Appendix A. Useful Web Sites for UTHSC-H and City of Houston Information
Recruitment of academic administrators is a critical and challenging task that is traditionally a joint effort between an administrator and a search committee. Successful searches lead to the identification and recruitment of individuals with the knowledge and leadership/management skills that enable them to strengthen teaching, research and service programs and foster faculty/staff collegiality, morale and productivity. On the other hand, hiring individuals who lack needed skills may negatively impact programs, faculty, and/or staff, and the costs to the institution can be significant and long-term. The following guidelines were therefore developed to assist administrators and search committees in the recruitment of new academic administrators. They address multiple phases of the search process, including: analyzing the position; establishing search committees; and identifying, evaluating, and recruiting candidates.
A vacant position provides the recruiting administrators a unique opportunity to rethink the functions/role of the position within the university. Therefore, the first steps in the search process should be analyzing the position and institutional needs and defining goals of the position and essential/desirable skills. The American Association for Higher Education's (“AAHE”) Search Committee Handbook: a Guide to Recruiting Administrators identifies five questions that may help in the assessment. They are adapted below for the UTHSC-H environment.
The recruiting administrator has primary responsibility for analyzing and defining the position, but he/she may gain valuable insights by seeking input from a variety of sources. The level/extent of input is dictated by the position, but useful resources may include:
Human Resources may assist in evaluating the position and/or providing information about similar positions in other academic institutions, and Human Resources – Equal Opportunity may provide information about legal requirements and documentation of the search process.
The results of the position analysis are critical and should be well articulated because they will guide subsequent phases of identifying, evaluating and recruiting candidates.
Search committees typically play a pivotal role in the recruitment of academic administrators, particularly key academic administrators such as presidents, deans, and department chairs. The university strongly encourages recruiting administrators to use search committees as a resource during the recruitment process while, at the same time, recognizes there may be compelling circumstances where the type of search outlined in these guidelines may not be feasible. In those cases, the recruiting administrator must be able to defend any decision to appoint an academic administrator without a search process/committee.
Effective committees enhance the search process by broadening participation/input and through the collective wisdom they bring to the effort. This is dependent, however, on having an appropriate number and mix of members who can work effectively together to accomplish the task of the search. Group dynamics suggest that there should be at least five but not more than nine members. Other composition related criteria recommended in the AAHE Guidelines are summarized below.
Interests - Based on the position and institutional priorities/needs, there are typically other interests that should be considered in establishing search committees. Factors in this category include:
Search committee members may be drawn from a variety of UTHSC-H departments/schools and from outside the institution, but, as a group, the status should be commensurate with the position being filled. The recruiting administrator appoints the chair of the committee, and he/she should also ensure appropriate staff is available to support the search process. This is particularly critical in terms of documenting the process and handling applications in a confidential, professional and sensitive manner.
The recruiting administrator convenes the committee and discusses the charge and the needs and priorities of the department/school at the initial meeting. The charge addresses multiple aspects of the search, including:
The primary responsibilities of identifying and evaluating candidates are discussed in more detail below.
Identifying qualified candidates requires a clear vision of what the committee is seeking, and this should be based on the charge of the recruiting administrator, comprehensive position description, and collective wisdom of the committee. The AAHE Guidelines recommend developing a written summary of preferred qualifications and suggest the following three questions as a framework for developing them.
At this point in the search process, the chair may want to review the preferred qualifications and progress to date with the recruiting administrator to ensure the committee is on the right track.
The committee is now ready to identify interested and qualified candidates. The AAHE Guidelines emphasize the importance of actively identifying/pursuing qualified candidates and note "the ultimate appointment can't be any better than what you attract to the pool." It is not sufficient to rely solely on responses to advertisements or traditional networks because these strategies may fail to attract top candidates who are not actively seeking new positions and who are not part of traditional networks. Therefore, to be effective, committees should be proactive and employ multiple strategies to identify applicants. Several strategies are summarized below and include recommendations from the AAHE Guidelines and the American Association of University Professors' 1995 edition of Policy Documents and Reports.
The AAHE Guidelines also suggest that committees develop information packets that provide potential candidates more information than is typically available in advertisements. Providing substantive information may help candidates know what to highlight about their professional experience in information submitted to committees, and it may also help limit the pool to appropriately qualified candidates. Suggested information to consider sharing with candidates includes:
The Guidelines suggest not requesting references at this point in the search process, and instead recommend committees request resumes that include detailed information about relevant administrative experience and a cover letter that might address strengths or specific interests related to the position. For some positions, it might be appropriate to request work samples.
Committees also have administrative responsibilities during this phase of the search, but they may be delegated to a staff person. Letters of acknowledgement should be sent promptly to all applicants upon receipt of their application packet. Affirmative action guidelines require that committees send an EEO Applicant Data Form to each qualified applicant for the purpose of inviting them to voluntarily self-identify. This request may be included in the letter of acknowledgement. Additionally, for applicant tracking purposes, a candidate log should be maintained.
Assuming the committee has a good pool of candidates, the evaluation phase begins with an initial screening of applicants. Depending on the number of applicants and the preferences of the committee, it may be handled in a variety of ways. The committee may choose to have the chair and/or his/her designee eliminate candidates who are clearly not qualified. Remaining candidates may then be screened and ranked by the entire committee or by subsets of it. The AAHE Guidelines recommend committees try to reduce the number of applicants to a size (e.g. 40 to 75) that can be reviewed by all committee members and to identify a natural breaking point as a cut-off for the ranking. They caution however against adopting a mindset which results in a pool that is "stripped down to a mid-level common denominator," and instead emphasize talent hunting where members focus on identifying interesting people who would bring something special to the position. They also suggest that each member have the opportunity to designate two candidates that will be placed in the pool for full committee review without challenge.
Further reducing the applicant pool to around eight candidates requires more in-depth and critical review by the committee. Candidate rating forms that rate select dimensions/criteria on a scale of one to five help focus members on critical areas and facilitate the evaluation process. Experts also recommend the following steps to improve the evaluation process:
Committee members should acknowledge any personal relationships with candidates that might unduly impact their objectivity and consider excusing themselves when appropriate. Midway through this phase and after completion of the rankings, there may be twenty or so strong candidates. At this point, the committee may again want to allow members to bring forward one candidate unchallenged for the next narrowing of the candidate pool. These twenty or so candidates may then be contacted by phone to verify continued interest, collect additional information, and seek permission to contact references if that is indicated. When the committee has a short list of about eight, the recruiting administrator should be given a progress report, and he/she might also be asked to indicate if any of the final candidates are unacceptable and should therefore be eliminated. Candidates not on the short list should then be informed by letter when it is clear they are no longer being considered.
With a short list of around eight candidates, the committee proceeds to what the AAHE Guidelines describe as the knowing-courting stage. The committee must learn as much as it can about candidates' qualifications while courting them to generate their interest/enthusiasm about the position. Evaluation of candidates at this stage may include gathering feedback from others with candidates' permission, and experts suggest conducting six to ten telephone interviews for each candidate with an appropriate mix of references, supervisors, staff and colleagues. They also advise focusing on the knowledge/skills essential for the job, patterns of strengths/weaknesses, and evidence of fit with the institution. With candidates' permission, committee members may choose to visit candidates at their current job (or home when confidentiality is required), and personnel staff may be asked to check credentials and the accuracy of information provided in resumes. With the additional review, committees must then determine which candidates to invite for a campus interview.
The campus interview involves reciprocal learning and courting. The institution must determine which candidates are the best fit and court them, and candidates must determine if positions are right for them. The AAHE Guidelines identify the following potential objectives for campus visits.
In planning the visit, committees should arrange for interviewers to promptly submit feedback, and it may be useful to provide them a comment sheet ahead of time and/or meet with them immediately after the candidates' interviews. Email may also be used to facilitate collection of this feedback if care is taken to assure confidentiality. Even though interviews are an essential and important part of the evaluation phase, the AAHE Guidelines acknowledge the challenges and limitations of the interview process and recommend not over-emphasizing them. They note there may be little correlation between candidates' performance in interviews and in jobs and cite one expert's advice to "not rely on interviews, even your own." Common pitfalls to avoid include:
The Guidelines also suggest that a few of the committee members review some of the available literature on interviewing and that a human resources professional brief the committee on interviewing techniques and equal employment opportunity issues. Two useful resources are The Evaluation Interview by Richard Fear and Seeing and Evaluating People by Geis, Carter, and Butle.
At the conclusion of each candidate's visit, it may be useful for him/her to meet with the chair of the search committee. This provides the chair an opportunity to:
Some personnel officers note that, at this point in the process, it can be instructive to ask what negative information would be heard if ten or twenty people from the candidates' campus/town were contacted about his/her candidacy. Chairs might also follow-up with candidates a few days after their return home to reinforce the institution's appreciation and inquire about remaining questions/concerns.
Promptly after the final candidate's visit, the committee should have an in-depth meeting to formulate the recommendations. Resumes, notes and feedback for each candidate should be reviewed and thoroughly discussed, and a summary discussing each candidate's strengths, limitations, preparation based on preferred qualifications, and the overall judgment of the committee should be prepared. The committee should avoid rank ordering candidates since this can:
The committee will meet with the recruiting administrator to discuss the recommendations, but he/she will also rely on the committee's summaries of candidates and may want their complete files. An affirmative action search summary will also need to be completed and forwarded to include the candidate log and, if applicable, a written justification for hiring without a search committee, to Human Resources – Equal Opportunity.
Assuming the slate of candidates is acceptable to the recruiting administrator and no further background checks are necessary, he/she should proceed as quickly as possible with initiating negotiations to recruit one of the candidates. This may include visiting the candidate at his/her campus or inviting him/her to visit UTHSC-H again with family. Issues identified by the AAHE Guidelines that should be negotiated include:
In addition to specific job related issues, there are a variety of other factors that may impact an individual's willingness to seriously consider relocating and/or ease/impede the relocation process. These issues may surface only through considerable discussions with candidates and may be raised with either search committee members or recruiting administrators. Therefore, both groups should be aware of relocation related issues, policies and/or resources. Some of these are briefly discussed below. There are also websites with information about UTHSC-H and the City of Houston that candidates might find helpful, and a sample of these are identified in Appendix A.
When negotiations are finalized, a public relations strategy should be identified to inform appropriate constituencies of the new appointment and the opportunities it brings to the institution. Prior to the public announcement, the new appointee needs time however to inform his/her supervisor, and the recruiting administrator should notify the search committee, remaining candidates, and any staff or administrators who need to be informed prior to the publicity. The public announcement is, as the AAHE Guidelines note, an important opportunity to "prepare the way, not for a saviour but a good person we all want to succeed." They also emphasize that "how a person enters an organization (the "induction") greatly [affects] his or her attitudes toward it, and people's attitudes toward the newcomer." Therefore, recruiting administrators should ensure new administrators receive appropriate orientations when they arrive, and, prior to their arrival, recruiting administrators should: include them in relevant communications; arrange a contact person that will provide assistance in the transition period; fund interim visits as needed; and deal, if appropriate, with existing "messes" in new appointees' areas of responsibility. Finally, search committee members may want to informally offer to be a confidential sounding board to ease the new administrators' transition. As the AAHE Guidelines note, this informal role completes the committee's charge of helping "the institution find, appoint, and bring aboard a person who will succeed."
Marchese, T. J. and J. F. Lawrence, The Search Committee Handbook, A Guide to Recruiting Administrators, American Association for Higher Education, 1989.
Policy, Documents and Reports, B. Robert Kreiser, editor, 1995 Edition, American Association of University Professors, Washington, D.C.
Fear, R. A., The Evaluation Interview, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, 1984.
Geis, F. L., M. R. Carter, and D. J. Butler, Seeing and Evaluating People, University of Delaware, Office of Women's Affairs, Newark, 1982.
UTHSC-H Home Page - Provides links to information about UTHSC-H that includes its academic, research and service programs as well as general information useful to faculty, staff and students.
Work/Life Information - Provides links and information about a wide range of work/life issues, including: childcare; K-12 needs; and UTHSC-H work/life related policies and programs.
UTHSC-H Campus Map - A clickable map of the UTHSC-H campus and other institutions located within the Texas Medical Center.
City of Houston Home Page - Provides links and information on a wide range of issues that includes city government, Houston resources, employment opportunities, and traffic.
Citysearch - Provides links to various sites with useful and interesting information about Houston that includes restaurants, hotels, parks, and cultural events.
Houston Chronicle Interactive Site - Home page for the Houston Chronicle, the city's primary newspaper, which has top news stories as well as links to information on issues such as entertainment, health, sports, and weather.
Updated 4/03, 08/07, 06/08
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