Personnel Management

Effective faculty and staff hiring requires numerous components – internal and external clarity about the knowledge and skills needed for the position; a recruiting strategy that garners the largest and most qualified applicant pool possible; an efficient search process that enables the institution to make offers in advance of the competition and hopefully close the deal with top choice candidates; and the ability to offer adequate compensation packages. At FHSU and at Mercy, I implemented a faculty values project that helped the departments identify the ideal characteristics of a new faculty hire. This was then distilled down to create a core rubric, to which each department could add specific requirements, that was used to assess all applicants. As Provost I reviewed and approved all advertisements to ensure that they were clear and precise. The Academic Affairs Leadership Team also reviewed, improved and standardized the University and College descriptions for all job ads which made the institution and its location more attractive to candidates.The timing of the recruitment process is critical to success. If an institution can predict openings more than a year in advance it can fill positions as soon as they are open, and avoid using temporary hires or increasing the load on the existing faculty while positions are open. One of the most important roles of a Provost is to determine how faculty lines are allocated to the colleges and departments. At Radford, in partnership with my deans, I developed a risk and growth rate based model based on key metrics from each department, to determine allocation of new lines and shifting of lines from declining or phased out programs. This analysis was shared with the entire faculty to promote transparency in the decision-making process. I have also presented this model at an AASCU meeting. The model uses a two-year window, with projected faculty needs based on program growth, expected retirements and resignations, and funding availability. To aid in this process I implemented a retirement and resignation policy that provided a financial bonus to faculty if they provided us with at least seven months’ notice of their planned retirement or resignation.

The above initiatives enabled the departments to post advertisements very early in the annual recruiting cycle, and most importantly, to attend national meetings for their discipline with jobs in hand and candidate interviews prescheduled. To attract a more diverse candidate pool we increased advertising in diversity specific publications. I also encouraged the deans to create relationships with their counterparts at HBUs, HSIs and other minority serving institutions so that we could create a pipeline for graduate students nearing completion of their degrees to faculty positions at FHSU.

To expedite the hiring process, I helped develop process flow diagrams for each type of faculty hire (TT, multiyear, temp). This enabled us to see where bottlenecks occurred, redesign the process, and to set appropriate durations for each step. This resulted in much shorter searches and an increase in hiring of first choice candidates.

Finally, to ensure that we could close the deal with our top candidates, I used national compensation databases such as CUPA, and analyses within local markets and among national peer institutions, to set competitive compensation and benefit packages.

As part of the hiring process at Radford and FHSU, I reviewed and approved all search committee appointments, on-campus interviews etc. I also briefly interviewed all tenure / tenure track candidates and library staff recommended for appointment at FHSU. I appointed two of the five current deans and numerous department chairs.

Growing and Retaining the Best