Strategy: Recruit, Develop and Retain a Distinguished and Diverse faculty
Point People: Barbara Horwitz
Narrative Summary of Fifth Year Implementation Efforts:
The emphasis in 2007/08, to enhance existing programs and create new initiatives to assist in the recruitment, development and retention of staff, was accomplished through continued refinement of recruitment activities and efforts to reach qualified, diverse applicants with the skills and background for successful staff employment. As noted below, we strengthened communications with campus departments on their staffing needs, developed a strategic plan for effective recruitments, developed partnerships with community based organizations and constituents to identify diverse applicant pools, promoted public relations at community events, engaged in institutional advertising, coordinated shared funding within campus and the Health System to utilize staff and resources for cost effectiveness, and offered extensive career development programs and services to assist with staff retention efforts.
To enhance our efforts further, we began the final stages for the implementation of PeopleAdmin, a system that will completely automate the recruitment to hire to process. Recognizing the system will change how we conduct business we analyzed current recruitment practices and surveyed several large employers in the surrounding communities on their best online practices to recruit qualified diverse applicants. Through that process, we identified improvements for standardized reports, eliminated activities that had no real value while not losing sight of internal staffing needs as we faced budget challenges that could have had impact on promoting employment opportunities to external applicants
Itemized below is a summary of activities in pursuit of this ongoing strategy.
Ongoing Efforts/Strategic Plan
- Used campus affirmative action goals to identify underutilization by job group category and major administrative unit/college to permit HR discussions with departments regarding the importance of diversity and strategic planning for successful staff recruitments.
- Campus emphasis on recruitment efforts to reach targeted diverse populations, in particular African American applicant pools, where underutilization has remained constant over the years for all job group categories.
- Worked with the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost/Campus Community Relations to review and evaluate the renewal of the campus wide partnership agreement with the Observer Media Group that was developed to assist UC Davis in its overall goal to implement its commitment to a comprehensive diversity action program.
- Introduced “Education Sundays” through the Observer agreement whereby campus staff attended quarterly church services with the Chancellor at predominately African American churches in Sacramento area to promote UC Davis as an employer as well as higher education institution of choice.
- Provided web access for hiring authorities, recruitment committees, department chairs, and deans on their administrative affirmative action goals by gender and ethnicity. This information was designed to assist hiring departments with information to develop recruitment strategies for targeted efforts to diversify applicant pools. http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Emp/mgrs_sups/aa_goals/aa_goals/
- Updated Employment’s and Supervisors/Managers web toolkit with links to Affirmative Action policies, resources, data related to affirmative action, and an outreach calendar of events and program information to support the importance of diversity. http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Emp/mgrs_sups/out_serv http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Emp/mgrs_sups/tools-resources/calendar_sup.pdf http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Emp/pubs/outreach-resources/or_staff_recruit_aa_goals.pdf
- Partnership with the UCDHS Health System to facilitate representation in the community at job fairs and other special events for targeted focused groups.
- Worked with the campus Partner Opportunities Program to develop procedural guidelines to assist departments with interactions with HR for the staff employment of spouse for the retention of faculty. http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Emp/mgrs_sups/recruitment-process/pop
- Developed three separate workshops for supervisors and managers as part of an HR Certificate Series on the various staffing options, affirmative action and best practices for developing strategies for effective outreach recruitment plans/importance of having a diverse workforce; and the required documentation for an equitable selection process in compliance with policy and laws.
- Developed working relationships with SISS and Payroll to explore development of campus training on the employment of non U.S. residents.
- Career Brown Bag Series for staff interested in career management including several sessions pertaining to career movement and the employment opportunities within campus.
- Annual review of employment trends by researching data provided by the Federal Bureau of Labor regarding projections for labor shortages due to aging workforce/baby boomers, changes with generational expectations, etc in comparison to campus workforce demographics.
- Streamlined processes by review and update of personnel policies and procedures regarding various employment laws in consultation with UCOP including specific policy procedures to assist with the retention of staff, i.e. ADA and the Interactive Process, Medical Separation, Reasonable Accommodation, etc. in addition to the development of a tracking form to document reasonable accommodation in effort to retain staff with disabilities.
- Worked with the Retiree Center to explore the development of potential applicant pools for future consideration following the interpretation of revised policy for the re-employment of rehired retirees.
- Work-Life and Wellness program promoted Work Life Brown Bag Series for staff that included 7 individual classes on various topics in addition to the Health Awareness Brown Bag Series that offered 8 separate classes covering personal wellbeing topics.
- ‘Understanding Diversity Certificate Series” offered to staff as an in-depth opportunity to examine the many differences that exist in our community and how to gain a greater understanding of the importance of a bias-free environment on campus.
- “Cross Cultural Competence Certification Series” offered to staff to explore the benefits of rich dynamics of cross-cultural interactions
- Community Leadership program courses offered two classes, one on “leading and managing in a multicultural community”, and the second on “culturally respectful” training.
- Completed the 10 month UC Davis Student Affairs Officers (SAOs) program that was designed to cultivate a diverse pool of highly talented and motivated staff interested in pursuing career development in entry-level SAO positions.
- Collaborated with campus departments and the Health System for institutional advertising for web based recruitment at various web job boards with strong diversity components in effort to expand outreach efforts, i.e., HigherEd Jobs. Com, Observer, HERC, and Career Builder who works with 84 diversity sites.
- Explored PeopleAdmin system features to identify report types capability to measure the effectiveness of outreach efforts.
- Maximized face-to-face contacts with community based organizations and applicants by rotation of staff at job fairs, community events and applicant workshops in partnership with campus departments to broaden outreach marketing efforts.
- Developed a list serve of community based organization contacts to assist departments with their recruitment efforts for hard-to-fill positions.
Plans for 2008-09
- Continue all efforts described above related to outreach/recruitment activities, including Education Sundays, applicant workshops, campus partnerships, and specific community efforts to expand recruitment efforts for highly qualified staff.
- Explore new models for cost effective programs including reporting mechanisms to produce accurate measurements of successful efforts for the recruitment and retention of staff.
- Expand HR courses/training to department on-site to increase participation of new supervisors, managers and staff involved with recruitment and employment issues.
- Expand institutional recruitment advertising in collaboration with campus departments and UCDHS to facilitate online job postings at various diversity web job boards.
- Continue the extensive class course offerings to staff regarding the value of a diverse campus community in support of the campus Principles of Community.
- Implement PeopleAdmin system campus wide for all staff recruitments to improve online service to departments and applicants.
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