Post on 22-Jan-2015
description
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.