Invent the Future
Recruitment and Search
Committee Practices
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
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
Best Practices for
Diverse Hiring
Advance VT
Beate Schmittmann
Mechanical Engineering Department
January 28, 2005
Points for Discussion:

Preface

Why diverse hiring?

Best practices:
– Reviewing dossiers
– Unintentional bias
– High touch interviews

References

Questions and discussion
Preface:

EO Office has primary oversight of the
search process.

Best faith effort counts.

Resources:
– AdvanceVT
– Dean’s and Provost’s Office
– EO Office
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.
The pool: women
Doctorates awarded in
Mechanical Engineering
1200
1000
800
All
600
Men
Women
400
200
0
1992
1994
2001:
9.6% of doctorates were awarded to women
1996
1998
2000
8.6% of postdocs were women
2002
2004
The pool: minorities
Doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens in
Mechanical Engineering
500
400
300
All
200
Minorities
Series1
100
0
1992
2001:
1994
1996
1998
1 Am. Indian/Alaskan
16 Black
2000
2002
2004
32 Asian/ Pacific Isl.
10 Hispanic
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
… 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.
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)
The interview

Equitable AND customized

Request candidate input

No illegal questions

Sell your department, VT, and Blacksburg

How to approach sensitive issues
Follow up with your candidates

Clarify communication paths:
Department
Dean

Candidate
Department
Head
Chocolate works!
Search
Committee
“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
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.”
Previous
Positive Contact
Dept
A tmosphere
- New Faculty Hire,
2003
Research Match
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Percentage of Respondents
3/18/2016
AdvanceVT Assessment
15
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.
Resources and References

AdvanceVT/OEO “Bias Brochure”

NSF statistical reports and tables

Resources at Hunter College site

Local Resources
Dual career issues are frequent in a
town like Blacksburg
1. Inform candidates:
create links to guidelines,
distribute brochures
2. Identify Possibilities: get
candidate’s suggestions, discuss
with Provost’s Office and Deans
“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
3. Target Unit: initiates and
evaluates potential hire; standard
review process
Cases where funding is available:
Cases where new position must
need to develop appropriate job
be allocated: position may be
description; exemption request must
shared between hiring dept,
be approved by DH, Dean, and EO
receiving dept, and Provost (bridge
Office
funding may be available)
Family status of tenured professors
Women
Men
11%
4%
26%
44%
15%
11%
70%
19%
Married & Children
Single & children
Married, no children
Single, no children
Chronicle of Higher Education, December 5, 2003