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Faculty Recruitment & Retention Practice Initiative

U-M ADVANCE leadership continues to enhance and update the Faculty Recruitment Workshop based on recommendations by the Committee on Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE). The committee incorporated feedback from workshop attendees as well as integrated new research relevant to equitable faculty hiring practices.

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Progress to Date

In AY 2023-2024, STRIDE delivered eight Faculty Recruitment workshops, and 387 faculty members from across campus attended. Additionally, 52 staff members attended a version of the workshop focused on staff who support faculty searches. In response to faculty feedback, STRIDE offered off-cycle Workshops in May and August 2024.

ADVANCE collaborated with the Office of Health, Equity and Inclusion (OHEI) to inform the development of their unconscious bias in hiring training. They shared workshop implementation strategies and tactics for keeping the materials up to date.

OHEI’s efforts to enhance recruitment include:

  • Closely collaborating with an interdisciplinary committee representing Faculty Development, the medical department and the Graduate Medical School to review and refine faculty search and hiring processes across Michigan Medicine.
  • Develop a cross-disciplinary Standard Practice Guidebook.
  • Share data and best practices with STRIDE.

Another result of the committee’s work produced a Behavioral-Based Interview Question Generator, an AI-powered instrument, which was developed to provide search committees with a resource for crafting unbiased interview questions. In addition, supplemental materials were created to help promote adherence to policies outlined in a new Search Process Guidebook.

In all, approximately 150 faculty members engaged with the new training initiatives, reflecting the value placed on these resources within the community. A total of 19 sessions were conducted from fall 2023 to June 2024, resulting in 7,500+ visits to the associated OHEI Unconscious Bias in Hiring Google sites page. The site averaged 3 views per user, with a 73% engagement rate.

The departments of Pediatrics, Urology and Internal Medicine were among the most active participants in the OHEI-led trainings, demonstrating the reach and acceptance of this initiative across medical disciplines. Most importantly, this collaboration has ensured that all OHEI sessions will remain relevant and actionable, capable of generating significant contributions to the planning and execution of future faculty development initiatives.

Responsible Unit(s): ADVANCE and the Office for Health Equity & Inclusion (OHEI)