DSC Involvement in Faculty Search and Key Takeaways for Effective Practices Training for Interviews

Psychology DSC graduate co-chairs and members have historically been involved in faculty searches, contributing to the process by sharing the role of the DSC and highlighting its contributions to the Psychology department. This involvement has provided prospective faculty with an opportunity to learn about the diversity-related initiatives the DSC has offered. Recently, during a DSC General Meeting and a Faculty Meeting, there was a discussion about the DSC's participation in the search and interview process and whether this involvement should continue. 

Discussions concluded that DSC would continue to be invited to chat with prospective faculty but should undergo the training process for Effective Practices for Conducting Interviews, offered by the UW Office of Faculty Advancement. More information about this training process can be found here. 

DSC co-chairs and DSC RAs attended the webinar training, and we collected some of the key takeaways that may be useful not just for faculty searches, but also candidate interviews in general.  

1. Preparation: Clearly define the competencies and behaviors essential for the role to set expectations and assess candidates equitably.  

   1. • What does this mean? Prior to the interview process, recruitment committees should clearly outline how candidates are evaluated. It should be clear which activities or events are assessment activities, and which are casual and are not being assessed. 

2. Behavioral/Competency-Based Interviewing: Utilize questions that prompt candidates to provide specific examples of past behaviors, aiding in predicting future performance.  

3. Structured Interviews: Standardize questions and evaluation criteria across all candidates to ensure consistency and fairness.  

• What about unstructured procedures, such as chats, casual meals, and carpools? One might say these are all assessment processes. If this is indeed the case, it should be made clear to the candidates if they are being assessed throughout their entire duration of the visit, including informal events. If this is not the case, then their behavior during non-assessment events should not be a part of the “formal evaluation”.  

• However, if situations arise where their behavior during these processes should be noted (such as inappropriate behavior, racist remarks/opinions etc.) they should be reported to the appropriate office of the department or the university and be treated as any other misconduct report. When these events do happen, committee members should take up the responsibility of taking it up to the department chair or a university dean. 

4. Accessible Interview Process: Ideally, formats across candidates should be the same to maintain fairness, but it is possible that candidates face constraints in terms of accessibility (unable to fly to campus, need to attend the process remotely etc.) In these situations, activates such as casual and informal connection sessions and chats should be made available to remote candidates, in adaptable formats. This process should be planned if it is known that the event needs to be hybrid. 

5. Fair Pre-Employment Inquiry: Ensure all questions comply with federal and state laws, focusing solely on job-related information to avoid discrimination.  

6. Candidate Evaluation: Implement a consistent evaluation process, using tools like scoring matrices, to objectively assess each candidate's qualifications.  

• What does this mean? It should be clearly stated how members of the evaluation team make their decisions, and the extent of how well they know the candidate and how many materials of the candidates they have read (as well as the extent). Someone who has attended every session of a candidate talk and read all their papers may have a different perspective from someone who has only read their resume or attended a job talk. How they are making judgements and assessing the ability of the candidates should be clearly stated in the reviewing process. 

7. Documentation: Maintain thorough records of the interview process, including notes and evaluations, in compliance with legal and organizational policies.  

8. Continuous Improvement: Regularly review and update interview practices to align with evolving organizational needs and legal requirements.  

These processes may appear relevant only to faculty searches, but they can also be effectively adapted for Research Assistant searches, honors student interviews, and prospective candidate interviews during graduate program recruitment week. Implementing these practices would help promote equality in interview processes, maintain fairness, and provide candidates with a genuine experience and truthful feel of what the environment is like at the department.  

Find the detailed slides here.: https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2024/11/22100332/Effective-Practices-for-Conducting-Interviews-Nov-2024.pdf 

-END-