Progress Report: Staff Recruitment, Mentoring and Advancement

DEI and Search Committee Efforts:

• Completed - Campus-wide guidelines for the composition of Search Committees.
• Ongoing – Review of the recommendation of an HR UDO position and development of a DEI Advocate pool of Search Committee volunteers. 
• Ongoing - Additional vetting of these guidelines is necessary along with the development of methodologies for initial and ongoing renewal of search committee training. 
• Ongoing -As Lead institution of the Upstate NY HERC, Central HR focuses on building an inclusive talent community. Activities promoted for the 2023-2024 year included:
  • Toolkits available to UB include: Diversity Recruitment, State and Administrator Inclusive Hiring, Faculty Search Committee, Virtual Recruitment, Disability Recruitment Toolkit
  • Learning and Networking Opportunities: Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling conversation, Building Emotional Safety, Creating Spaces for Inclusive Conversations, Women’s Inclusion and Belonging, Take a Break and Leave Space, Balancing Compliance, Rosk and Artificial Intelligence, Unlocking the Power of AI: How to Foster Human Connection and Eliminate Bias in Recruitment, Virtual Coffee Hour with Northeast Regional Office of the OFCCP, Paulette Granberry Russell, NADOHE President, Conversation with our Partners from Our Ability and Work Without Limits

Talent Acquisition/Advertising:

• Ongoing – a) expansion of job description templates and processes and b) sourcing of candidates in a more systematic way.
• Ongoing - diversity of applicant pools through expansive advertising on job board aggregators focused on diversity-specific sources. Central HR went out to bid in 2024 to access a new Job Aggregator Board vendor that could connect with our current advertisement vendor so that we can better track applicants coming from diversity and inclusive websites where we advertise our vacant positions. As a result, - now contracting with Job Elephant to
  • Post positions with advertisers recommended by departments
  • Using analytics for similar positions across the nation, identify, recommend and price potential outreach platforms
  • Track and share analytics of applicants from posting views, to applying to a position through selection or disqualification using the Job Elephant platform inside of UB Jobs

• Ongoing – Central HR participated in 2 Job Fairs in person per month and 6 virtual Job Fairs annually for a total of 30 Job Fairs per year in 2024 to provide the maximum outreach to potential applicants in addition to advertising initiatives.  HR is building out tools to measure the success of centralized advertising sources and to provide tools for search committees to quickly find outreach sources to promote vacancies.
• Ongoing - Promotion of postings to HERC Job Board which cross posts to Google for Jobs, US Military Pipeline, Juju, Recruit Military.

Classified Employees:

• Completed – Central HR partners with SUNY representatives across the state to promote improvements and identify solutions for challenges in when recruiting to fill vacancies.
• Ongoing – Central HR agrees with strong efforts to reduce recruitment barriers for classified employees. An HR leader serves on a state-wide board and has argued in the best interests of UB and all SUNY organization. IN 2023 SUNY announced new efforts to reinvigorate online civil service testing including a civil service testing center in Buffalo.
• Completed - Implemented the NY Hiring for Emergency Limited Placement Statewide (NY HELPS) Program. This program streamlines the appointment process to allow UB to hire diverse, qualified permanent employees quickly and without examinations. Utilizing pooled postings and localized outreach to fill previous and newly created vacancies with a quick turnaround for the applicant to hire.

Training and Development:

• Completed - HR facilitated content-owner partnerships and prepared 6-hour trainings for our custodians and in partnership with Facility Operations leaders also initiated supervisory training for new Janitorial and Trades Supervisors.  This model was also used to create content in collaboration with Student Life HR to train all Student Life supervisors in 2023 – trained approximately 100 over 4 sessions. The academy represents an investment in supervisors across the Student Life division, with the goals of supporting/developing supervisors’ skillsets while cultivating divisional values. Update: SUNY Council of Senior Student Affairs Officers (CSSAO) selected UB as one the 2024 Outstanding Program award recipients for this training.  This award was given for the “UB Student Life iDEAL ACADEMY" program.  The UB program was rated highly by the awards committee on the following criteria: Evidence of impact on student learning or success, Relevance to Mission and/or advancement of Student Affairs profession, Meets student needs/critical campus issues, Originality and Creativity, including unique adaptations of best practices, and the Quality of the Proposal. 
• In earning this award, UB was invited to present this program at the annual conference of the College Student Personnel Association (CSPA) of New York  October 20-22 in Rochester
• Completed – 2 HR staff members have been nationally certified as wellbeing coaches by the Catalyst Coaching Institute.  1 HR Leader received their certification in Leadership Coaching through the School of Management. 4 Central HR team members are being trained in Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment recently purchased by UB Central HR - the hallmark of which is the respect for individual differences makes for stronger teams. Further rollout to departments expected over the next 24 months. 
• Ongoing - Additional efforts are necessary, including leadership development training and coaching and HR is committed to building additional training as part of refreshed HR resource and strategic planning efforts.

Staff Awards:

• Ongoing - The development and operationalization of renewed staff award structure and a cross-campus committee focused on employee nominations with individual and team awardees focused on often behind the scenes work committed to excellence, rising stars, unsung heroes, and inclusive excellence putting UB’s values into action and creating a climate where all employees belong, thrive and succeed.  Update: Central HR has evolved the previously known HR team of Organizational Development and Effectiveness into a greater team called Employee Engagement & Success and are building out conditions for change that will include staff devoted to these recognition programs. 

UB Workforce Trends:

• Completed - UB engaged EAB in an analysis of university workforce trends, applicant outreach, and candidate expectations that will contribute to the ongoing effort of developing a distinctive and compelling value proposition to attract and retain faculty and staff.
• Ongoing:  In September 2024, Central HR initiated a taskforce of decanal unit HR colleagues to develop a mandatory 2-day onboarding of all staff employees welcoming them to the university and investing in ongoing first-year check-ins to address emerging questions of concerns of new staff members. Estimated ETA – Late 2025.
• Ongoing:  In August 2024, Central HR initiated the inaugural HR New Faculty onboarding as a “third “day of faculty onboarding in addition to the 2-day New Faculty Academic onboarding. Guest representatives included Payroll, Benefits and our UUP partners to assist in new faculty member questions.
• Ongoing: Central HR is invested in creating an online Graduate Assistant onboarding that can be accessed by new graduate assistants throughout the hiring year. 
• Ongoing: Central HR contracts with Helio Campus partners to understand position distribution across the university and in comparison, to partnering peer and aspirant institutions.