- Evidence of successful mentoring, teaching, or outreach aimed to reduce barriers for underrepresented or disadvantaged groups, and
- Specific plans for how the candidate could contribute to departmental goals to create a diverse and inclusive community through current campus programs or new activities, or through national or off-campus organizations.
Note: UO position announcements will automatically include language regarding the UO’s non-discrimination & Affirmative Action policy.
6. Advertise the Position
- Distribute the position announcement widely, using available data to inform targeted outreach.
- Advertise in forums, groups, or organizations that serve underrepresented groups.
- Include discipline-specific affinity groups (e.g., Association of Black Psychologists and the National Latina/o Psychological Association).
- Use cross-disciplinary listservs and hiring platforms if appropriate.
7. Use Additional Contacts for Active Recruitment
Identify candidates who might not otherwise apply. Specifically and methodically seek out highly qualified candidates from underrepresented communities.
- Encourage all members of the unit – not just those on the search committee – to reach out to connections in the field.
- Make the direct contact. Have every search committee call, email, or text at least three contacts (e.g., former colleagues, mentors, students). Keep a common spreadsheet and hold each other accountable.
- Directly engage established mentors. In any field, there are likely to be a few professors who have a proven track record of mentoring underrepresented students onto faculty trajectories. Find out who those people are, and contact them for their recommendations about possible candidates. Also, ask them to share the position announcement with others and encourage their mentees to apply.
- Attend meetings of discipline-specific groups, interact with potential candidates, and encourage them to apply for positions.
- Maintain a list of potential recruits who will be on the market within a year or two.
- Obtain and study lists from societies that mentor students and postdocs for academic jobs.
8. Evaluate the Pool
Prior to the closing date for applicants, work with the HR Recruitment Consultant, a search advocate, or the committee to review the overall pool of applicants. This should be done with enough time to be able to make further efforts to broaden the pool.If at the closing date the applicant pool seems limited or unrepresentative in comparison with availability, engage in an evaluation of the search to explore reasons for the discrepancies. This evaluation may lead to new insights or confirm known barriers and obstacles.
- Review the preceding process and take additional steps to broaden the pool.
- Consider extending the date before reviewing applicants and contacting applicants with incomplete files.
- Consider postponing search for a year to allow for additional active recruiting.
9. Evaluate Candidates
- Establish search committee ground rules regarding deliberations. Discuss how the search committee will deal with concerns regarding implicit or known biases if they arise during candidate review.
- Review implicit bias training materials before discussion of candidates.
- Ensure the first review focuses on candidate materials. If candidates are known to members of the search committee, reserve feedback derived from additional sources for later stages in the selection process.
- For each candidate, start by assessing whether they meet the minimum qualifications for the role and document this determination. All candidates who qualify for Veteran's Preference (veterans who meet minimum qualificiations) must be interviewed.
- Consider redacting identifying information for candidates to help lessen the possibility that biases (e.g., related to demographic data, where candidates attended school) may impact the review.
- Utilize the rubric or other evaluation tool developed to guide the assessment of candidates. The committee should be discussing and evaluating the exact same criteria for each candidate. If deliberations reveal that additional criteria are being taken into account, adjust the criteria for evaluating all of the candidates in a manner that is clear to all search committee members. Ensure the Veteran's Preference requirements (including the 5% or 10% preference points) are being applied at each stage of the review.
- Budget sufficient time to fully discuss and evaluate candidates. Time-pressured deliberations can contribute to biased judgments.
- Take contemporaneous notes at all stages of review.
- Try to spend equal time on each candidate.
- If the short list pool looks materially different from the applicant pool, assess whether talented candidates were inadvertently overlooked.
- Focus on objective criteria, not subjective characterizations such as “fit” or “I know it when I see it” as that may inadvertently incorporate implicit biases.
- Provide interview lists to the dean for review. Prior to interviews, the dean must ensure that if there are candidates to whom the Veteran's Preference applies, those candidates are benefitting from the preference.
10. Structure the Campus Visit
- Candidates are evaluating UO as well as being evaluated. Take steps to help them feel welcomed and valued.
- Offer equitable accommodations to all candidates, being mindful that some candidates may need reasonable accommodations.
- Provide standard materials for each candidate (e.g., agenda, parking and accommodations instructions). Provide each candidate with a standard
Fileuo-welcome-packet-2023-2024.pdf
- that contains information on benefits and other programs, such as dual career support, and where to go to ask questions.
- Ensure that selection activities for all candidates are consistent. For example, ensure visits are the same length, with the same people, meals are included in the same format, etc.
- Remember that group meals are part of the formal selection process and should continue to follow general guidelines, such as not asking personal questions.
- Use structured interviews as much as possible for formal interview periods (e.g., every candidate is asked the same questions).
- Brief the faculty who will be evaluating candidates on the job-specific criteria and provide everyone with a rubric or evaluation tool for their completion and to share back with the search committee.
- Ensure that everyone participating in interviews understands and is committed to refraining from asking inappropriate or illegal questions during the interview process.
- Include a meeting between each candidate and the department head to address questions and to provide standard information, such as standard teaching, start-up packages, benefits, etc.
11. Evaluate Final Candidates
- Recall objectively the articulated job criteria from step 4, including contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Review ground rules for deliberation and refer to notes during discussion.
- Keep an open mind.
- Record rationale concerning why each shortlist candidate who will not proceed to the finalist stage does not advance, use evidence to support statements.
- Ensure the Veteran's Preference requirements (including the 5% or 10% preference points) are being applied at each stage of the review.
12. Help Candidates Evaluate UO
- Change the frame of mind from “Search” to “Hire.” Committee and department should commit to enthusiastically recruiting every candidate receiving an offer, regardless of prior deliberations.
- Carefully curate any return visit.
- Connect candidate to parts of the university that intersect with their scholarship, teaching and service. This shows an interest in integrating them into the broader university community.
- Think carefully when choosing local professionals with whom to connect candidates (e.g., to tour around Eugene/Portland/Charleston), to ensure they share UO’s commitment to non-discrimination.
- Dean or department head should clarify expectations concerning tenure and promotion standards.
- Take full advantage of resources to support recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, such as Dual Career Support.
resources
Workshops
Tenure Track Faculty Recruitment Workshops & Materials
The provost expects all searches to engage actively in the recruitment process. To this end, all searches must have robust search plans, and unit heads and search committee members are required to engage with materials and workshops, which will be updated throughout the year. Please check back periodically.
Implicit Bias Training
All search committee members must complete an implicit bias training in the three years prior to beginning candidate review. The Division of Equity and Inclusion has posted training opportunities on their website and recommend that search committees view trainings together, to discuss as a group.
Search Advocates
The Division of Equity and Inclusion/CoDaC has led the UO search advocate pilot program since its inception in February 2019. Search advocacy is a tool that supports our university’s efforts to enhance and diversify our faculty and staff applicant pools. See the Search Advocate Pilot Initiative webpage, for more information, including the role of a search advocate. If you are interested in becoming a search advocate or exploring whether a search process advocate would be helpful for your search, please contact Charlotte Moats-Gallagher at cmoatsga@uoregon.edu.