At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, recruiting and hiring new employees is one of our most important cooperative responsibilities. This toolkit is designed to provide resources to guide you through the various stages of the search process, to ensure the university is recruiting talent and making hiring decisions in a fair and equitable way.  

Search Guidelines

• Recruitment and Hiring Guidelines
• Overview of Search Process by Employee Group
• Applicant Status and Disposition Code Guidance
• Applicant Status and Disposition Code Guidance Video
• Cornerstone and JDXpert Job Aids
• Best Practices for an Inclusive Search Process
• Top 5 Reasons a Hire from Search Form is Returned
• FAQs

Develop Job Description

• Writing Inclusive Job Descriptions and Position Announcements
• 6 Ways to Successfully Signal Your Company’s DEI Commitment in a Job Posting (LinkedIn)
• Physical Demands and Working Conditions

Select the Search Team 

• The Best Search Committees (The Chronicle)
• Forming a Search Committee
• Diversity Advocate Guidelines
• EEO Officer and Vice Chair Guidelines
• AY25 EEO Officers, Vice Chairs, and Assistant Vice Chairs
• Hiring Manager Guidelines
• Hiring Manager Without Committee Guidelines
• Search Committee Chair Guidelines
• Search Committee Member Guidelines

Train the Search Team 

Inclusive Hiring at Illinois Training

The Inclusive Hiring at Illinois training must be completed annually by EEO officers/vice chair/assistant vice chairs, and every two years by hiring managers, search committee chairs, diversity advocates and search committee members.

Understand and Mitigate Bias

• Project Implicit (Harvard)
• 8 Ways for a Search Committee to Be Inclusive (The Chronicle)
• How a Search Committee Can Be the Arbiter of Diversity (The Chronicle)
• 10 Myths and Facts About Hiring People with Disabilities (Work to Include)
• 16 Unconscious Bias Examples and How to Avoid Them in the Workplace (Built In)

Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) Resources

To set up an account with HERC please go to their login page and click on Register here. Once an account has been established members can access many resources, including a Faculty Search Committee Training Toolkit which has short films about The Committee, The Recruitment Plan, Reviewing the Applicants, as well as Campus Visits and In-Person Interviewing.

Additional Educational Resources

• Broaden Perspectives
• Challenge Assumptions
• Enhance Objectivity
• Overcome Stereotypes

Search Committee Forms

• Confidentiality in the Search Process
• Confidentiality Statement
• Conflict of Interest Statement
• Search Committee Member Acknowledgement

Conduct Outreach and Recruitment

Track and Evaluate Good Faith Efforts

• Good Faith Efforts Document
• Updated GFE Spreadsheet Example
• Updated GFE Spreadsheet Blank
• Custom Applicant Source Code Job Aid

Reports

• Diversity of the Pool and Source Report Job Aid
• Applicant Demographics by Source Code and Diversity of the Pool Report Access

Additional Recruitment Guidance

• HERC – Diversity Recruitment Toolkit: Strategies for Targeted Populations (Member Login Required)
• Recruiting Diverse and Excellent New Faculty (Inside Higher Ed)
• Wanted: Disabled Faculty Members (Inside Higher Ed)
• Targeting Veterans for Hire (Circa)
• 5 Pros and Cons of Recruiting with Social Media (Berkshire Associates)

Evaluate Applicants

Assess Applications

• Example Evaluation Forms
• Anonymize Applicants
• Why Your “Objective” Screening Rubric Produced Bias Results (The Chronicle)

Conduct Interviews

• Pre-Employment Inquiries
• Gender in the Job Interview (The Chronicle) 
• Asking the Right Questions: Crafting Inclusive Interviews (HERC Webinar)

Reference Checks

Campus Reference Check Resources

• Urbana Reference Check Form
• Reference Checking Guidelines
• Reference Checking FAQs
• Off-List Reference Checking Approval Form

Additional Reference Check Guidance

• Admin 101: How to Interpret Reference Letters (The Chronicle)
• Is It Time to Eliminate Recommendation Letters? (The Chronicle)
• Off-List References (The Chronicle)