F.A. Davis Recruiting/Onboarding Health Professions Faculty

F.A. Davis Getting Set for Success | Recruiting and onboarding health professions faculty

getting set for success

RECRUITING and ONBOARDING HEALTH PROFESSIONS FACULTY

Susan Sportsman, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN Managing Director Collaborative Momentum Consulting

Ask any Director or Dean of a Health Professions educational program what keeps them up at night and among the top three answers often is... “finding qualified and experienced faculty!” This response has been front-of-mind for health professions educators for most of the last fifty years, but the concern has never been higher than in the current environment. The need for healthcare services brought about by the increased life span of U.S. citizens, a sustained increase in innovation in healthcare technology, the aging of the current health professions faculty workforce, the difference in reimbursement between service and education, and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic have all played a role in the ongoing shortage of available faculty members to meet the needs of the health care industry for well-prepared graduates. In this current, competitive hiring environment, what strategies can health professions educators use to recruit faculty and prepare them for their roles as an educators?

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Recruitment 1. The first step in recruiting faculty is to determine the criteria by which a specific faculty member is to be chosen. Certainly, regulatory bodies, such as state boards of nursing, provide specific criteria for faculty and the teaching assignments of new faculty members are determined by their clinical experiences. These qualifications can be considered “hard skills”—those competencies which involve the specific tasks required for the teaching responsibilities. However, “soft skills,” such as effective communication, working well in a team, time management skills, and empathy are equally important for success as a faculty member. Specific faculty assignments may require strength in particular soft skills. The ability to work closely with team members or clinical partners may be essential when coordinating a wide range of colleagues and students. In other situations, the ability to work alone and manage time effectively may be more important. Clear, empathetic communication with others is always desirable. Once you have made the assessment of needed soft skills, they should be included in the job description and in relevant job postings, along with the hard skills required. How can you be sure that you hire someone with the requisite soft skills? 2. Documenting the necessary hard skills is typically not difficult. Reviewing the candidate’s resume or curriculum vitae and verifying licensing and certification materials provides initial information which can then be validated when references are checked. Soft skills may require more communication expertise. Table A below gives some examples of questions you might ask the candidate or their references to learn more about their soft skills competencies.

Table A: Questions to Solicit Soft Skills Competencies

Soft Skill

Question for Candidates*

Question for References*

Can you tell me about a time that communication with colleagues or students was difficult? How did you resolve that issue? Would you describe an experience that represents the best experience you have had in working on a team? Describe the most difficult experience you have had as part of a team. How did you handle the problems?

If colleagues were asked to describe the communication abilities of the candidate, what would they say?

Communication

What were your observations about the candidate’s ability to work with teams? What advice would you give the candidate for improving team interaction?

Working in a Team

Table A: Questions to Solicit Soft Skills Competencies continued...

Soft Skill

Question for Candidates*

Question for References*

How would you rate the candidate’s ability to manage their time? When you worked with the candidate, how confident were you that the candidate would complete important tasks on time?

Time Management Skills

Being a faculty requires “juggling” multiple demands. What strategies do you use to manage your time?

Describe an interaction with a student where empathy on your part was required. How effective were you in managing this situation? What would you do differently in a similar situation in the future?

What would the students and colleagues that worked with this candidate say about their ability to be empathetic?

Empathy

What Recruitment Strategies are Most Effective? 3. Posting positions on electronic sites appropriate for the faculty you hope to hire is a must. However, in times of shortage, this approach alone is not sufficient. Hiring managers—and others who may be working with the new faculty—must actively network with potential candidates or colleagues who may know someone who fits the job description. Networking and word-of-mouth are critical to identifying the right candidate. A longer-term strategy to hire faculty who will add value to your educational environment is to be known as a “good place to work.” Developing your organization’s reputation for having a supportive environment in which faculty members can develop professionally in collaboration with others goes a long way toward attracting faculty who share the work values of the organization. While benefits such as a competitive salary, adequate professional development funds, and flexible scheduling are important to potential candidates, most health professions educators value a supportive, collaborative work environment where it is challenging—and fun—to come to work. Having such a reputation, which requires constant effort on the part of the administration and other members of the faculty, can pay dividends during the hiring process. In contrast, a reputation as a chaotic or unsupportive environment makes successful recruiting extremely difficult. Caution: Hiring the wrong person just to fill a position, no matter how tempting in a crisis, rarely works well. Baker and O’Malley (2008) suggest instead that we should hire for character , never for convenience . They note that it is far easier to bring in people who subscribe to the values of the organization than to try to influence their behavior once they are hired. * Remember: You must ask the same questions of all the candidates applying for the same position to have a consistent interview process for every candidate. However, your follow-up questions may vary depending on the initial answer of the specific candidate.

Onboarding 4. If you find yourself is such a predicament, rather than hiring a person for a full-time position who does not seem to fit your needs, you may find that part-time or adjunct faculty may meet your needs in the interim while you continue to look for the “right” person. This approach may seem like a stop gap measure, but it allows you to continue to recruit as you temporarily fill the position. The search for the “good fit” may ultimately be shorter than hiring as full-time someone who is not a good fit, because a person who does not agree with the values of an organization is likely to soon look for another job. Once you have hired someone for an open position, you must provide them with sufficient information to begin their teaching responsibilities. This writer once was hired for an administrative position in an educational institution. On my first day on the job, I met with the provost to whom I reported and asked him in what orientation processes I should participate. His response: “ Go sit at your desk—something will come to you .” I suppose that response reflected confidence that I would figure out how to become familiar with my new responsibilities, but it certainly would have been helpful to have some guidance regarding the challenges I was facing. Unlike the example above, many organizations have formal orientation processes. While these are helpful to give an overview of the environment, they may not address some areas that can have the most immediate impact on the faculty member’s day-to-day responsibilities. Providing an orientation to the following topics can help new faculty acquaint themselves with how things really work. § The structure and flow of the curriculum: How does the content for which the new member is responsible relate to the rest of the curriculum? Ensuring that new faculty understand the structure and the flow will prevent “curriculum drift” or unintended gaps or overlaps as they make the content their own.

§ The Plan for Evaluation of the entire curriculum: What role does the new faculty play in this evaluation?

§ Disciplinary processes for students: Although this information is typically outlined in the student and fac- ulty handbooks, responding to these problems for individual students often requires institutional knowl- edge. Knowing whom to call when such situations occur will help the new faculty respond appropriately. § In today’s competitive environment, you may be hiring clinicians who have much clinical experience, but little or no teaching expertise, particularly in a formal educational setting. Such employees can become excellent faculty because of their extensive clinical experience. However, supporting them as they apply educational principles in the classroom or clinical, and as they develop an understanding of the curricu- lum as a whole must be a part of the onboarding experience. The mentorship role 5. Often, helping new faculty understand the complex educational organization is the task of an assigned mentor, typically another member of the faculty. Mentorship responsibilities should be undertaken with care to ensure the best experience for the new faculty. The initial page of the website of the University of North Carolina Center for Faculty Excellence states, “ Senior faculty members have a responsibility to mentor and advise their junior colleagues .” These mentoring relationships take many forms: sometimes they are organized by the department or school around orientation processes and sometimes mentoring relationships develop formally or informally over time.

How should the mentor and new faculty member be matched?

What is the role of a mentor in onboarding new faculty members? 7. When the mentoring role is focused primarily on the onboarding process, someone in an administrative position is likely to assign an experienced faculty member to mentor the new faculty member. This assignment should consider whether the pair have mutual professional interests and common goals, particularly related to their responsibilities within the school. Equally important is the ability on the part of both mentor and new faculty to be open and honest in their communication.

Mentoring roles can take many forms, but should include the following: § Discuss the plan for onboarding and the specific items on which the new faculty should focus. In the early days of the relationship, the pair may meet frequently (perhaps weekly) to clarify and reinforce the experiences of the new faculty member. Lunch or coffee is often an effective way to begin building a positive relationship.

§ Provide encouragement and positive feedback on an ongoing basis.

§ Use the mentor’s knowledge and experience to help the new faculty member understand how the school or department works.

§ Share knowledge of important professional events that the new faculty member should or might want to attend.

§ Help the new faculty to build a professional network in the school and in the discipline.

Effectively recruiting and onboarding new faculty is critical to the success of the faculty, students and the school or program itself. Paying close attention to the recruiting and onboarding processes is well worth the time spent in organizing and coordinating them, because it is likely to result in faculty who meet your needs and remain for long, productive careers in education.

References Baker, W., O’Malley, M. (2008) Leading with kindness: How good people consistently get superior results. AMACOM. American Management Association.

About the author Susan Sportsman, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN , is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant with over 10 years of consulting experience, providing program development and other consultation services to nursing and health professions programs throughout the United States and Canada. Previously, she served as Dean of the College of Health Sciences and Human Services at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

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