Gender biases were not taken into account during recruitment processes (with the exception of the Faculty of Business) in a systematic way. The inclusion of a gender perspective depends on the sensitivity of the people involved in the recruitment process.
Training the members of selection and promotion committees regarding gender bias, inclusive recruitment and promotion procedures
Problem (evidence)
Aims/objectives
To ensure that every person involved in the recruitment process is aware of gender-issues, discrimination and stereotypes.
Resources
Time
Budget for hiring the external gender experts
Brief outcomes
26 people (17 women and 9 men) involved in recruitment processes attended the first training course about gender-issues. The second session attracted 12 people.
The attendees at the course were very satisfied with the session.
20 out of 26 filled in the evaluation form and the average evaluation was:
– Interest of the topic 4.7 (out of 5)
– Evaluation of the expert 4.85 (out of 5)
Key area
Recruitment, career progression and retention
Type of action
Training
Organization
Mondragon Unibertsitatea
Higher education institution
Action level of implementation
Department Coordinators and Knowledge Areas Coordinators
Implementation
We identified the important topics and external experts for the training sessions. We identified the people involved in the recruitment processes and spoke with the coordinators to help us recruit attendees. We organized the first training session and invited the 64 people involved in recruitment processes in all the faculties of MU. The first training session took place on the 31st of May of 2018 with 26 attendees and duration was 3.5 hours.
After that, we prepared an evaluation form to gather attendees’ feedback. The feedback was very positive and we run a second session on the 4th of December 2018 on unconscious bias in recruitment processes. A short guide has been drawn up to summarize the contents of the course and has been given to people involved in the recruitment processes.
The training courses will be repeated next academic year, a budget has been allocated for that
Challenges
There has not been any resistance, though so far less than 1/2 of the recruiters have attended. The challenge is to choose a date when people are not too busy and to convince them about the significance of the course.
Coping strategies
To convince the Head of Departments to help us with the recruitment of attendants.
Tips/strategies – Lessons learnt
The training sessions must be short and during less busy periods because key actors’ agenda is usually full and not very flexible.
More detailed Outcomes/Impact
A budget has been allocated to repeat the sessions next year in recognition of the value of the training.
Reflection/what we would do differently
We would communicate the date of the session earlier. One month is not enough to fit into key actors’ agenda.
Unintended consequences
The attendees to the training session were more receptive than expected and the cross-talk between them was valuable for sharing best practices across the institution.