Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity at UNC –

Promoting Quality through Diversity

A Hiring Guide for Search Committees and Hiring Authorities.2009

Diversity and affirmative action are related concepts – but the terms have different origins and legal connotations.

Workforce diversity is a voluntary business management concept used to promote an inclusive workplace.

Diversity vs. Affirmative Action

Many employers have concluded that a diverse workforce makes a company stronger, profitable, and a better place to work.

Voluntarily promote and create a culture of respect for individual differences.

Goal is to gather experience, talent, and ideas from a variety of the population to gain a competitive advantage.

In short, it is good business practice.

Diversity

Non-voluntary, written actions taken to overcome the effects of past or present practices, policies, or other barriers to equal employment.

May be required by court order or

regulation.

May implement voluntary affirmative action plans in appropriate circumstances.

Affirmative Action

UNC’s plan is designed to bring women and men, members of minority groups, and persons with disabilities into all levels and segments of the University of Northern Colorado’s workforce in proportion to their representation in the qualified relevant labor market.

In taking the extra steps to recruit for equal representation, we ensure that we have reached out to all candidates who may be qualified, and thus allow the opportunity for the university to recruit the best candidates for the position.

∗ AAP and UNC

Goal is to reach out and consider all qualified candidates without bias.

Not unlawfully discriminate, whether intentionally or unintentionally, against an otherwise qualified candidate based on solely protected status.

It does not mean that we must hire an unqualified candidate because she or he is in a protected class.

What does it mean..

UNC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer that is committed to a culturally diverse staff, faculty, and student body.

The University will not engage in unlawful discrimination in employment or educational services against any person because of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation or preference, political affiliation, or veteran status.

Decisions are made based solely on valid, nondiscriminatory criteria and requirements.

∗UNC’s Policy

Employment actions can include: ◦ hiring, upgrading, demotion or transfer; ◦ recruitment or recruitment advertising; ◦ layoff, retirement, or termination; ◦ rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and◦ selection for training, including apprenticeship.

Applicants and employees should be hired, trained, and evaluated based on job related competencies regardless of gender, color, or any other protected status.

What is an employment action?

Typical downfalls of an interview process:

Interviewer is intentionally or unintentionally biased based on a race, origin, gender, or other protected status;

Process is narrow or flawed causing repeated hiring of a certain class;

Assumes there is only one way to do a job – does not consider accommodation possibilities;

Stuck in their ways – not willing to consider someone outside of their personal comfort level – does not want a change in the status quo.

Process Downfalls

HRS serves to: ◦ educate the campus community;◦ monitor institutional practices and procedures;◦ review and report on the University’s affirmative

action program; ◦ recommend measures to ensure compliance with

the University’s policies and federal and state law; ◦ mediate, hear, and recommend resolution of

complaints of unlawful employment and educational discrimination.

Human Resources Role

Position Review –

Professional Administrator positions – Review the current Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ)

for Professional Administrators. Ensure that it is current and accurately describes the

essential functions of the position. Faculty positions do not have PDQ’s - Position should be

reviewed and approved by the dean to ensure appropriate minimum qualifications are set and are consistent for the job.

Important to determine how the position will support the overall area.

Decide what qualities, skills, education, and experience needed to make the best fit for that role.

Hiring Authority’s Role – Position Review

Observe the job and talk to employees who actually do the job;

Note minimum requirements and skills necessary to succeed in the position, including temperament, education, communication, project management skills, etc.

Decide if you need to make changes in the functions or duties;

Use the PDQ in the selection process to create the job postings, create minimum and preferred qualification screening criteria and telephone and in-person interview questions.

Position reviews

Ensure that the essential functions listed are items that must be completed by the position.

Consider if these functions could be performed by others in the unit or accommodated if needed.

For example:◦ If hiring a faculty position, is typing an essential

function or can the department accommodate the function with a voice command program? Can assistant type instead?

Essential functions

Current Diversity – Review current staff demographics. Determine if a protected group is underrepresented. Contact HRS if you need assistance in obtaining or reviewing this

information.

Methodology - Decide if the methods used in the past have resulted in a diverse

workforce. If not, determine what can be done to reach out to underrepresented

groups and design recruitment plan to do so.

Hiring Process - Review the hiring processes and determine which fits best for your

position (independent review; screening committee, or search committee).

Hiring Authority’s Role – Hiring Process

Select the committee chair person, committee members, AA/EO coordinator, and search administrative assistant;

Select a diverse group that bring different view points to the process.

Determine functions you wish the committee to complete and which ones you will complete;

Complete the required job request documents and forward to your dean. Once approved, the information will be forwarded to HRS.

Hiring Authority - Selecting a committee

Once approved through the job request process (PeopleAdmin), advertise the position listing the minimum and preferred qualifications.

HRS places in HigherEdJobs.com for all positions. Department determines other advertising resources that will

best recruit diverse, qualified applicants for their respective positions and place the ads directly at their expense.

Examples might include: trade, professional, or area of interest associations; The Chronicle of Higher Education; professional journals; and sites geared toward diversity markets. Addendum A provides further information.

Advertising

AA/EO Coordinators:

Play an important part to ensure UNC follows protocols when hiring.

Have specific duties within the search committee and do not generally participate in the selection of candidates.

Should familiarize yourselves with UNC’s policies and procedures and with federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination.

Have special access to PeopleAdmin to review positions, candidates, and the AA/EO report. This report shows the number of applicants and their demographic information if the applicant chose to provide it.

Part educator to the committee to ensure it understands the correct processes and procedures, especially with confidentiality.

Role of an AA/EO Coordinator

Review of Pool:

Look at the demographics of the pool and determine if the applicant pool is diverse enough to proceed based on the specific position and recruiting area.

If, based on the field and recruiting area, the coordinator does not feel that the field is broad enough he/she should inform the search chair and request that additional time or advertising resources are used to include underrepresented candidates.

If pool is diverse enough, or the department has reached out appropriately even if the pool isn’t as diverse, coordinator may approve the committee to continue with the current candidates.

Duties of an AA/EO coordinator

Screening Criteria:

Review the screening criteria to ensure that the candidates are being screened based on job specific requirements.

If questions do not match the position requirements, stop search and request the committee chair or committee adjust the criteria.

Questions used to initially screen the applicant must be in line with the minimum qualifications.

All candidates that meet the minimum qualifications must be passed to the preferred qualification review.

Duties of an AA/EO coordinator

Questions: Review interview questions to ensure that they are fair,

represent the position, and are not discriminatory.

Reference, telephone and on-campus interview questions must also be inline with the position responsibilities and should be asked of all candidates or references. Follow up questions are appropriate to obtain further clarification.

Personal questions of the candidates should not be asked and may be illegal.

Do not ask any questions of the reference that you would not legally be able to ask the candidate.

Duties of an AA/EO coordinator cont.

Interviews: Attend on-campus interviews when possible to

ensure the process is fair and appropriate.

Should attend the committee interviews when possible to ensure that the process and committee conduct are fair and nondiscriminatory.

It also provides an opportunity for the candidate to meet the coordinator prior to the exit interview.

Duties of an AA/EO coordinator cont.

Conflicts: Ensure there are no conflicts of interest with members

and applicants.

If any arise, bring it to the search chair’s attention (or HRS if needed) and stop the search until the situation is resolved.

It is the responsibility of any committee member involved in the search, the hiring authority, or coordinator to report any potential conflict of interest.

It may be reported directly to HRS if needed.

Duties of an AA/EO coordinator cont.

Reviewing applicant information of a friend, family member, or candidate for whom you are a reference;

Intentionally scoring other candidates lower so that a known candidate is scored higher;

Providing a candidate with questions or information not normally shared with candidates

Not revealing an association with a candidate with whom you have a close relationship or business venture;

Any of this situations should be disclosed up front or as soon as it is known. Failure to do so can disrupt the process or nullify the search, cause it to have to be closed and another search started.

Examples of conflict of interest

Exit Interview: Meet with each candidate after all on-

campus interviews to complete the exit interview form.

This gives the candidate an opportunity to discuss any process or questions she/he feels was inappropriate.

The Candidate Exit Interview form is located on the HRS website.

Duties of an AA/EO coordinator cont.

Closing Documents: Complete the AA/EO Closing Sheet.

Submit exit interviews and demographic summary along with it at the close of the search.

NOTE: If a candidate has a concern, refer it to HR at that time.

Duties of an AA/EO coordinator cont.

The search chair and committee members have the role of evaluating candidates based on the position’s requirements.

Committees should be comprised of a diverse group

of individuals including subject matter experts, to enable the group to have a broad view point when reviewing the qualifications.

The search chair’s role is to ensure the process runs smoothly and in a timely manner. Additionally, she/he must also ensure, along with the AA/EO coordinator, that the process is in line with UNC’s policies.

Search Chair and Committee Roles

Review each applicant in a fair manner based on criteria of the position.

Access to the applicants through a guest user login in PeopleAdmin. Please do not print the documents. If you need an accommodation, please contact the search chair for other review options.

Review should be unbiased and only on the important factors of the job, not name, possible origin, or gender.

Each person reviews differently. The important point is that you review each candidate thoroughly in the same manner throughout the process.

Selection

Unless you have been asked to only do an initial screening of the applicants, you will probably have a role in creating questions or interviewing the candidates.

Important points to know: Only ask job related questions. Personal questions, however harmless as they

may seem, may be inferred as discriminatory. Follow up questions may be asked if needed to

clarify and answer or to receive further information.

Questions

When interviewing, ensure to ask all questions of all candidates. Ensure accommodations are of equal or similar quality.

Write down your responses for you to review for follow up questions and/or to make recommendations to the committee.

Ensure that access is available to those who need accommodations (i.e. wheel chair access, sign interpreter, etc.)

Make sure to only make relevant comments pertinent to the candidate’s ability or experience – not general notations.

What is equal treatment?

Different hiring authorities may request your input in different ways.

Some may want you to rank the finalists; others may want strengths and weaknesses.

Regardless of how you provide your input, make sure to evaluate the candidate based on the position requirements and fit for the position based on all of the input received.

Search Committee - Your Recommendations

The search administrative assistant (admin) has the important role of documenting the search, thus providing a record of the process. The admin will take notes at all committee meetings.

The admin also has expanded rights in PeopleAdmin to help monitor and change the applicant statuses and note why an applicant was not selected.

Search Administrative Assistant

At the request of several departments on campus, the decision was made for the departments to continue to write rejection letters.

The search assistants normally take care of ensuring these letters are sent to candidates no longer in the pool.

With the advent of PeopleAdmin, you will only need to print a copy of the finalists’ information.

All other information is stored electronically.

However, if the search required hard copies of any documents, the department will still need to store these search materials for all applicants other than finalists for 3 years.

Duties – Search Admin Assistant

At the end of the search, the admin and search chair will collect all documentation used, committee meeting notes, committee members screening criteria and interview notes, and forward to the hiring authority.

Note: Some colleges require that this information be reviewed by the dean prior to an offer. Check with your specific dean.

The hiring authority will then complete the search closing

documents and forward these documents, the finalist files, and all of the above mentioned documentation to HRS. This will officially signal the close of the search. Once this step is completed, HRS will close the search on PeopleAdmin.

Duties – Search Admin. Assistant

The purpose of UNC’s Affirmative Action program is multifaceted. Its intent is to:

Bring women and men, members of minority groups, and persons with disabilities into all levels and segments of the University of Northern Colorado’s workforce in proportion to their representation in the qualified relevant labor market.

Provide UNC with the best opportunity to promote equal employment opportunity based solely on valid, nondiscriminatory criteria and requirements, not based on race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation or preference, political affiliation, or veteran status;

In closing

Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and university regulations; and most importantly; and finally

Create a culture of respect for individual differences in order to draw relevant experience, talent and ideas from all segments of the population thereby providing the best faculty and staff to provide our students with the best learning experience.

In short – it’s all about the students.

Human Resources is available to answer any question you may have regarding the process. Contact the department at 351-2718.

In closing continued

Local and/or regional newspapers;

Trade or professional websites or journals;

Higher education resources: The Chronicle of Higher Education; tedjob.com; insidehighered.com; academiccareers.com; studentaffairs.com

Career-targeted sites: based on certain occupation groups i.e. SHRM (human resources); joblist.ala.org (library); dice.com (technical positions)

Addendum A – Advertising Sources

Diversity employment sites: diversity.com; workplacediversity.com; rileyguide.com; forefront.com (women);latpro.com; blackjobs.com; hispanicoutlook.com; gettinghired.com (disability)

General employment sites: monster.com; careerbuilder.com; Americanjobs.com; jobing.com; indeed.com; jobbankUSA.com;

Addendum A – Advertising Sources cont.

Position Authorization Form (PAF)

Hiring Authority’s Charge to Search Committee

Initial Screening Criteria

Position Exemption Request (if requesting exemption from state classified personnel system)

Administrative/Professional Exempt Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ) and organizational chart. Not needed for faculty search.

Addendum B – Required documents to open a search

Submitted by AA/EO coordinator to Employee Relations

Coordinator: Candidate Exit Interview Forms AA/EO Closing Sheet Print out of AA/EO Demographic Summary

Submitted by search chair to hiring authority: Search Chair Closing Sheet Position Finalist Form Hard copies of finalist files All committee materials listed on closing sheet

Submitted by hiring authority to HRS as one package: Approved Position Finalist Form Search Chair Closing Sheet Hard copies of finalist files All committee materials listed on closing sheet received from search chair

Addendum C – Required documents to close a search

Approved interview questions can be found on the HRS website: www.unco.edu/hr

They are located on the Employee Resources tab in the Hiring section.

Contact HRS at 351-2718 if you have any questions or concern regarding a search.

Addendum D – Sample Interview Questions