College hiring

Effective Strategies for Hiring the Best New College Faculty

Dr. Mary C. Clement

Berry College, Georgia

mclement@berry.edu

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.

Additional skills

Learn how to

- prepare for on-site interviews

- evaluate candidate answers

- make strong final recommendations regarding hires

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.

A strong new hire

can actually raise the morale of colleagues.

re-invigorates the program and attracts students.

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.

A blueprint for hiring the best

Effective hiring practices may not just happen.

Search committees can be productive and democratic.

Everyone involved in hiring needs training

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

Legal issues exist.

1. Write an accurate job description

Envision the new position

Information rich description

Truth in advertising

What to include?

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

candidates

Polling question

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

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

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

2. Create an evaluation for the paperwork

Checklist for criteria listed in job description

Rating scale for cover letter and letters of recommendation

Why sort applications carefully?

Expenses of bringing candidates to campus

Past behavior is a predictor of future performance.

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.

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?

What are red flags?

“unaccounted for” gaps in education or employment

a series of short-term employments

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.

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.

Sample questions

Describe your past teaching experiences as specifically as possible.

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

Ask about research and writing

Tell us about your past research.

How have you shared your research professionally?

Ask about service/professionalism

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

Tell us about committee work you have completed.

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.

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.

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.

5. Prepare for on-site interviews

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

Illegal questions

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.

No one can ask about

age, gender, race, or national origin.

religion, family, or disabilities

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.”

Keep open interviews on track

Create and provide a handout about protocol and illegal questions.

Make an announcement before any open interview about protocol.

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.

Structure the questions

Use BBI-style prompts.

Tell about a time when…

How have you…

Describe how you have…

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?

To discuss with your group now

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

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?

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.

6. Prepare for evaluation of answers

Consider PAR

Problem

Action

Result

Example

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

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.

STAR is similar

Situation

Task

Action

Result

Discuss answers needed by candidates

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

Discuss these issues in advance.

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.

A. unacceptable answer / no experience with topic

B. acceptable answer / limited experience

C. strong answer / some experience

D. excellent answer / much experience

7. Making final recommendations

Hiring must be more than a gut feeling

Use the evaluations to make a more objective decision.

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?

Be careful with “touchy feely”

Should the candidate demonstrate “life satisfaction?”

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

Offering the position

Make the offer a true “invitation.”

People like to feel recruited and “wooed.”

Good hiring practice can lead to retention

What do candidates really want?

They want their expectations met (or exceeded).

When the position is offered

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

duties. Make salary and benefit issues clear.

Retention is important

Departments and programs need continuity.

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

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.

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.