Hiring
Most universities have equity hiring support of some kind. TRU’s Appointments Committee Training does touch on Equity Diversity and Inclusion. However, TRU is currently reviewing the faculty recruitment process to offer additional support and recognize opportunities for improvement to ensure hiring processes are inclusive and equitable.
Below are some key suggestions to make your hiring more inclusive and diversify your department and curriculum (treating inclusion in all four senses discussed above). Far more complete sets of recommendations can be found at some of the websites listed below.
Just choose: Decide as a department that you will hire a member from an underrepresented in your department. You will then need to write your ad and distribute it widely and in venues that help you meet this goal. You should discuss your plan with your dean and TRU’s department of People and Culture department. If possible, try to secure the right to keep the position open until filled. This might be difficult, as TRU does not, at present, approve hirings for the following year. Other things being equal, postings should be advertised for as long as possible and areas of specialization as open as possible.
Define an inclusive position and be ready to identify non-traditional candidates to fill it: For instance, if you are hoping to hire an Indigenous person, it is wise to write your ad so that it clearly includes Indigenous perspectives in the area of specialization (for instance, “contemporary epistemology, broadly construed”). If you are simply looking for more diverse candidates for what might sound like a traditional job, be sure to indicate as much. To take an example from philosophy, “political philosophy, broadly construed, including non-Western, disability, feminist, queer, and critical race approaches. Then actually consider candidates who do political philosophy in non-traditional ways. Remember, Mohandas Gandhi, Mengzi, W.E.B. DuBois, and Iris Marion Young are political philosophers and one can be a real political philosopher, while primarily studying one of these (or many other) figures. (Please consider adapting this example to your discipline.)
Be ready to learn that your presuppositions about certain subdisciplines are flawed. Treating familiar topics in novel ways often produce insights that go beyond the traditional boundaries of a subdiscipline. Being inclusive requires an openness to rethinking how disciplines address certain topics and subdisciplines. This need not come at the expense of rigor, but it is incompatible with dogmatism.
Keep interviews professional: Do not inquire about or make assumptions about people’s personal lives during the interview process. TRU’s People and Culture office has a confidential self-declaration of identification form for employees and for Canada Research Chairs applicants. Department members can state their commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive program and ask how candidates see themselves contributing to doing so. If candidates offer information indicating aspects of their personal lives, such as family status, sexual orientation, or disability status and request relevant information, such as institutional accommodations, of course department members should provide the relevant information or direct the candidate to the appropriate resources.
Ensure your hiring committee is diverse: Try to ensure that hiring committees are constructed with diverse members. Although Article 5.3.1.2 of TRU’s Collective Agreement only requires diversity in rank and gender, hiring committees should be as diverse as possible. For Indigenous hires, hiring committees should be composed of Indigenous scholars, Elders, and members of the community.
Follow The CRC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: A Best Practices Guide for Recruitment, Hiring and Retention: Advertise widely, including internationally and to professional and discipline- and industry-specific associations and conferences of underrepresented groups (e.g., Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology; Pride at Work Canada) and relevant industry and research organizations (e.g., Aboriginal Professional Association of Canada, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women—these organizations are provided as examples only).
Mandate proactive, targeted outreach to attract members of underrepresented groups. Keep track of promising students and postdoctoral researchers as they progress through their career to ensure they are aware of opportunities related. Search for candidates through social media and at conferences, gatherings, or other events, especially those with a topic of interest to underrepresented groups.
Compensate hiring committee members by giving them relief from other committee assignments; this will let them devote more time and resources to the hiring process, and will underscore that senior management believe conducting an open and transparent search that takes EDI into consideration is important.
Accept a full CV, ensuring that career interruptions due to parental leave, family care, extended illness, or community responsibilities do not negatively impact the assessment of a candidate’s research productivity. It is important that applicants know these will be taken into consideration when candidates are assessed.
Collect data regarding applicants who identify as members of underrepresented groups. Provide a clear privacy notice that indicates this data is collected to better assess how to attract applicants from underrepresented groups. Apply the self-identification best practices identified below.
Encourage the academic community and stakeholders to approach members of underrepresented groups and encourage them to apply.
If the pool of applicants to the posting is not large or diverse enough, extend the application deadline, or review the ad more critically for potential barriers and re-post it.
Ensure that candidates who are not shortlisted in the process are treated with courtesy and respect by providing responses as swiftly as possible.
Take into consideration special circumstances that may have affected candidates’ research, professional career, record of academic or research achievement, or completion of degrees. Relevant circumstances might include, but are not limited to, administrative responsibilities, maternity/parental leave, child-rearing, dependent care, illness, disability, cultural or community responsibilities, socio-economic context, health-related family responsibilities or pandemic.