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Staff Recruitment Practices Initiative

Action Item (as stated with DEI strategic plan launch in 2016)

The university will convene a working group to develop strategies for effectively promoting the use of best practices in employee recruitment across campus. As part of this effort, the working group will focus on best practices regarding the inclusion of DEI language in job postings and recruitment marketing materials. The initiative will begin with an audit of current practice in schools, colleges and units to identify gaps, training needs and local models of excellence.

Progress update

 During Year Five, University Human Resources (UHR) focused its efforts on providing full-cycle recruiting support for proof of concept, adding strategic tools and resources, socializing best practice and building infrastructure within the center of expertise. Despite a hiring freeze imposed during the pandemic, progress was made in building more diverse, qualified candidate pools, upskilling hiring teams, and supporting equitable experiences for candidates.

Specific deliverables in Year Five include:

  • Expanded our ally network with presentations meant to influence and inspire change within the following groups: DEI implementation leads, SEAS DEI committee, HR on-boarding participants, HR Communications Group (all HR leads across the university), affinity groups such as The Coalition and APID/A. 
  • Developed an online, 30-minute module on Addressing Unconscious Bias in Recruiting and Hiring, completed by 752 individuals across campus.
  • Consulted with 12 to 15 units to evaluate current practices, identify pain points and ensure that inclusive practices are woven into all content.  
  • Coordinated recruiting and training of go-to professionals to pilot a Hiring Manager Bootcamp featuring self-guided online learning modules to upskill hiring team members on best practices in recruiting; 12 participating units.
  • Rebuilt and facilitated content for Foundations of Leadership Day 2 (“Hiring the Best”) to focus on inclusive, skills-based recruiting practices with 111 participants in spring 2021. Outcome: 77 percent of FOL participants “strongly agreed” that they feel prepared to lead efforts to create more equitable hiring processes in their unit or team.
  • Developed a workforce planning tool to guide units on strategic planning.
  • Rolled out additional HR data dashboards and analytics to support unit decision making.
  • Continued socialization and use of Datapeople, an inclusive job posting software that increases the diversity of applicant pools, with 250 users making over 41,000 revisions to 863 jobs.
  • Continued use of the following job boards via automated feeds of all open positions: diversity job board vendor Professional Diversity Network, Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, HigherEdJobs, Michigan Talent Connect and Higher Ed Recruitment Consortium. 
  • Hired a full-time recruiter to support teams in full-cycle recruiting, with a focus on inclusive best practices and building scale across the university.

 In progress:

  • Virtual reality solution for interview training, presented in partnership with Academic Innovation, to mitigate bias during the interview process, upskill hiring teams and promote fairness.
  • Interactive interview guide dashboard that allows teams to use research-based, skill-focused interview questions.

Responsibility: University Human Resources