Administration discusses details of the hiring process at Maryville College

This year at MC, new faces populate the staff and faculty. This poses questions about the hiring process, the geographic reach of our job postings and how hiring committees are able to find the best fit among candidates.

Director of Human Resources, Dr. Sheri Gordon, who started at MC in August 2023, has worked to streamline the onboarding process, developing a formal system.

“Beforehand there was a checklist that got sent to supervisors,” Gordon said. “We still communicate about next steps, but now we have an onboarding that we conduct every other Monday [for staff].”

“Since January, we have onboarded 74 people. That is faculty and staff, including adjuncts, part time, everyone.”

In simple terms, faculty members are responsible for instruction of students and service to the school and community, while staff work to keep the college running behind the scenes. The faculty and staff hiring processes are different, as is their onboarding.

“The Dean’s office coordinates faculty onboarding in the fall,” Gordon said. “We try to get them hired on the onboarding dates to funnel a process. It is streamlined to make sure everybody is getting similar service at the right time.”

There is an emphasis on making candidate selection fair and equitable, and Gordon works to continually improve the process. Administration is also highly aware of implicit bias, and works to mitigate its effects on decision making during the hiring process.

“Throughout the search process, there is a conversation about what the applicant pool looks like,” said the Assistant Dean for Academic Success, Heather McMahon. “[We] want a nice, big, diverse applicant pool, with all kinds of demographic information and experiences. [We] narrow it down, then there’s a conversation: how did we get to this list? And does it represent the diversity of the total pool?”

McMahon, alongside Dr. Kathie Shiba, assistant dean for institutional equity, help support the college in conducting an equitable search process, bringing in diverse candidates. While some job postings—like those for entry level staff positions—do not often require an extended reach geographically, many openings for faculty and higher level administrators do.

“For our faculty hires, there are different publications that you would use than if you are looking for a dean,” said McMahon. “We work with HR on where to post the job ads.”

“For entry level positions, those are folks in the most immediate region,” Gordon said. “People don’t typically move multiple counties or states for entry-level positions unless it is a specialty position.”

However, she added that faculty positions often come from out of state. National faculty searches help MC find the most qualified candidates, especially because not every state has a PhD program in the subject with an opening.

“When there is a position vacancy it already has funding. The college knows it can pay for a salary,” said Gordon. “The hiring manager works with me to get a job description ready to go. Once the job description is in good shape and we are all in agreement, I send that to the chief of staff to get it on the agenda for cabinet review.”

She added that a search committee is also put together by the supervisor. Financial barriers can pose a challenge in this process. With grants received this year for the new Digital Edge program and Scots Learning Commons, staffing in these new areas has been easier to secure. 

As the director for Project IDEAL—which is the Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible, Learning Community—McMahon spearheaded the development of the grants that have funded these new campus programs.

“The grant has allowed us to hire new folks,” said McMahon. “[We] identify the role, write the grant and include job descriptions. We had to outline how to spend every penny of the money.”

McMahon says that these grants allow MC to mobilize programs that were already in the works, making them a reality. Some new faces on campus include: new Academic Coach Gretchen Cook, Academic Advisor Devyn Kelly, Vickie Skates at the desk in the Learning Commons, and Rhonda Wright, who is a new diversity educator.

At a small school like MC, another major challenge is “succession planning.”

“Most of our positions are unique – somebody has to leave in order for you to move up,” Gordon said, adding that positions for recent MC alumni are often a stepping stone after graduation.

Whether the college is hiring from recent alums or conducting a nation-wide search, the goal is the same: to offer the support needed to be successful.

“Some of it is much more about the mission and our values as a college and what we care about. We spend a lot of time talking about how to create an equitable work environment and classroom experience,” said McMahon. “We give them clear expectations, support, and resources for what they might need.”