Inclusive Hiring Kit

Friday, June 17, 2022

Microlearning Unit 1: Planning and Recruiting

Illustration of a search magnifying glass over lines of text on a resume

Unit Introduction

This unit focuses on inclusive practices and processes related to planning and recruitment for professional positions within the higher education IT community. Although a majority of the recommendations may seem geared toward hiring committees, unit or organization leaders are responsible for determining the inclusivity of an organization and should play an active role in all aspects of recruitment, hiring, and retention.

Unit Goals

Preparation and Pre-Recruitment

Engage in Awareness- and Capacity-Building around Best Practices

  • Watch educational videos.

  • Select a search committee with representation in mind:

    • Consider representation and different dimensions for representation.

    • Consider facilitating unconscious or implicit bias training for all search committee members.

  • Map out all the places where your systems use names and gender markers.

    • Candidates need to be able to enter and edit their preferred names, pronouns, and disability status, and your organization's internal systems (HR information systems, IT systems) need to be able to support that.

  • Review your department's and overarching institution's website(s) to determine how inclusive they are to potential hires and how effectively they demonstrate such support.

    • What story are you sharing?

    • Do photos feature only one type of employee?

    • Are the language and graphics representative of whom you want to hire?

    • What does the organization's leadership team look like?

    • Where are underrepresented populations found in the organizational charts?

  • Conduct a market survey by collaborating with HR and payroll departments to offer an equitable compensation and benefits package.

Craft Position Descriptions and Advertisements through a Lens of Belonging

  • Recruiting starts when a new position is created or when an existing position becomes available. A prudent step in the process is to thoughtfully review job descriptions before posting or reposting a position in order to intentionally invest in the inclusivity of the organization.

  • Evaluate and recraft minimum qualifications to avoid inadvertently making the position or institution less attractive to certain candidates.

    • Focus on technical prerequisites rather than academic prerequisites.

    • Emphasize critical soft skills and attributes for success.

    • Consider using resources like the Better Allies: Approach to Hiring book.

  • Consider using tools that support the use of inclusive and bias-free language in your job posting and marketing materials.

  • Include salary scales or ranges with job postings so that candidates have a realistic understanding of the pay scale and intended range. If this is not shared, applicants have to guess the range and may ask for lower compensation due to lack of knowledge, which creates an imbalance early in the process.

  • Help candidates understand that they are indeed qualified for positions.

    • Candidates might have cultural or gender-based misconceptions of worth or experience.

  • Ensure that your job posting and application interface/processes are accessible.

    • Proactively design all recruitment assets to be fully accessible for people with disabilities according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 or ensure the availability of equally accessible alternative pathways.

Outreach

Market Internally to Students, Interns, and Staff

  • Partner or pilot inclusive recruiting through internal units such as HR, multicultural groups, student life offices, veterans resources, and career services.

  • Offer professional pathways for current student workers through internships, mentoring, and shadowing opportunities.

  • Commit to creating professional pathways and growth opportunities for internal/existing staff who represent underrepresented communities.

Market Externally via Belonging-Focused Job Boards

  • Facilitate a broader applicant pool by posting openings on job boards that specifically target underrepresented communities (e.g., your local chamber of commerce, the NAACP, your campus ROTC).

  • Better advertise benefits to increase job acceptance (e.g., flex time, floating holidays, maternity/paternity leave)

    • Information on what is included in medical plans can be a key factor for candidates with disabilities, transgender candidates, and others.

  • If the organization decides to use an external agency or search firm, the firm's values and processes should reflect the desire to be inclusive and follow the hiring organization's lead for gathering a broad pool of candidates.

  • Ensure that any marketing or publicity related to job postings clearly demonstrates a culture of belonging that would be attractive to underrepresented communities.

Additional Resources

Educational Videos

Implicit Bias Training

Job Search Advocate

Inclusive and Bias-Free Language

Job Boards and Recruiting Tools

Free Opportunities

Paid Opportunities