Steps to Hiring Quality Faculty for Success
1. Plan ahead to finish in a timely manner:
Create a timetable that lists all activities in the recruitment process with start and finish dates.
- Schedule tentative meetings to correspond with recruitment activities.
- Set an ideal end date and work backwards to establish your timetable.
- Break down the review process into distinct stages. (e.g., screening, identifying semi-finalists, determining finalists, and evaluating and ranking finalists).
- List all the key activities associated with each stage (e.g., screening could include establishing criteria, developing a screening tool, determining who to include/exclude from final pool, reassessment of excluded and included applicant lists, and sharing final pool with FAD).
- Commit to the timetable. If changes are needed, reiterate and adjust deadlines, and recommit.
- Assign one person to monitor activity completion and report back to committee weekly.
Resources: Recommended timeline; Sample timetable with template
After the 2018/2019 recruitment cycle, Redwood Consulting Collective surveyed all candidates who interviewed on campus for a tenure-line faculty position at CSUSB. Over 17% of those who responded to the survey expressed concerns that the hiring process was slow and lacked clear and timely communications.
2. Define the position:
- Identify all the roles the successful candidate will fill, including those specific to the position (e.g., directing a center or institute or engaging in community outreach).
- Determine the relative importance of each role (i.e., how important is it that the successful candidate is qualified to complete the role?).
- Identify the duties for each role and determine the relative importance of each duty.
Resources: Job analysis tips: Identifying and weighing activities and responsibilities
3.Identify the key knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) necessary for each important duty:
- List all possible KSAOs for each role/activity then reduce to most important ones.
- Include KSAOs that capture both “hard” (e.g., specific training and expertise) and “soft” (e.g., student engagement and collegiality) attributes.
- Ensure KSAOs correspond with qualifications and activities in advertisement (all qualifications/activities in advertisement should be included in KSAO list).
- Write the KSAOs to allow for both past and future trajectory of accomplishments.
- Determine and retain the KSAOs that best represent each category (and best coincide with future RPT evaluation of successful candidate).
- Central KSAOs should constitute the preferred qualifications listed in the advertisement.
Resources: Identifying and weighing KSAOs
Each primary category can be expanded to incorporate broad and inclusive KSAOs. Consider all aspects of position rather than focusing on only a few. For example, rather than focusing solely on scholarship and teaching, consider other expectations such as community engagement and student mentorship.
| Teaching/Mentorship KSAOs | Research/Scholarship KSAOs | Citizenship KSAOs |
|---|---|---|
| Ability to teach and supervise undergraduates | Scholarly impact | Commitment to collaboration with colleagues |
| Ability to teach and supervise graduate students | Research productivity | Unique abilities to contribute to department service needs |
| Ability to attract, work with, and teach diverse students | Ability to establish external reputation | Ability to make a positive contribution to the department's climate |
| Ability to teach range of classes as defined in advertisement | Potential for transdisciplinary collaboration | Ability to be a conscientious department citizen |
| Ability to teach range of classes | Ability to secure research funding | Evidence of inclusive behaviors |
4. Ascertain the information that will be used to evaluate KSAOs:
- Consider various approaches to assess KSAOs and select which methods will be used.
- Discuss the practicality, value, and harm of using specific materials during each review stage.
- Determine which application materials (e.g., cover letter, CV, research statement, teaching statement, sample teaching evaluations) will be considered for each KSAO.
- Determine which elements of the campus visit (e.g., job talk, teaching demonstration, meeting with students, interview with the search committee, meetings with faculty, and social interactions such as meals) will be considered to assess each KSAO when ranking finalists.
- Determine whether reference checks and preliminary (zoom or phone) interviews will be used to assess KSAOs. If yes, define which KSAOs they will be used to assess.
- When multiple materials or parts of the campus visit are used for a KSAO, decide how they will be weighted and the order that materials will be used to evaluate the relevant KSAO.
- Prepare to include all materials, information requested, and assessed parts of campus visit into evaluation. For example, if a diversity statement was requested, make sure that statement in built into KSAOs.
Resources: Sample matching KSAOs to materials workbook
As a search committee member, there is an opportunity to be thoughtful what parts of the application and interview process will provide the best information about KSAOs. For example, one can judge amount of teaching and mentoring experience from application materials that specify the number and name of classes taught and students mentored. Assessing how well a candidate interacts with students can’t be done with paper materials. As a committee member, you are able to consider available evidence from a campus visit to assess interaction quality. Taking this step for each KSAO can help motivate your committee to think outside the usual academic job interview box and find an effective way of assessing the specific things you want in this hire.