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Effective Strategies for Hiring the Best New College Faculty Dr. Mary C. Clement Berry College, Georgia [email protected]

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Page 1: College hiring

Effective Strategies for Hiring the Best New College Faculty

Dr. Mary C. Clement

Berry College, Georgia

[email protected]

Page 2: College hiring

Topics for this seminar

How to

- write an accurate job description

- create evaluations for applications

- use behavior-based interviewing

- get the most from preliminary interviews.

Page 3: College hiring

Additional skills

Learn how to

- prepare for on-site interviews

- evaluate candidate answers

- make strong final recommendations regarding hires

Page 4: College hiring

High Stakes College Hiring

New faculty must teach, publish, and serve the institution.

A weak new hire hurts the department’s reputation and costs time and money.

Page 5: College hiring

A strong new hire

can actually raise the morale of colleagues.

re-invigorates the program and attracts students.

Page 6: College hiring

When we interview, we tend to give more consideration to a candidate’s

A. previous publications and research

B. teaching expertise

C. past service to an institution

D. We consider each of the three areas listed above equally.

Page 7: College hiring

A blueprint for hiring the best

Effective hiring practices may not just happen.

Search committees can be productive and democratic.

Page 8: College hiring

Everyone involved in hiring needs training

Faculty and department chairs are subject matter specialists, not human relations or personnel specialists.

Legal issues exist.

Page 9: College hiring

1. Write an accurate job description

Envision the new position

Information rich description

Truth in advertising

Page 10: College hiring

What to include?

All duties Tenure track or not Any criteria that will be used to sort the

candidates

Page 11: College hiring

Polling question

The college seeks “an accomplished, motivated, enthusiastic, and energetic candidate.”

Which of the following would best replace the phrase in quotes?

Page 12: College hiring

A. a qualified candidate

B. a candidate with an earned terminal degree in (specify subject area)

C. a candidate with three to five years of teaching experience

D. a candidate with research experience

Page 13: College hiring

2. Create an evaluation for the paperwork

Checklist for criteria listed in job description

Rating scale for cover letter and letters of recommendation

Page 14: College hiring

Why sort applications carefully?

Expenses of bringing candidates to campus

Past behavior is a predictor of future performance.

Page 15: College hiring

3. Use behavior-based interviewing (BBI) strategies

BBI is based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.

This premise is useful for sorting applications and all aspects of the interview process.

Page 16: College hiring

Examples of the BBI premise

Will a candidate who has held four different jobs in the last five years stay at your institution very long?

Will a candidate who has been in three separate tenure-track positions without earning tenure be able to get tenure?

Page 17: College hiring

What are red flags?

“unaccounted for” gaps in education or employment

a series of short-term employments

Page 18: College hiring

4. Preliminary interviews

take place over the phone, or via the Internet.

are short interviews at professional conferences.

can be critical to narrowing candidate pools.

Page 19: College hiring

Create BBI-style questions for preliminary interviews

The committee needs to create five to eight questions to be used with every candidate and the evaluation instrument for evaluating answers.

Page 20: College hiring

Sample questions

Describe your past teaching experiences as specifically as possible.

Describe an individual lesson that you have taught and why it went well.

Page 21: College hiring

Ask about research and writing

Tell us about your past research.

How have you shared your research professionally?

Page 22: College hiring

Ask about service/professionalism

How have you served an institution or the profession in the past?

Tell us about committee work you have completed.

Page 23: College hiring

Do’s and do not’s

Do not ask vague questions, such as “tell us about yourself.”

Do ask the candidate about their interest in the institution.

Page 24: College hiring

Do not ask questions that can’t be evaluated

Create the evaluation instrument before the very first preliminary interview.

Use the same questions and the same instrument with each candidate.

Page 25: College hiring

Information rich questions

An information rich question tells the interviewer about the institution, and the job, and then elicits a response.

These questions help to recruit and retain hires.

Page 26: College hiring

5. Prepare for on-site interviews

Prepare all who are involved with on-site interviews about interview protocol.

Illegal questions

Page 27: College hiring

Which is not an illegal question?

A. We have a great elementary lab school. Do you have children?

B. You look familiar. Haven’t I seen you at my church?

C. What a pretty piece of jewelry. Tell me about it.

D. All are illegal questions.

Page 28: College hiring

No one can ask about

age, gender, race, or national origin.

religion, family, or disabilities

Page 29: College hiring

Small talk is not small talk

Interviewers may not ask a follow-up question even when a candidate volunteers information about family, religion, etc.

Support staff and students involved in interviews need to know about illegal questions and “small talk.”

Page 30: College hiring

Keep open interviews on track

Create and provide a handout about protocol and illegal questions.

Make an announcement before any open interview about protocol.

Page 31: College hiring

Formal on-site interviews

The search committee prepares a list of questions in advance.

The questions and evaluation instrument are in front of interviewers for each candidate.

Page 32: College hiring

Structure the questions

Use BBI-style prompts.

Tell about a time when…

How have you…

Describe how you have…

Page 33: College hiring

Questions need to be specific

Example: Much has been written about teaching a

foreign language with the total immersion approach. What has been your experience with this approach?

Page 34: College hiring

To discuss with your group now

What is an effective question that you have used, or hope to use?

Page 35: College hiring

Allow candidates to ask questions

Candidates’ questions can be insightful. They may show how much the

candidate knows about the institution. Has the candidate done his/her

homework?

Page 36: College hiring

How much consideration do you give to the question, “Why do you want to work here?”

A. very much consideration

B. average consideration

C. very little consideration

D. We would not ask this question of a candidate.

Page 37: College hiring

6. Prepare for evaluation of answers

Consider PAR

Problem

Action

Result

Page 38: College hiring

Example

What experience have you had teaching unprepared college students to be successful?

Page 39: College hiring

Answer Problem: As a teaching assistant, I…

Action: I always used rubrics to explain grading and gave examples in class.

Result: I learned to teach students the expectations for college work.

Page 40: College hiring

STAR is similar

Situation

Task

Action

Result

Page 41: College hiring

Discuss answers needed by candidates

Committee members may have very different opinions regarding criteria of a “good” answer.

Discuss these issues in advance.

Page 42: College hiring

Rate these answers

You will hear a candidate’s answer to the question, “Describe how you have typically taught a lesson.” Rate the answer on a scale of unacceptable to excellent answer.

Page 43: College hiring

A. unacceptable answer / no experience with topic

B. acceptable answer / limited experience

C. strong answer / some experience

D. excellent answer / much experience

Page 44: College hiring

7. Making final recommendations

Hiring must be more than a gut feeling

Use the evaluations to make a more objective decision.

Page 45: College hiring

Questions for discussion

Many committee members tend to evaluate candidates on non-measurable criteria.

Is the candidate nice/pleasant? Is the candidate a happy person?

Page 46: College hiring

Be careful with “touchy feely”

Should the candidate demonstrate “life satisfaction?”

Do you want this person teaching your child as a college professor?

Page 47: College hiring

Offering the position

Make the offer a true “invitation.”

People like to feel recruited and “wooed.”

Page 48: College hiring

Good hiring practice can lead to retention

What do candidates really want?

They want their expectations met (or exceeded).

Page 49: College hiring

When the position is offered

Clarify the job description. Specify any additional or non-traditional

duties. Make salary and benefit issues clear.

Page 50: College hiring

Retention is important

Departments and programs need continuity.

Students want professors who are available throughout their years on campus.

Page 51: College hiring

Key points

All who participate in hiring need training in how to evaluate paperwork, write questions, and make decisions.

All need training with regard to legal issues.

Page 52: College hiring

What works

The creation of structure for the hiring process, combined with training, will create a fair process that identifies and recruits the best new faculty members.