On January 19, 2018, the School of Medicine assembled nearly 100 faculty representing departments, centers, institutes and other leaders for its annual research retreat. The topic of the 2018 retreat was strategic recruitment, and the purpose of the retreat was to engage institutional leaders in the creation of a highly collaborative recruitment plan that is necessary for the continued growth of our research enterprise.
During a facilitated small group session at the retreat, those in attendance shared specific recommendations along four themes for executing this new recruitment strategy. Those four themes were: Best Practices, Search Committees, Use of the Dean’s Office and Package Development. The individuals involved in this discussion shared outstanding knowledge concerning what practices are currently working in our favor as well as where we show room for improvement and growth.
Moving forward, these are the strategic recruitment goals that the School of Medicine is currently addressing and will continue to advance in the coming months and years:
• Providing thorough training for interviewing and search committees.
This objective includes establishing best practices guidelines for school-wide utilization and standardization.
• Establishing rules of conduct and ideal composition of search committees.
Creating ideal composition includes ensuring committees include diverse representation across gender, race, department, faculty rank, scientific vs. clinical focus, and other factors.
• Involving the Dean’s Office in the creation of the aforementioned training, guidelines and rules.
In order to reach our goal of recruiting top scientists and growing our research enterprise, strategic recruitment must become a priority. Therefore, the Dean’s Office will become involved in the recruitment process earlier and will also help establish institutional processes.
• Creating guidelines for package development, itinerary planning and communication to streamline the overall process and create uniformity.
Package development will become a more structured process and will focus heavily on applying effective timing, laying out clear expectations and ensuring that all promises can be fulfilled.
I am enthusiastic about the results of the conversations and presentations at the research retreat, and I know that they will have a strengthening effect on our strategic recruitment procedures. My sincerest thanks to everyone who was involved in this dialogue. If you have any insight or recommendations to share, I welcome your input.