‘The colleges and schools can recruit in the manner that works best for them, and the applicant experience is smooth’
To ensure each department has autonomy over faculty recruitment processes, the University of Memphis’s academic affairs and human resources teams established strong intradepartmental relationships, facilitated by PeopleAdmin Applicant Tracking System — the higher education-specific applicant tracking system with configurable visibility permissions and workflows.
“Via [ATS], all of our hiring processes and workflows, faculty or staff, include a stop in our institutional equity office,” explained Daniel Linton, assistant director of human resources at the University of Memphis. “That ensures all processes are compliant with standard hiring practices for fairness and inclusion.”
Independent faculty recruitment processes, combined with a strong internal training program and Hire’s helpful search committee features, helped the University of Memphis faculty understand the benefits of adopting the new processes.
“When we first started using [ATS], we had some resistance,” said Sheila Mathis, academic services specialist at the University of Memphis. “But the more they used it, the more they like it.”
Part of what faculty members like most is ATS’s mobile accessibility.
“The search committee members can access the system whether they’re on campus or off campus, which has been great because they travel, they teach, they present at conferences, they take sabbaticals, and they work on publications,” Sheila said. “Having mobile access is important to them.”
Engaging faculty during implementation — with help from HR — also helped the UofM secure faculty buy-in.
“Daniel led several trainings, where he took [ATS] on the road, instead of expecting faculty to come to us,” Sheila said. “It was kind of a roadshow introduction to demonstrate what was coming and explain how it would benefit them.”
And Daniel continues to use trainings to keep faculty engaged with ATS.
“All faculty who interact with the system are invited to attend system training, held in person on a quarterly rotation,” he explained. “The training covers both routing and navigation within the system, as well as equitable hiring practices and search committee service.”
With the buy-in secured from training and helpful functionality, the University of Memphis has created an effective faculty recruitment process for all involved.
“It’s working well,” Sheila said. “The colleges and schools can recruit in the manner that works best for them, HR can monitor the whole process, and the applicant experience is smooth.”
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