Transcript A Hiring Guide for Search Committees and Hiring Authorities. Diversity and affirmative action are related concepts – but the terms have.

A Hiring Guide for Search Committees and Hiring Authorities.
2009
Diversity and affirmative action are related
concepts – but the terms have different
origins and legal connotations.
Workforce diversity is a voluntary business
management concept used to promote an
inclusive workplace.
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Many employers have concluded that a
diverse workforce makes a company stronger,
profitable, and a better place to work.
Voluntarily promote and create a culture of
respect for individual differences.
Goal is to gather experience, talent, and ideas
from a variety of the population to gain a
competitive advantage.
In short, it is good business practice.
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Non-voluntary, written actions taken to
overcome the effects of past or present
practices, policies, or other barriers to equal
employment.
May be required by court order or regulation.
May implement voluntary affirmative action
plans in appropriate circumstances.
UNC’s plan is designed to bring women and men,
members of minority groups, and persons with
disabilities into all levels and segments of the
University of Northern Colorado’s workforce in
proportion to their representation in the qualified
relevant labor market.
In taking the extra steps to recruit for equal
representation, we ensure that we have reached
out to all candidates who may be qualified, and
thus allow the opportunity for the university to
recruit the best candidates for the position.
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Goal is to reach out and consider all qualified
candidates without bias.
Not unlawfully discriminate, whether
intentionally or unintentionally, against an
otherwise qualified candidate based on solely
protected status.
It does not mean that we must hire an
unqualified candidate because she or he is in
a protected class.
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UNC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity
employer that is committed to a culturally diverse
staff, faculty, and student body.
The University will not engage in unlawful
discrimination in employment or educational
services against any person because of race,
color, religion, gender, age, national origin,
disability, sexual orientation or preference,
political affiliation, or veteran status.
Decisions are made based solely on valid,
nondiscriminatory criteria and requirements.
Employment actions can include:
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hiring, upgrading, demotion or transfer;
recruitment or recruitment advertising;
layoff, retirement, or termination;
rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and
selection for training, including apprenticeship.
Applicants and employees should be hired, trained,
and evaluated based on job related competencies
regardless of gender, color, or any other protected
status.
Typical downfalls of an interview process:
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Interviewer is intentionally or unintentionally biased
based on a race, origin, gender, or other protected
status;
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Process is narrow or flawed causing repeated hiring
of a certain class;
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Assumes there is only one way to do a job – does not
consider accommodation possibilities;
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Stuck in their ways – not willing to consider someone
outside of their personal comfort level – does not
want a change in the status quo.
HRS serves to:
◦ educate the campus community;
◦ monitor institutional practices and procedures;
◦ review and report on the University’s affirmative
action program;
◦ recommend measures to ensure compliance with
the University’s policies and federal and state law;
◦ mediate, hear, and recommend resolution of
complaints of unlawful employment and
educational discrimination.
Position Review –
Professional Administrator positions –
 Review the current Position Description Questionnaire
(PDQ) for Professional Administrators.
 Ensure that it is current and accurately describes the
essential functions of the position.
Faculty positions do not have PDQ’s - Position should be
reviewed and approved by the dean to ensure appropriate
minimum qualifications are set and are consistent for the
job.
Important to determine how the position will support the
overall area.
Decide what qualities, skills, education, and experience
needed to make the best fit for that role.
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Observe the job and talk to employees who actually
do the job;
Note minimum requirements and skills necessary to
succeed in the position, including temperament,
education, communication, project management
skills, etc.
Decide if you need to make changes in the functions
or duties;
Use the PDQ in the selection process to create the job
postings, create minimum and preferred qualification
screening criteria and telephone and in-person
interview questions.
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Ensure that the essential functions listed are
items that must be completed by the position.
Consider if these functions could be
performed by others in the unit or
accommodated if needed.
For example:
◦ If hiring a faculty position, is typing an essential
function or can the department accommodate the
function with a voice command program? Can
assistant type instead?
Current Diversity –
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Review current staff demographics.
Determine if a protected group is underrepresented.
Contact HRS if you need assistance in obtaining or reviewing this
information.
Methodology 
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Decide if the methods used in the past have resulted in a diverse
workforce.
If not, determine what can be done to reach out to
underrepresented groups and design recruitment plan to do so.
Hiring Process 
Review the hiring processes and determine which fits best for
your position (independent review; screening committee, or
search committee).
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Select the committee chair person, committee
members, AA/EO coordinator, and search
administrative assistant;
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Select a diverse group that bring different view points
to the process.
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Determine functions you wish the committee to
complete and which ones you will complete;
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Complete the required job request documents and
forward to your dean. Once approved, the
information will be forwarded to HRS.
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Once approved through the job request process
(PeopleAdmin), advertise the position listing the
minimum and preferred qualifications.
HRS places in HigherEdJobs.com for all positions.
Department determines other advertising resources that
will best recruit diverse, qualified applicants for their
respective positions and place the ads directly at their
expense.
Examples might include: trade, professional, or area of
interest associations; The Chronicle of Higher Education;
professional journals; and sites geared toward diversity
markets. Addendum A provides further information.
AA/EO Coordinators:
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Play an important part to ensure UNC follows protocols when hiring.
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Have specific duties within the search committee and do not
generally participate in the selection of candidates.
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Should familiarize yourselves with UNC’s policies and procedures
and with federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination.
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Have special access to PeopleAdmin to review positions, candidates,
and the AA/EO report. This report shows the number of applicants
and their demographic information if the applicant chose to provide
it.
Part educator to the committee to ensure it understands the correct
processes and procedures, especially with confidentiality.
Review of Pool:
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Look at the demographics of the pool and determine if the
applicant pool is diverse enough to proceed based on the
specific position and recruiting area.
If, based on the field and recruiting area, the coordinator
does not feel that the field is broad enough he/she should
inform the search chair and request that additional time or
advertising resources are used to include
underrepresented candidates.
If pool is diverse enough, or the department has reached
out appropriately even if the pool isn’t as diverse,
coordinator may approve the committee to continue with
the current candidates.
Screening Criteria:
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Review the screening criteria to ensure that the candidates
are being screened based on job specific requirements.
If questions do not match the position requirements, stop
search and request the committee chair or committee
adjust the criteria.
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Questions used to initially screen the applicant must be in
line with the minimum qualifications.
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All candidates that meet the minimum qualifications must
be passed to the preferred qualification review.
Questions:
 Review interview questions to ensure that they are fair,
represent the position, and are not discriminatory.
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Reference, telephone and on-campus interview questions
must also be inline with the position responsibilities and
should be asked of all candidates or references. Follow up
questions are appropriate to obtain further clarification.
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Personal questions of the candidates should not be asked
and may be illegal.
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Do not ask any questions of the reference that you would
not legally be able to ask the candidate.
Interviews:
 Attend on-campus interviews when possible to
ensure the process is fair and appropriate.
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Should attend the committee interviews when
possible to ensure that the process and
committee conduct are fair and
nondiscriminatory.
It also provides an opportunity for the candidate
to meet the coordinator prior to the exit
interview.
Conflicts:
 Ensure there are no conflicts of interest with
members and applicants.
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If any arise, bring it to the search chair’s attention (or
HRS if needed) and stop the search until the situation
is resolved.
It is the responsibility of any committee member
involved in the search, the hiring authority, or
coordinator to report any potential conflict of
interest.
It may be reported directly to HRS if needed.
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Reviewing applicant information of a friend, family
member, or candidate for whom you are a reference;
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Intentionally scoring other candidates lower so that a
known candidate is scored higher;
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Providing a candidate with questions or information not
normally shared with candidates
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Not revealing an association with a candidate with whom
you have a close relationship or business venture;
Any of this situations should be disclosed up front or as
soon as it is known. Failure to do so can disrupt the
process or nullify the search, cause it to have to be closed
and another search started.
Exit Interview:
 Meet with each candidate after all on-campus
interviews to complete the exit interview
form.
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This gives the candidate an opportunity to
discuss any process or questions she/he feels
was inappropriate.
The Candidate Exit Interview form is located
on the HRS website.
Closing Documents:
 Complete the AA/EO Closing Sheet.
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Submit exit interviews and demographic
summary along with it at the close of the
search.
NOTE: If a candidate has a concern, refer it to
HR at that time.
The search chair and committee members have the
role of evaluating candidates based on the
position’s requirements.
Committees should be comprised of a diverse
group of individuals including subject matter
experts, to enable the group to have a broad
view point when reviewing the qualifications.
The search chair’s role is to ensure the process
runs smoothly and in a timely manner.
Additionally, she/he must also ensure, along with
the AA/EO coordinator, that the process is in line
with UNC’s policies.
Review each applicant in a fair manner based on criteria
of the position.
Access to the applicants through a guest user login in
PeopleAdmin. Please do not print the documents. If
you need an accommodation, please contact the
search chair for other review options.
Review should be unbiased and only on the important
factors of the job, not name, possible origin, or
gender.
Each person reviews differently. The important point is
that you review each candidate thoroughly in the
same manner throughout the process.
Unless you have been asked to only do an initial
screening of the applicants, you will probably
have a role in creating questions or interviewing
the candidates.
Important points to know:
 Only ask job related questions.
 Personal questions, however harmless as they
may seem, may be inferred as discriminatory.
 Follow up questions may be asked if needed to
clarify and answer or to receive further
information.
When interviewing, ensure to ask all questions of all
candidates. Ensure accommodations are of equal or
similar quality.
Write down your responses for you to review for follow up
questions and/or to make recommendations to the
committee.
Ensure that access is available to those who need
accommodations (i.e. wheel chair access, sign interpreter,
etc.)
Make sure to only make relevant comments pertinent to the
candidate’s ability or experience – not general notations.
Different hiring authorities may request your
input in different ways.
Some may want you to rank the finalists; others
may want strengths and weaknesses.
Regardless of how you provide your input,
make sure to evaluate the candidate based on
the position requirements and fit for the
position based on all of the input received.
The search administrative assistant (admin) has
the important role of documenting the
search, thus providing a record of the
process. The admin will take notes at all
committee meetings.
The admin also has expanded rights in
PeopleAdmin to help monitor and change the
applicant statuses and note why an applicant
was not selected.
At the request of several departments on campus, the decision was
made for the departments to continue to write rejection letters.
The search assistants normally take care of ensuring these letters
are sent to candidates no longer in the pool.
With the advent of PeopleAdmin, you will only need to print a copy
of the finalists’ information.
All other information is stored electronically.
However, if the search required hard copies of any documents, the
department will still need to store these search materials for all
applicants other than finalists for 3 years.
At the end of the search, the admin and search chair will
collect all documentation used, committee meeting notes,
committee members screening criteria and interview
notes, and forward to the hiring authority.
Note: Some colleges require that this information be
reviewed by the dean prior to an offer. Check with your
specific dean.
The hiring authority will then complete the search closing
documents and forward these documents, the finalist files,
and all of the above mentioned documentation to HRS.
This will officially signal the close of the search. Once this
step is completed, HRS will close the search on
PeopleAdmin.
The purpose of UNC’s Affirmative Action program is
multifaceted. Its intent is to:
 Bring women and men, members of minority
groups, and persons with disabilities into all levels
and segments of the University of Northern
Colorado’s workforce in proportion to their
representation in the qualified relevant labor
market.
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Provide UNC with the best opportunity to promote
equal employment opportunity based solely on
valid, nondiscriminatory criteria and requirements,
not based on race, color, religion, gender, age,
national origin, disability, sexual orientation or
preference, political affiliation, or veteran status;
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Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and
university regulations; and most importantly; and finally
Create a culture of respect for individual differences in
order to draw relevant experience, talent and ideas from
all segments of the population thereby providing the best
faculty and staff to provide our students with the best
learning experience.
In short – it’s all about the students.
Human Resources is available to answer any question you
may have regarding the process. Contact the department
at 351-2718.
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Local and/or regional newspapers;
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Trade or professional websites or journals;
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Higher education resources: The Chronicle of
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Career-targeted sites: based on certain occupation
Higher Education; tedjob.com; insidehighered.com;
academiccareers.com; studentaffairs.com
groups i.e. SHRM (human resources); joblist.ala.org
(library); dice.com (technical positions)
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Diversity employment sites: diversity.com;
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General employment sites: monster.com;
workplacediversity.com; rileyguide.com;
forefront.com (women);latpro.com;
blackjobs.com; hispanicoutlook.com;
gettinghired.com (disability)
careerbuilder.com; Americanjobs.com;
jobing.com; indeed.com; jobbankUSA.com;
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Position Authorization Form (PAF)
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Hiring Authority’s Charge to Search Committee
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Initial Screening Criteria
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Position Exemption Request (if requesting exemption
from state classified personnel system)
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Administrative/Professional Exempt Position
Description Questionnaire (PDQ) and organizational
chart. Not needed for faculty search.
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Submitted by AA/EO coordinator to Employee Relations
Coordinator:
 Candidate Exit Interview Forms
 AA/EO Closing Sheet
 Print out of AA/EO Demographic Summary
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Submitted by search chair to hiring authority:
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Search Chair Closing Sheet
Position Finalist Form
Hard copies of finalist files
All committee materials listed on closing sheet
Submitted by hiring authority to HRS as one package:
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Approved Position Finalist Form
Search Chair Closing Sheet
Hard copies of finalist files
All committee materials listed on closing sheet received from search chair
Approved interview questions can be found on
the HRS website: www.unco.edu/hr
They are located on the Employee Resources tab
in the Hiring section.
Contact HRS at 351-2718 if you have any
questions or concern regarding a search.