Action Item (as stated with DEI strategic plan launch in 2016)
The university will convene a working group to develop strategies for effectively promoting the use of best practices in employee recruitment across campus. As part of this effort, the working group will focus on best practices regarding the inclusion of DEI language in job postings and recruitment marketing materials. The initiative will begin with an audit of current practice in schools, colleges and units to identify gaps, training needs and local models of excellence.
DEI 1.0 Evaluation Update
Beginning in 2016 and continuing through Year Five of DEI 1.0, the Working Staff Recruitment Practices Work Group accomplished the following:
- Surveyed 2,700+ applicants and distributed a New Hire Staff Experience Survey
- Expanded ally network with presentations and trainings to DEI implementation leads and DEI committees, HR on-boarding participants, all HR leads, UM-Flint, affinity groups, and Michigan Medicine HR staff
- Prepared a tactical strategy and developed active recruiting approaches by partnering with broader sourcing agencies that included diversity job board vendors such as: Professional Diversity Network, Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, HigherEdJobs, Michigan Talent Connect, and Higher Ed Recruitment Consortium
- Launched a completely revamped Resources for Hiring Units webpage featuring protocols for mitigating bias and the roll-out of a new job posting platform for all AA campus units to ensure inclusive, candidate-friendly postings
- Encouraged units to utilize Data People, an inclusive job posting software that increased the diversity of applicant pools, resulting in 396 users who made 49,000+ revisions to 1,167 job postings
- Developed an online, 30-minute module on Addressing Unconscious Bias in Recruiting and Hiring, completed by 2,381 individuals across campus
- Rebuilt and facilitated content for Foundations of Leadership (FOL) Day 2: Hiring the Best, to focus on inclusive, skills-based recruiting practices with 235 participants in spring 2021
- Polled the 235 FOL participants and determined that 98% “strongly agreed” that they now felt prepared to lead efforts to create more equitable hiring processes in their unit or team
- Coordinated the recruiting and training of go-to professionals in 12 university units to pilot a Hiring Manager Bootcamp featuring self-guided online learning modules designed to upskill hiring team members on best practices in recruiting
- Created behavior-based interview questions aligned with the Michigan Expectations Model and developed an interactive interview guide dashboard for teams to use research-based, skill-focused interview questions
- Deployed an automated reference check platform to help units provide an equitable experience for candidates and ensure the quality of new hires
- Formalized the talent acquisition team as a department with a team of 6 staff
- Created virtual reality solution for interviewing training – piloting with 50 users
Responsibility: University Human Resources