Faculty Hiring Process

The below guidelines apply to all tenure track, tenured, and non-tenure track faculty hires excluding adjuncts. They are intentionally sequenced to ensure compliance and incorporate practices centered around equitable, diverse hiring. The human resources division director (HRDD) and the director for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), while assigned specific steps/actions, are available throughout the process as consultative resources for the applicable school director, search chair, and all committee members.

Prior to Launch

  1. The search process for any tenure-track, tenured, or non-tenure track faculty member (includes visiting, professor of practice, instructor, and collegiate faculty) commences upon approval to search from the dean. The dean communicates such approval via review and sign-off of the faculty hiring request form (see AAD Faculty Backfill and Request Policy).
  1. The school director (or dean in the case of director/associate dean searches) determines the composition of the search committee in accordance with the college’s search committee parameters (see Search Committee Composition Guidelines).
  1. The search chair works with the director of human resources to draft the search plan and position announcement in advance of the initial committee meeting.
  1. The human resources division director engages Global Support Services (GSS) for their review of the position draft. Edits are offered to search chair, as needed, to remove any potential barriers for sponsorship of permanent residency or visa should the resulting hire require either.
  1. The search committee chair schedules the charge meeting. This meeting should include the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the director of human resources, and the applicable school director (or dean in the case of director/associate dean searches).
  1. The search committee finalizes the job announcement and search plan (see Search Plan Outline) inclusive of where the position should be advertised, in accordance with the college’s expectations (see Advertising Strategy).
  1. The search chair sends the finalized description and search plan to the school director and the director of human resources for approval/feedback and posting. All job announcements in the college will include our statement of commitment to inclusivity and, as part of each candidate’s application, require a statement of teaching philosophy in support of Virginia Tech’s Principles of Community in lieu of a diversity statement.
  1. The college HR team provides estimated advertisement costs to the school director and the associate dean for finance and administration for budget approval. The school will assume responsibility for discipline-specific sources while the college will absorb the costs of both general (i.e., AcademicKeys) and diversity-focused sources. Efforts will be made to consolidate advertising wherever possible to manage expenses.

Screening and Assessment

  1. The director of human resources works ensures the position description and job requisition are captured and approved in PageUp.
  1. College HR works with the college’s digital communications manager to have search added to the career opportunities page on the college website (aad.vt.edu).
  1. College HR places the advertisements with general and diversity-focused external sources in keeping with the search plan.
  1. The director of human resources monitors the candidate pool and advises the search chair of concerns regarding volume of submissions or demographic representation. Additional outreach/advertising is executed as needed to cultivate a diverse candidate pool.
  1. Immediately following the review date, the human resources director certifies the pool to ensure the demographic composition aligns with availability per the college’s functional affirmative action plan. If the pool does not meet availability metrics and good faith efforts have not been extended to foster a diverse pool of applicants, the human resources director will delay the review date and work with the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion to identify additional outreach activities.
  1. Once the pool is certified, the search committee completes their initial evaluation of all candidates relative to the published qualifications (see Screening Matrix) on the provided matrix with each committee member documenting their individual assessment of each candidate. Completed matrices are returned to the director of human resources.
  1. Prior to the initial review meeting, the director of human resources provides the search chair and diversity advocate a report compiling assessment ratings/feedback provided by committee members to guide discussion and facilitate decision-making.
  1. The search chair facilitates the first review meeting with the committee. The chair documents all decisions (candidates to advance, candidates to release, and candidates to keep on hold). In case of candidates to be dispositioned or released, the corresponding rationale supporting this decision is also noted.
  1. The search chair informs college HR of the decisions rendered during the initial review meeting so that candidates can be appropriately advanced to interview or dispositioned and notified.
  1. The search chair provides college HR with the following: days/times committee has held for initial interviews, preferred duration of each interview and needed buffer times (i.e., 30-minute interviews with 15-minute break in between), and applicable Zoom link.
  1. Candidates selected for initial interviews are invited by college HR to choose preferred time from available options. Upon selection, college HR issues a confirmation message detailing logistics of the interview. College HR provides committee with final schedule of candidate interviews.
  1. Committee conducts interviews. Members are to refrain from any discussion of candidates until their scheduled review meeting. Upon conclusion of the last interview, each committee member completes a survey issued by the director of human resources to provide feedback on candidates’ strengths, areas for development, and ability to be successful in the given position.
  1. The director of human resources assembles survey responses into a report with qualitative and quantitative data. Report is shared with the committee chair and diversity advocate in advance of the committee’s second review meeting.
  1. The chair facilitates the review meeting, sharing the survey analysis with the committee members to encourage discussion and build consensus around a list of finalists.
  1. Upon identification of finalists, the search chair provides the school director and the director of human resources with the search report (see Search Report) for their review/discussion. The report details the committee’s recommended finalists, outlines why other candidates are not being selected to advance, and provides a summary of the pool paying particular attention to inclusion and diversity concerns. The director of human resources will supplement this with the report on the demographic composition of the pool pulled for certification (executed in step 10).
  1. The school director confirms the candidates for campus visits. Decisions are shared with the director of human resources.
  1. The search chair communicates to college HR candidates who may be released from the process along with the corresponding rationale. College HR updates PageUp to reflect each candidate’s status and issues the appropriate email notification. Note that candidates internal to the college will be notified personally by the search chair in concert with the applicable school director.

> Campus Visits

  1. The search committee chair confirms visit dates with committee members, the school director, and the school administrative operations coordinator (or school designee) Additionally, all logistics are reviewed/verified with the administrative operations coordinator (or school designee). In the case of executive searches, visit logistics are coordinated by the Executive Assistant to the Dean. See Campus Visit Itinerary for requisite components of the campus visit.
  1. Candidates are extended invitations for a visit by the search chair. In this communication, the search chair introduces the administrative operations coordinator (or school designee) who will be working with the candidate to schedule and manage their visit.
  1. The administrative operations coordinator (or school designee) contacts candidates to coordinate visit logistics. During this initial outreach, candidates are extended the option of incorporating other supplementary meetings into their visit to address personal interests/needs. These may include a consultation with the dual career programs manager, a meeting with Global Support Services, tours of area daycare facilities, or an area tour with a real estate agent, in addition to other possibilities given the candidate’s questions, interests, and/or concerns.
  1. The administrative operations coordinator (or school designee) finalizes the itinerary for each candidate visit and shares with the search chair.
  1. Simultaneous with the organization of the campus visits, the search chair alerts each finalist to the forthcoming outreach to their references. Search chair contacts each reference and requests a letter of reference be submitted by the date of the scheduled committee review meeting.
  1. The day of the visit, the director of human resources works with the chair to distribute a survey to obtain feedback from the committee and all stakeholders/participants with whom the candidate meets. Again, committee members are expected to refrain from discussion until their scheduled review meeting following the final visit.

> Following the Visits

  1. The administrative operations coordinator (or school designee) coordinates with the fiscal tech to ensure all travel expense reimbursements are processed.
  1. The director of human resources assembles all survey feedback and prepares a summary report for the search chair and diversity advocate.
  1. The search committee meets to review the survey feedback and letters of reference. The school director may join this meeting, at their discretion, to listen to the discussion around candidate strengths and areas for growth. As an output of the committee discussion, the chair works with the members to prepare a report for the school director. This report should incorporate the survey results from the director of human resources, provide a summary of the search process, detail efforts taken to address diversity and inclusion concerns, and give an overview of the strengths and areas of concern for each finalist. Letters of reference should also be included. Candidates are not to be ranked. This report will be retained as part of the search record (see Search Summary Report).
  1. The school director reviews the report to render a decision.
  1. After reviewing the search committee’s assessment of the finalists, the school director consults with the director of human resources to confirm the terms of offer (salary, relocation support, IT budget, summer salary, travel & training funds, etc. as appropriate). If any deviation from the initial budget is anticipated, the director of human resources will consult with the assistant dean for finance and administration.

> Following Verbal Offer Acceptance

  1. The school director provides the agreed-upon terms to the director of human resources who prepares the TOFO in PageUp and, upon receipt of all system approvals, issues it to the candidate. Director of human resources notifies the assistant dean of finance and administration of final terms.
  1. Upon acceptance of TOFO, the school director communicates the outcome of the search to the search chair, committee, and dean.
  1. For foreign national hires, the director of human resources notifies GSS of pending visa/permanent residency sponsorship.
  1. Committee members provide all hardcopy and electronic interview notes to the records coordinator for the school for retention in departmental files in accordance with the university’s retention policy.
  1. The director of human resources ensures all candidates are dispositioned in PageUp and have been appropriately notified. The job requisition is closed.
  1. Onboarding activities begin.

SEARCH COMMITTEE COMPOSITION GUIDELINES

A diverse search committee signals to candidates that the college and school value diversity. Additionally, a heterogenous committee is more likely to engage in productive, lively discussions rich in perspective that result in thoughtful decision-making. With this in mind, search committee for T&R faculty searches in the college should adhere to the following guidelines:

  • Committees should consist of 5-7 members, inclusive of the search chair.
  • Members of the committee should represent a diversity of rank and classification (non-academic personnel, graduate students, etc.).
  • Variety of genders/gender identities should be represented.
  • Every effort should be made to have at least one member of an underrepresented minority or ethnic group on the committee.
  • At least one member should be from another academic program in the college; committees are encouraged to have a member from another AAD school.
  • For searches for a director position, representation from outside the school is required. This outside representative should be in a comparable administrative position.
  • For searches for an academic leadership position (director, associate dean, etc.), at least one member should be a non-academic member of the college.
  • A graduate student representative should be included on search committees for school directors.
  • Per guidance from the Office of the Provost, the applicable school director may not serve on search committees for tenured or tenure-track positions. The college further recommends that school directors not serve on search committees for any faculty positions.
  • The school director selects the search chair and diversity advocate. For tenure-track positions, both roles must be filled by tenured faculty.

SEARCH PLAN OUTLINE

The academic search plan assembles key details for the search and outlines anticipated methods for reaching qualified candidates for the open position. Formulation of the plan by the committee fosters a proactive approach to the search process that furthers the achievement of affirmative action placement goals and strategic aims of increasing workforce diversity. Each search committees plan should follow this outline:

  • Posting Title
  • School and Program
  • Rank
  • Review Date
  • Search Committee members, denoting chair and diversity advocate
  • Affirmative Action placement goals (obtained from Director of HR)
  • Proposed job announcement
  • External posting sites/sources
  • Narrative detailing efforts committee will extend to advance affirmative action goal and diversify the candidate pool
  • Proposed search timeline-following chair consult with director of human resources--to include the date of the search charge meeting, date of initial review meeting, possible dates for all interviews, and other milestones in the process.

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

Per the university’s faculty recruitment guidelines, committees should develop an assertive recruiting and advertising plan that utilizes multiple outlets to attract women, under-represented minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. Consistent with this, search committees for faculty searches in the college are expected to follow the below practices with respect to their advertising and outreach:

  • Place the job announcement on at least two field-specific sites and 2-3 niche, diversity-focused sites. The director of DEI’s office maintains a list of recommended sites for reference. All faculty job advertisements will be placed automatically with the following sources per VT”s contractual arrangements:
  • Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Higher Ed Jobs