Diversity in the General Sciences Joe Kwan Presentation to AFRD Staff Committee Bldg 71, Rm 233 Nov. 22, 2004

Strategic Recruitment Gerry Abrams has recently written a pilot plan (see document dated 10/1/04). Clearly the General Sciences scientific staff population lacks diversity (AFRD is no exception). The issue is what can be done effectively to correct this problem.

What are the root causes? Do we see this as a systematic discrimination problem? Do we see this as a lack of policy? Do we see this as a lack of an effective execution plan? Do we see this as an over-supply of excuses? (Examples: we are not hiring, we don’t have the right candidates, we only hire the Best) We do not have an institutional mandate (yet), or the supporting policies and procedures.

What should the staff committee do? Recognize that there is a problem and set goals Set the conditions for fixing it Identify someone who should be responsible for fixing it Recommend policy and plans Allocating resources and authorization is probably not the responsibility of the staff committee—it should be up to the division director.

We propose three approaches Hire on reputation Hire on potential Create and maintain a “Living List”

Hire on reputation Hire a relatively senior person who is highly qualified and has a proven track record. Such a person will attractive future talent for further improvement of our diversity profile. If a superstar can bring a research program with funding into AFRD, a position can be created to enrich our research portfolio.

Hire on potential We still hire only people who are qualified, but the qualifications can be defined more broadly to include the “institutional value” of diversity—this is an alternate view to hiring the “best”. Hire an entry level staff who, at the time of hiring, may not have demonstrated the exact skill match, but the person has potential to become an excellent member of the AFRD staff. The hiring supervisor from a particular research group usually only focuses on candidates that have the exact skill match, so the diversity interest must be asserted at a higher management level. This is where we need to improve our hiring procedure to include a step on diversity evaluation.

Outreach effort Previous outreach efforts have generally failed to come up with suitable candidates at the correct moment. The issue is how to create and maintain a “recommended” candidate pool. To reduce the risk in Hiring on Potential, we need to know these people ahead of time. It has been suggested that we should create a Living List. Staff with recruiting responsibility should meet regularly to identify potential candidates. We should regularly invite women and minority speakers to give seminars. The question is who pays?