Office of Affirmative Action Recruiting Resources

Office of Affirmative Action
Recruiting Resources

Assessing Candidates' Qualifications for Leadership Within a Diverse Environment

Interviewing and Evaluating Fairly and General Interviewing Suggestions

Recruitment Resources

The Office of Affirmative Action is able to assist you with your diversity recruitment needs. Please contact the office at 395-2109, or see our Diversity Resources page for specific recruitment needs.

Assessing Candidates' Qualifications for Leadership Within a Diverse Environment

Each member of the College community contributes to the development and maintenance of SUNY College at Brockport as a healthy environment in which diversity is valued. Administrative positions hold a unique responsibility for promoting a fair and equitable academic and/or work environment. Search committees can use the following methods to recruit and assess candidates who will lead the College toward excellence. The suggestions provided here are not designed to probe a candidate's personal beliefs. These suggestions are designed to help the search committee ascertain effective leadership and management style for an increasingly diverse, multicultural workforce.

Position Description: Valuing and assessing a candidate's experience with multicultural issues can begin at the beginning by including in the job description's listing of qualifications such qualities as "demonstrated commitment to diversity," "experience promoting a diverse environment," or "experience working effectively in diverse environments." This informs candidates from the outset of the University's commitment and encourages them to be forthcoming about such experience during the interview process.

Position Announcement: The same language used in the job description can then be used in the text of the advertisement. In addition to soliciting prospective candidates, the ad text serves to communicate the University's mission to the general public.

Recruitment Strategies: Attention needs to be paid to recruitment strategies designed to reach diverse applicants for all administrative positions. Personal and professional contacts can be helpful in exploring creative avenues that reach diverse groups. Examples include culturally targeted publications and/or scholarly journals, electronic bulletin boards, professional newsletters, and conferences.

Search Committee Membership: The search committee should be comprised of individuals who reflect the diversity of the campus. To achieve this goal, it may be necessary to include a member from related departments or units or a graduate student on the search committee. Additionally, arranging for candidates to meet with diverse University constituencies may be appropriate so that candidates can gain a more direct sense of the community with which they will work and live.

Interview Questions: Inquiries about equity and affirmative action need to be consciously incorporated throughout the interview and raised in varied contexts. Avoid compartmentalizing questions about fairness, equity, and affirmative action as if they were separate from issues regarding effective management, leadership, and planning. Similarly, questions about diversity and multiculturalism need to be asked by various members of the search committee. Frequently, members of constituency groups assume the responsibility for asking the "diversity" questions during the meeting. Making a conscious effort to share responsibility for questions regarding diversity ensures that diversity issues will be raised regardless of the gender and racial composition of the group.

Initiatives: Ask the candidate about specific kinds of studies, policies, procedures, or programs initiated to further develop the campus or workplace as a multicultural environment. Examples may include work already done or a statement of initiatives a candidate would propose if appointed.

Records: Solicit quantifiable information about the candidate's work in the areas of diversity, including: whether the candidate had an opportunity to recruit, retain, and promote women and minorities in his/her previous position and, if so, his/her success at these efforts; and information about programs, committee memberships in his/her previous position. However, questions regarding affirmative action and diversity need to be directly related to the responsibilities of the position for which the candidate is interviewing.

The following are examples of useful and appropriate open-ended interview questions:

Sample Interview Questions:: • What do you see as the most challenging aspects of an increasingly diverse academic community? What initiatives have you taken in your previous capacities to meet such challenges? What is your sense of the complexities and leadership challenges related to these issues?; • The Committee may want to identify questions that address specific areas of concern for the department, college, or administrative unit such as retention, recruitment, and conflict resolution. A simple question such as "How have you handled or would you handle similar situations?" could follow.; • How would you work with people under your supervision to foster the creation of climates receptive to diversity in the workforce, in the curriculum, in faculty/staff meetings?; • Suppose that, in working with a university unit, you discover a pervasive belief that diversity and excellence are somehow in conflict, how do you conceptualize the relationship between diversity and excellence? What kinds of leadership efforts are needed to encourage a commitment to excellence through diversity?; • In what ways have you integrated multicultural issues as part of your professional development?

References: A candidate's professional references should include people well-situated to evaluate past performance or future potential in this area. Such references might include heads of diversity programs with whom the candidate would have worked, department chairs, heads of commissions and councils, directors of women's and ethnic studies departments, directors of minority student services programs.

Interview Style: Finally, it is important to be attentive to a candidate's mode of interaction. Communication and attention to group dynamics are important aspects of leadership style and may indicate a candidate's potential effectiveness. Is the candidate at ease discussing diversity-related issues and their significance to the position? Is the candidate an active listener accurately hearing the issues posed? Does the candidate address all members of the search committee?

Adapted from materials from the University of Iowa Office of Affirmative Action and from the University of Minnesota's Commission on Women's Task Force on Institutional Decision-making and Administrative Accountability. See also, "It's All in What You Ask: Questions for Search Committees to Use" prepared by the Project on the Status and Education of Women, Association of American Colleges.

Evaluating a Resume/Vita

This checklist is adapted from Appendix 5-5 of Affirmative Action in Higher Education: A Sourcebook by Lois Vander Waerdt 1997.

1. Start at the end of the resume as most people leave the worst for last.

2. Watch for holes or gaps in work history. Watch for the "functional resume" - one that omits dates and only describes experiences and qualifications. It is very important to verify education and employment dates of the selectee.

3. Be wary of applicants with many jobs in a brief time period or too varied an experience or work history. This may point to career confusion, an applicant who is easily dissatisfied or bored.

4. Examine the thoroughness, completeness, and neatness of the application. Check grammar and spelling. Is an appropriate cover letter included?

5. Watch for trivia in the resume; a resume or vita that is puffed up with interests, hobbies, or other accomplishments. This may indicate a person who is weak in job experience and skill.

6. Look for qualifiers. Does the vita overuse phrases such as "had exposure to," "assisted with," "understanding of?" These may reflect lack of actual experience or training.

7. Avoid being misled by applicants who have an extensive education section, listing each course or seminar ever taken. This may be an attempt to cover insufficient training or education.

8. Red flag any negatives. Applications or resumes that reflect bitterness, anger, or passing the buck usually indicate a lack of responsibility or accountability on the part of the applicant.

9. Be careful of what you read into an application. What is left out or omitted may mean the lack of a skill or qualification or it may mean the applicant is extremely modest about skills or qualities. (For example, homemakers re-entering the job market, people newly terminated or downsized, or older workers in the job market after many years of work with the same employer may lack enough confidence to put themselves forward in the best light; they may, however, make excellent employees.)

10. Watch for repetition. Faculty vitae often list essentially the same work repeatedly as a presentation at a conference, a book chapter, an article, and an invited presentation. Someone with substantive knowledge in the faculty candidate's area of scholarship should evaluate the claimed publications.

Pre-employment Inquiries and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

When conducting a job search at the College, the search committee should devise a list of questions that will be asked of all candidates. A patterned interview with every candidate allows the search committee to make the best comparisons, ensures that each candidate is treated fairly, and minimizes unconscious biases. Employers may legally ask questions that are job-related. However, employers must avoid questions about disabilities that would be considered unacceptable and/or illegal.

Acceptable Inquiries

• "This job requires an employee to prepare written reports containing detailed factual summaries and analyses. The reports must frequently be prepared within tight time frames. Can you perform this function with or without reasonable accommodation?"

• Employer may state to an applicant, "This job requires an employee to transport 20-pound bags from a University van, up two flights of steps to a research lab. Can you perform this function with or without reasonable accommodation?"

• Employer may ask applicants to demonstrate the ability to lift 10-pound boxes, or to retrieve heavy objects from shelves, if such activities are essential job functions.

• Employer may ask applicants to inform employer of any reasonable accommodation needed to take a pre-offer examination, interview, or job demonstration.

• "How many days were you absent from work last year?

• "How many Mondays or Fridays were you absent last year on leave other than approved vacation leave?"

• Inquiries that are job-related and which are not likely to elicit information about a disability.

Unacceptable Inquiries

• Questions such as: "Do you ever get ill from stress?" and "Have you ever been unable to 'cope' with work-related stress?"

• "Would you need a reasonable accommodation to perform this job?" (Unless the applicant's disability is obvious or otherwise known to the interviewer because of the applicant's voluntary disclosure and the interviewer legitimately believes that the applicant will need a reasonable accommodation to perform the essential functions of the job.)

• At the pre-offer stage, asking if an applicant can perform a major life activity is prohibited if it is likely to elicit information about a disability, unless the question is specifically about the ability to perform job functions. Thus, questions such as "can you walk" or "can you stand" would not be allowed.

• "How many days were you sick last year?" or "How many separate episodes of sickness did you have last year?"

• An employer may not ask questions concerning prior job-related injuries or past worker's compensation claims.

• "What medications are you currently taking?" or "Have you ever taken AZT?"

• "Have you ever received counseling or medical treatment for mental illness?"

Reference and Credential Checking

Transcripts must be obtained for every candidate interviewed. In January 1996, Jesse L. Burns resigned as President of Edward Waters College. He claimed an MBA from Stetson University and a Doctorate from the University of South Florida. There was no record of Mr. Stetson having earned an MBA and the University of South Florida stated that he had enrolled briefly in 1978, but had not completed any course work! Two telephone calls could have saved the College money and reputation.

Regarding areas other than credentials, the most reliable indication of future performance is past performance. We want to hire the right people for our available positions. Thus, obtaining references is highly important to the hiring process. The final reference check should include the immediate supervisors of the candidate's last two positions. If these persons are not listed as references, it is important to aske the candidate why. Often a candidate has not mentioned to his/her supervisor that he/she is seeking other employment. Rarely, a candidate will request that you not contact a current supervisor. The search committee chair or department chair/head should discuss this with the candidate. Another reference may be substituted at the discretion of the committee chair or department chair head.

Employers face liability for negligent hiring. Employers have an obligation to screen out applicants who could pose a threat to others. Negligent hiring occurs when the employer fails to find out before hiring that the employee has problems of which the employer should have been aware and which should have resulted in the employer not hiring that person.