• Overview
• Resources
• • Recruiting Faculty
• • Recruiting Staff
• - Roles & Responsibilities
• - Expanding the Pool
• - Recruiting Talent
• - Interviewing Candidates
• - Making an offer
• - Documentation Requirements
• • Accomodating Students/Employees
• Community Involvement
• Building Diversity Into University Processes
• Measuring Results

Strategies for Staff Recruitment

Your search for minority and female talent is the same as your search for non-minority individuals. The key is to include personal contacts you may have and tailor the effort to enlarge the pool to the particular staff vacancy. Following are some of the most commonly used sourcing methods and some of the advantages and/or disadvantages of each.

1. Internal Job Postings. Internal job postings can serve a variety of human resources management objectives in addition to simply providing qualified candidates. Postings help to ensure Equal Opportunity for Promotion by providing promotion opportunities to all employees equally without regard to race, sex, or other protected classifications. Job postings also are an excellent method of complying with affirmative action efforts and providing equal opportunity for job advancement.
   
   
2. Classified Advertising. Placing classified advertisements in newspapers and other publications is a popular method of recruiting external applicants. Classified ads can be a cost-effective means of filling open positions if they are written properly. An effective ad would contain welcoming language outlining the qualifications for the position and the specific job duties.
        There are two areas of concern with classified advertising: claims of discrimination and claims of implied contracts created by language in the employment advertisement. To comply with all civil rights and labor laws, job advertisements must not include any reference to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age or disability. Likewise, ads should not contain language that suggests lifetime (permanent) employment, or suggests termination only for cause.
   
   
3. Employment Agencies and Search Firms. Employment agencies are used to assist in the recruitment of qualified candidates and are paid a fee for their services if they refer the candidate who is ultimately hired. The fee may be a flat amount or a percentage of the candidate's expected base pay. Additionally, the university should attempt to have the agency agree to a minimum employment period during which the fee will be refunded if the candidate hired does not work out. (Typically, this is three to six months.)
   
   
4. Have women and minorities in the department work with the hiring supervisor to help identify sources of candidates.
   
   
5. Continually recruit -- don't wait for announced vacancies to begin searching.
   
   
6. Keep resumes of prospective candidates on file.
   
   
7. Candidates need to feel that they will be truly welcome at the institution. Involve many others -- department heads, other minority faculty and department members, etc. -- in the recruitment process to demonstrate that the candidate will find a place in the university community.
   
   
8. Think about the new dimensions diverse candidates will bring to the department.
   
   
9. Screen to include candidates. Screening with the primary purpose of excluding candidates may cause you to miss viable recruits.
   
   
10. Be aware of the trap of measuring everything against one standard. Candidates who got their degrees later in life, worked part-time when their children were young, or whose experience is off the beaten path may also bring rich experience and diverse background.