This TIP (“Toward Inclusive Practices”) message from the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity provides best practices for university search committees.

What Does Your Search Committee Need to Know?

Search committees are charged with hiring talented individuals to join the Wolfpack community. In doing so, NC State adheres to Executive Order 11246 regarding Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action. This order, originally issued in 1965, prohibits discrimination by federal contractors on “the basis of race, color, national origin or religion.” Since its inception, the executive order has expanded to include disability, age and sexual orientation. It also prohibits contractors from discrimination in hiring, termination, promotion and pay of employees on the basis of a protected status.

Provost Warwick A. Arden has stated that search committee training is “one of the most effective ways to promote diversity in hiring and to help departments to become educated about achieving their affirmative action goals for campus hiring officials and search committee chairs.”

The Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity’s Equal Opportunity and Equity unit (EOE) conducts search committee training sessions in-person and via Moodle, an online self-paced learning platform. Both types of training sessions are available in REPORTER.

We recommend that individuals who serve on a search committee participate in the in-person search committee training every three years and take the online Moodle version as a refresher course in between. Although EOE does not have the capacity to conduct individual search committee trainings for every search committee, if your department or unit needs to train a large portion or all of its employees, you can contact EOE to request a training session. Requests should be made at least 10 business days in advance of the anticipated training date with an anticipated attendance of at least 10 people.

The goals of a search committee training are to understand:

• that everyone has bias, and it is important to feel comfortable discussing any bias with other search committee members; and
• that all job announcements, postings and advertisements must be inclusive and up to date;
• how your department’s unit equity officer and Human Resources talent solutions consultant enact strategies for broad recruitment.

Additional Information

• See EEO and Hiring Practices for additional information and resources about the hiring process.