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Procedures

This overview of the College of Engineering’s faculty hiring process lists the necessary steps and timing, as well as best practices, to ensure an equitable hiring process.

Establish search committee (weeks 1–2) Finalize evaluation rubric and job ad (weeks 3–4) Generate strong and diverse applicant pool (weeks 4–6) Complete initial evaluation of applications (weeks 7-8) Interview preliminary candidates and finalists (weeks 9–12)Identify finalist to whom to make an offer (weeks 13)Debrief search process (week 14+)Additional resources

The process highlights points of interaction between hiring units and the College, and includes tasks for the department chair, search committee chair, search committee, assistant to the chair (ATC) and the College of Engineering Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIE). The steps outlined below should only be taken after receiving approval on the College’s hiring plan.

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A critical first step in an inclusive and equitable hiring process is to follow best practices for forming and preparing the search committee.

  •  Assemble and charge the search committee - Department Chair

  • Follow best practices for forming a search committee
   

Best practices for forming a search committee

   

Office for Faculty Advancement best practices for faculty searches

  • Concise Handbook divided into six steps of the search process
  • Expansive Toolkit of sample materials and additional resources
  • Workshops for search committees and for unit leadership
  • Indicate search committee chair and department staff support person (e.g., person handling Interfolio actions on behalf of the committee – usually department ATC).

  •  Hold initial search committee meeting(s)

  • Review relevant sections of the best practices guide for search committee formation:
    • Identify roles of search committee members collectively and individually (e.g., some members may be asked to pay particular attention to specific issues such as research, teaching, service, mentoring, diversity/equity/inclusion, leadership, etc.)
    • Ensure that there are different types of search committee members (e.g., students, staff, people outside of hiring unit, faculty, etc.)
  • Review goals for and charge to the search committee
  • Begin discussing evaluation criteria:
    • Determine how many elimination stages will take place (e.g., minimum qualification evaluation, first downsample, etc.). Create rubric and evaluation criteria for each stage.
    • Define desired skills, experiences and characteristics for role along dimensions of interest (e.g., research, teaching, service, mentoring, diversity/equity/inclusion, leadership, etc.)
    • Clarify how each dimension will be assessed
    • Differentiate rubric criteria by rank if conducting an open rank search
  • Begin to review templates of various job ads and rubrics
  • Designate a member to draft the Job Ad and another member to draft the rubric
  • Begin to develop a recruitment and assessment plan.
  • Review additional resources

Finalize evaluation rubric and job ad (weeks 3 – 4)

The commitment to recruiting and hiring from a diverse pool of candidates requires aligning the faculty search process and search committees with evaluation rubrics, job ads and a clear evaluation process.

  •  Create evaluation rubrics

  • Determine how many elimination stages will take place (e.g., minimum qualification evaluation, first downsample, etc.). Create rubric and evaluation criteria for each stage.
  • Define desired skills, experiences and characteristics for role along dimensions of interest (e.g., research, teaching, service, mentoring, diversity/equity/inclusion, leadership, etc.)
  • Clarify how each dimension will be assessed
  • Differentiate rubric criteria by rank if conducting an open rank search

Review additional resources: Part 4: Assessment of the UW Handbook of Best Practices for Faculty Searches, online toolkit, sample rubrics, webinar and additional resources.

  •  Clarify which application materials will be requested in the job ad

  • Ensure application materials reflect dimensions evaluated in the rubric
  • Instead of requesting letters of recommendation in the job ad, request a list of references. Review references or letters of recommendation after the initial round of cuts or after the preliminary interview stage
  • Enable applicants to clearly address dimensions evaluated in the rubric
    1. Identify the purpose of each item submitted as part of the application.
    2. Outline ideal elements applicants should address in their research, teaching, and diversity statements. Share this information in the job ad or via an informational document that can be linked in the job ad or other recruitment materials. This step promotes a more equitable experience because candidates receive different mentoring in their faculty application experience. This step also promotes the alignment of application materials with the rubric.

  •  Review draft job ad

  • As a committee, review the job Ad and rubric and ensure the following:
    • Include inclusive language throughout
    • Use recommended language on diversity at the UW
    • Map rubric evaluation criteria onto job ad application elements
    • Confirm what you need for evaluation has been requested via the job ad
    • Review Academic Personnel's job ad guidance on common reasons Interfolio ads send back
  • Determine where the ad will be placed

  •  Finalize and submit job ad

  • ATC confirms that the ad meets COE HR requirement
  • Confirm ad placement locations to meet COE requirement
  • ATC submits the advertisement in Interfolio
  • ATC sends priority application review deadline to Office of Inclusive Excellence.
    • Once Ad is approved by the Office of Academic Personnel, unit will receive a notification.

Generate strong and diverse applicant pool (weeks 4 – 6)

Search committees and the hiring unit should actively engage in generating a strong and diverse applicant pool and check in with the Office of Inclusive Excellence at their priority review deadline.

  •  Review data on the expected applicant pool composition

  • The College of Engineering provide units with national data from American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) on hiring pools by field
  • Search Committees review ASEE pool data provided by CoE

  •  Advertise and recruit strong and diverse applicant pool

  • Follow best practices for recruiting
   

Best practices for recruiting

  • Always be recruiting
    • Proactively and consistently engage in active recruiting and relationship building to identify and diversify applicant pool
    • Engage in relationship building over multiple years (e.g., connecting with students early and often in their academic careers before they become eligible for faculty positions)
  • Create a hiring plan that:
    • Includes active recruitment efforts to diversify the candidate pool.
    • Identifies where ad will be disseminated.
    • Encourages individual faculty members to share job ad, including but not limited to:
      • Meeting with individuals during invited talks and conferences
      • Making 1:1 contact with individuals
      • Asking people for recommendations
      • Engaging in personal outreach to relevant and diverse organizations
    • Shares timeline for recruitment activities
    • Actively advertise and network for the position and recruit potential applicants.
    • Solicit suggestions for potential applicants from a wide network.
      • Dept chairs in other Engineering Colleges
      • Affinity groups
      • Professional groups
      • LinkedIn
      • Colleagues

Use additional resource from Office of Faculty Advancement such as the Greater Washington State Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (GWS HERC)

 STOP and check in with OIE at priority review deadline

  •  Generate applicant pool report

  • ATC creates applicant pool EOAA report within Interfolio and shares report with search committee. (Directions available at Interfolio FAQs website.)
  • ATC changes the Interfolio Position Status of the search to “Reviewing Applications.”

  •  Review applicant pool composition

  • Search committee reviews applicant pool demographic report and compares with national demographic data.
  • Seek advice if composition diversity does not match ASEE data provided

  •  Search committee chair notifies Office of Inclusive Excellence that the committee would like to begin reviewing applications.

  •  OIE reviews applicant pool composition

  • ATC sends applicant pool EOAA report to OIE
  • OIE compares applicant pool composition with national demographic data.
  • OIE provides feedback on applicant pool composition.
  • Unit waits for the directive to proceed with reviewing the applications
    • If OIE flags the pool as out of sync with ASEE data provided, extend the application deadline and increase efforts to strengthen the applicant pool.
    • If the pool aligns with the ASEE data provided, proceed to the next section (evaluating applications).

Complete initial evaluation of applications (weeks 7-8)

Search committees should use best practices to complete their initial evaluation of applications and check in with the Office of Inclusive Excellence prior to inviting preliminary interview candidates.

  •  Conduct initial review of applications

  • Follow best practices for evaluating applications
   

Best practices for evaluating applications

  • Prior to any review, search committee determines the application review process including:
    1. Various stages of application review (e.g., 1st cut for minimum qualification, 2nd cut, 3rd cut, etc.)
    2. Methods for reviewing applications at each stage. For example,
      • for first cut, read a subset of application materials
      • no rolling application review to avoid “first-in” bias
      • Committee member A reviews applications 1 – 50 first, Committee member B reviews applications 51 – 100 first
    3. Preparation of evaluation materials (e.g., is there a template?)
    4. Evaluation meeting process
      • How will committee meetings be run? How frequently will people meet?
      • How will applicants be discussed? Determine consistent discussion format for all applicants.
      • How will conflicts of interests be handled and defined?
      • How will the rubric be used during evaluation meetings?
      • When and how will the rubric be updated for each evaluation stage? Do not evaluate applications until the present stage rubric is finalized.
      • Specify how special committee roles are used during evaluation meetings (see best practices for search committee formation). Map that plan onto the execution of application evaluation process.
  • Prior to each evaluation stage
    • Update the rubric for each evaluation stage PRIOR to reviewing any applications.
    • As needed, request additional information from candidate (e.g., names of references, letters of recommendation, etc.)
    • Confirm evaluation and review process for the current stage
  • Use rubrics consistently when evaluating applicants.
  • If it’s not in the rubric, it should not be evaluated. If a new criterion is identified for consideration, then pause evaluation and update the rubric with the new criterion. All active applications must be evaluated with this new criterion.
  • Update the rubric as needed when progressing through each stage of assessment.

 STOP and check in with OIE before inviting preliminary interview candidates

  •  Propose list of preliminary interview candidates

  • Search Committee Chair notifies Office of Inclusive Excellence the committee would like to issue invitations for preliminary interviews.
  • Submit preliminary interview list and interview rubric to Office of Inclusive Excellence
  • ATC MUST APPROPRIATELY dispositions in Interfolio applicants initially selected for preliminary interviews.
    • Disposition code: “2.D. Reviewing applications – Short List.”

  •  OIE must review the preliminary list before inviting candidates

  • OIE compares list of preliminary interview candidates with national demographic data from ASEE and the Unit’s applicant pool data.
  • After OIE review, ATC confirms all candidates advancing to preliminary interview stage are properly dispositioned in Interfolio.

Interview preliminary candidates and finalists (weeks 9 – 12)

Search committees and hiring units should continue to follow best practices throughout the interview stages of the faculty search process.

  •  Structure interview evaluations

  • Follow best practices for interviewing candidates
   

Best practices for interviewing candidates

  • Determine what is being evaluated during each interview stage.
    • Provide sufficient time during the interview process to collect relevant information for all areas of evaluation reflected in the rubric.
    • Use a common format and set of questions during preliminary interviews to gather consistent information from all candidates.
  • Provide guidance about what is being evaluated during the interview (virtual and in-person)
    • Provide a feedback template
    • Avoid global evaluations
    • Provide contextual information that informs assessment statements (e.g., attended talk, met 1:1, attended meal, participated in small group session on teaching, read a publication, etc.)
    • Define a process to halt applicant evaluation for areas not designated in the rubric.
    • Ask for specific examples to support evaluation scores.

  •  Conduct preliminary candidate interviews

  • Book interviews
  • Determine what aspects of the rubric will be used to evaluate candidates at this stage
  • Determine consistent format and length
  • Determine which questions will be asked by committee members
  • Determine the which candidates are moved forward in the search

  •  Conduct finalists’ interviews and visits

   

Best practices for tailoring in-person visits

  • Outline a consistent set of in-person visit activities to evaluate the applicant’s skills and experiences (e.g.,standard job talk, formal time with students, etc.)
  • Ask each candidate:
    1. Do you have any accommodation needs?
    2. How would you like to be addressed?
    3. Are there any specific groups or individuals you would like to connect with?
  • Designate faculty point-people to share relevant information or address areas of concern.
  • Adjust candidate’s interview schedule to meet candidate’s specific professional and personal needs and interests.
  • Schedule time on interviewee’s visit schedules, especially women candidates, with UW ADVANCE personnel.
  • Designate someone to monitor audience interactions during job talk to avoid excessive interruptions, microaggressions, and aggressive questioning, as this happens more often to candidates from groups underrepresented in engineering.
  • Identify a plan to avoid illegal questions of the candidate (e.g., Are you married? Do you want to have kids?, etc.). See Guidelines for pre-employment inquiries website.

Identify finalist to whom to make an offer (weeks 13)

After completing finalist interviews, work together to decide to whom to make an offer.

  •  Collect feedback about finalists

  • Distribute feedback survey after interview visits to constituents can anonymously submit feedback. Align feedback with evaluation criteria and rubric.
  • ATC properly dispositions in Interfolio all individuals who have advanced to the finalist

  •  Clarify process for selecting individual(s) to whom to make an offer

  • Before the decision meeting, define the process for discussing finalists and making decisions about finalists.
  • Determine a process to halt evaluation discussion on areas not designated in the rubric.
  • During the decision meeting, ask for specific examples to support evaluative comments.

  •  Make decisions about finalists and provide recommendation

Debrief search process (week 14+)

Units can improve future faculty search processes by documenting lessons learned from the recently completed search.

  •  Collect reflections about recently completed process

  • Review the resource Debriefing and Auditing Completed Faculty Searches.
  • Reflect on what went well, what needs improvement, what to keep, and what to change in future faculty search process, etc.
  • Add lessons learned to unit’s faculty search process documentation

Additional resources

  • Part 2: Preparation of the UW Handbook of Best Practices for Faculty Searches and the Online Toolkit.
  • Spring 2021 Faculty Hiring Webinar: "Planning for Faculty Hiring: A Webinar on Search Committees, Assessment Rubrics, and Job Ads" (Slides and Recording)
  • Spring 2023 Faculty Hiring Webinar: Troubleshooting Faculty Searches: A Focused Discussion on DEI Statements and Known Applicants (Slides and Recording)