UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Penn State is now part of a national organization that will allow it to better recruit top-notch faculty and staff from across the country.
In its efforts to continue to promote the University as a national-level employer of choice, Penn State has joined the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC). This new initiative, designed to help attract talented, competitive, and diverse individuals to the University, is jointly sponsored by the Office of Human Resources and the Office of the Provost.
“Penn State has a long history of attracting the highest caliber of faculty and staff to the University,” said Blannie Bowen, vice provost for academic affairs. “Membership in the HERC expands Penn State’s capacity to share our positions with individuals who may not even recognize that we have multiple campuses.” Bowen added that another advantage of HERC membership is the opportunity for dual-career couples to explore positions in other colleges and universities located near Penn State’s campuses.
Penn State’s membership is in HERC’s New Jersey/Eastern Pennsylvania/Delaware chapter. Peer institutions also participating in this regional chapter include the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Rutgers University. Effective today, job opportunities at Penn State’s campuses in the eastern half of the Commonwealth, including University Park, will be posted through the HERC network at www.njherc.org.
Billie Willits, associate vice president for Human Resources, noted that partnerships like HERC will become essential to our ability to attract, develop and retain the best faculty and staff as the nation moves into an era of unprecedented Baby Boomer retirements combined with increased competition.
Penn State’s initial participation in HERC will include employment opportunities at the following University locations:
Abington
Berks
Brandywine
The Dickinson School of Law (both campuses)
Great Valley
Harrisburg
Hazleton
Lehigh Valley
College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Mont Alto
Schuylkill
University Park
Wilkes-Barre
Worthington Scranton
York
HERC also will feature Penn State jobs at other University locations in eastern Pennsylvania, such as Agricultural Extension openings, Outreach locations, and Applied Research Laboratory facilities. Jobs at Penn State’s affiliated subsidiaries -- The Pennsylvania College of Technology and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center - are not included as part of Penn State’s membership in HERC. After one full year, Penn State will evaluate its participation in HERC and determine if membership should be expanded to include campuses in western Pennsylvania.
All full-time staff jobs will automatically be posted to HERC’s recruitment site. Faculty jobs also will be posted if a college’s human resources representative posts the job through the Office of Human Resources’ online recruitment site, www.psu.jobs. Faculty search groups interested in using HERC as a recruitment resource should contact their human resources representative.
The HERC membership is just one component of Penn State’s new, comprehensive recruitment marketing strategy. These efforts are designed to proactively prepare Penn State colleges and departments for the gradual loss of key talent as the Baby Boom generation exits full-time employment. More than 67 percent of Penn State employees are members of the Baby Boom generation or the preceding generations. Additionally, the University has developed strategies to battle the “brain drain” exit of recent college graduates from Pennsylvania. Like HERC, many of Penn State’s new recruitment efforts will expand to target regional and national audiences.
Penn State’s new, centralized recruitment initiatives already have proven to be successful investments in the University’s future. A multimedia staff recruitment campaign conducted last year by the Office of Human Resources resulted in a 17 percent increase of applicants from underrepresented groups over the previous year. The 2007 launch of the www.psu.jobs microsite generated a 691 percent increase in pageviews over the University’s previous recruitment site.
The University also continues to make progress in attracting individuals who value diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In an annual competitive talent survey conducted by the Office of Human Resources, the University saw an 8 percent increase in the number of individuals who selected “diverse workplace” as a key reason to apply for a staff job at Penn State. In fact, last year’s staff applicants rated Penn State’s “diverse workplace” benefit as being more important than the University’s healthcare, retirement, compensation, or vacation benefits.
Additionally, Penn State has increased employment marketing on sites such as Google and Facebook, which allow the University to better target recruitment messages to relevant individuals. The Office of Human Resources also continues to offer the Hire Power training program, which provides hiring managers with information and resources to turn a reactive hiring process into a proactive strategic business solution. Individuals interested in taking the Hire Power training can register online through the Human Resource Development Center at www.ohr.psu.edu/hrdc.