Highlights of EEO Practices at Harvard

The Office of the Assistant to the President and the new Office of Strategic Staffing held discussions and affirmative action planning meetings with the deans, vice presidents, and many other university administrators between November 1997 and February 1998 primarily to encourage action planning which supported the recruitment, development, and retention of a diverse staff workforce. The process brought forward a renewed focus and helped identify many noteworthy staff practices. Additionally, some strategies initiated at the faculty level that are also applicable to staff diversity were discussed and are included in this document.

This section provides an opportunity to learn about what others are trying and to consider some of the best and most promising staff practices within the University. The list of initiatives included, while comprehensive, is not meant to be exhaustive, and many additional efforts are described within the individual schoolís or central administrative departmentís affirmative action plan narrative for 1998.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)ís recent report entitled ìBest Practices of Private Sector Employers1î provides a format to group and present some of the practices. The report defines a ìbestî practice as one that promotes equal opportunity employment and addresses one or more barriers that adversely affect equal employment opportunity, manifests management commitment and accountability, ensures management and employee communication, produces noteworthy results, and does not cause or result in unfairness.

Many of the practices that contribute to developing and maintaining a diverse workforce generally apply to all members of the workplace. Accountability and commitment from management, strong communication, and fairness in the workplace affect all employees. While some practices tend to affect certain employees more than others, such as the existence of daycare programs being more likely to impact women than men, examples of effective practices indicate a strong connection between good diversity management and good human resources management.

The following six categories should help portray how the practices might help diversify Harvardís workforce.

Recruitment and Hiring

Promotion and Career Advancement

Terms, Conditions and Climate

Alternative Dispute Resolution and Programs Fostering Open Communications

Management Commitment and Accountability

Community Outreach

Recruitment and Hiring

Recruitment of a diverse working staff often faces several challenges, among which are not knowing where to recruit, recruitment practices that overlook qualified applicants, a lack of formal systems of recruitment, and a limited pool of targeted groups of persons with required qualifications. The following are promising examples of Harvard efforts to address these challenges.

Hiring Team Approach

Faced with significant turnover of its minority staff within a relatively short period of time, the Divinity School created a mechanism designed not only to restore the diversity of its workforce but also to define clearly the importance of diversity as a key consideration at all stages of the staff hiring process. In September 1996, the Dean sent messages to the HDS community conveying his expectations and establishing a new "hiring team" process for staff hiring. Since that time, the Administrative Dean, Assistant Dean for Student Life, and Manager of Human Resource Services have been working in partnership with hiring managers to constitute a hiring team. The hiring process emphasizes planning from the early stages of developing the job description and position listing through the final phase of offering the position to the successful candidate. Supervisors remain fully responsible and accountable for the hiring process and decision, but the hiring team mechanism assures that the School's commitment to diversity is reflected in its staff hiring activities. The hiring team helps supervisors prepare inclusive position descriptions, build contact lists of people who could either make referrals or may have interest, and review resumes to help identify persons of color.

The Divinity School reports that its minority support staff levels have been restored and that they are progressing satisfactorily with their administrative and professional staff. They identified the following points as keys to success:

* Articulate the commitment to diversity at senior levels.

* Establish an active committee to work with hiring supervisors throughout the process, from posting positions to recommendation of final hire

* Inject a diversity planning element in to the hiring process.

* Engage the hiring supervisor with the human resources unit to list candidate sources and develop a contact plan.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Design are developing similar hiring team concepts.

Programs That Promise To Increase the Diversity of Highly Qualified Candidate Pools

The Office of the Assistant to the President (OAP) has provided a minority administrative and professional staff candidate pool service for the schools and central administrative departments since 1989. Sixty-three minority administrators have participated in the Administrative Fellowship Program, which provides an administrative appointment for one academic year. The Fellows participate in seminars that enhance their knowledge of academic administration and introduce them to the Harvard community. OAP is exploring strategies to increase the placement and retention of Fellows.

University Operation Services (UOS) has a long-standing practice of participating in Cambridge Rindge and Latinís School to Work Program. Although the program is designed to introduce students into possible working relationships after graduation, many have decided to pursue a college education. More recently, UOS has offered several of these new college students summer internships. UOS has decided to follow the progress of these potential regular employees, and is currently considering employment options after college graduation.

Harvard Planning and Real Estate and Dining Services also participate in Cambridge Rindge and Latinís internship program. Students return to work during summer vacations and have the opportunity for mentoring relationships with Harvard managers and staff. Harvard benefits by reinforcing its place as an employer of choice for citizens of the City of Cambridge.

The School of Public Health (SPH) has also found this practice to be an effective strategy to increase diversity among its staff. Five highly qualified candidates from Madison Park High School were hired after completing internships. SPH reports that the partnering relationships they established within the neighboring communities and schools strengthened their reputation among minority communities as an employer of choice, which has also increased the diversity of candidate pools.

Harvard Business School (HBS) is considering a summer internship for a minority MBA student either in research or in operational management.

Harvard Medical School (HMS) sponsors a Visiting Clerkship Program for fourth and qualified third year minority medical students attending U.S. medical schools. The purpose is to increase medical student awareness of opportunities in academic medicine, increase student consideration of academic training programs for internship and residency and to increase the number of minority students applying to HMS-affiliated hospital training programs. HMS also sponsors many programs for the recruitment of students pursuing graduate and medical careers. These programs include: the Health Policy Summer Program, Four Directions Summer Research Program, Summer Honors Undergraduate Program and the Merck Summer Research Training Program.

University Information Systems (UIS) is creating two information technology internships. The internships would offer recent college graduates an entry-level professional accelerated development opportunity.

The Office of Human Resources has led a series of efforts to establish Harvard as an employer of choice to a wide and diverse community:

* OHRís Employment and Training group developed a comprehensive Diversity Recruitment Resource Guide, which will be broadly distributed throughout the University in April 1998. The Guide presents a wide variety of sources of diverse candidates, and opens with an introduction from President Rudenstine

* OHRís Employment and Training group regularly convenes a University-wide recruitersí forum to share sources of candidates, create ways to present the University as an employer of choice in a very tight job market, and maintain a network for referrals of promising candidates. The group has begun more aggressive joint recruitment through recruitment fairs, college recruitment and advertising. Building a diverse workforce is a key goal of this group.

* OHR funded a technical recruitment position to assist faculties in attracting information technology professionals. Since these positions are continuously available throughout the university, targeted recruitment can lead to real gains in employment of minorities within shortened timeframes.

* OHR is supporting a study by Simmons Graduate School of Management of why IT professionals come to work at Harvard, and why they leave. This study should assist the University in identifying areas requiring improvement in career development, supervision, and other workplace supports.

Expanding Applicant Networks

The Office of Human Resources is exploring the implementation of a comprehensive electronic applicant tracking system. While plans are not yet firm, proposed plans for the system include linkages across human resource offices, electronic imaging of resumes, and more timely reports on the status of hiring, all of which should increase the size of applicant pools and the speed by which they can be reviewed.

The Office of Human Resources Personnel Services group, which supports many central University departments, took the lead in organizing an ongoing lunchtime recruitment meeting for recruiters. Participants at the meetings have been expanded to include human resource representatives across all central university departments. Recruiters present the resumes of potential minority candidates, share results of informational interviews, and provided additional visibility for qualified minority candidates

Harvard Medical School (HMS) produces a Training Directory of residency opportunities at HMS-affiliated hospitals. Distributed to approximately 2,000 minority medical students, as well as offices of minority and student affairs at U.S. medical schools, the purpose of this directory is to increase student awareness of training opportunities in the Harvard community. In conjunction with the Office of the Assistant to the President HMS is producing a guide to Harvard sponsored internship opportunities for high school students and teachers and college students. The purpose is to assist programs in recruiting minority candidates.

Promotion And Career Advancement

Practices that help overcome barriers and manage the job enhancement and career advancement of women, people of diverse ethnic and racial groups, persons with disabilities and older workers. The EEOC's report indicates that in many organizations, a number of barriers to the career advancement opportunities of these groups still remain. These include a lack of employee access to mentoring, deficient performance evaluation and promotion processes, a lack of opportunities for career development, poor career planning and development, little or no access to informal networks of communication, inability to get feedback, different standards of performance and disparate treatment, as well as a lack of career counseling and exclusion from career ladders. Examples of Harvard efforts to address these barriers follow in the initiatives below.

Training and Development Practices

Each year the Office of the Assistant to the President sponsors one or more Harvard professionals of color to participate in The Partnership Boston Fellows Program. Through monthly forums, individual counseling, placement on boards of directors and leadership development training, The Partnership supports minority managers and professionals who are working in Boston area corporations in an effort to retain them and slow the "brain drain" of outstanding minority executives from Boston to other cities perceived as more hospitable.

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) will be partnering with UIS and other information technology departments to train prospective information technology professionals for Harvard opportunities. DCE has extended an offer to provide several information technology certificate program scholarships each term to help develop either current staff or external candidates. The scholarships would cover full tuition and fees. The Office of Strategic Staffing is working with UIS and other departments to develop an inclusive selection process and to design the program. It is anticipated that the program would include mentoring, as well as seminars and workshops.

Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have launched a career development program with an outside provider that focuses on jobs at HMS as well as at the affiliated BIDMC. Services offered at the Center for Career Renewal (CCR) include career evaluation, assessment tools, access to on-line information, a reference library, customized career counseling and planning as well as a variety of workshops and seminars.

Mentoring Programs

The Harvard Business School separated faculty development from its planning function about a year ago, creating a function to cultivate and develop junior faculty. As part of an aggressive effort to orient and develop junior faculty, HBS implemented a mentoring and ìbuddyî system for junior faculty members during the summer of 1997. The process assigns a senior faculty sponsor as a mentor and a seasoned peer as a buddy and it starts with an offer being accepted. The program hopes to provide a smooth transition into HBS, and to create a friendly and nurturing environment.

The Harvard Medical School (HMS) implemented an annual award, the A. Clifford Barger Award for Excellence in Mentoring, which is granted to individual faculty for mentoring efforts. Nominations are solicited for HMS and/or HSDM faculty members from all medical and dental faculty and trainees as well as medical and dental students. Two faculty members received awards in 1997, and a new category, Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring, was created with one outstanding nominee being selected for this distinction.

Performance Management Reviews

The HBS considers its performance management program a key factor to being an employer of choice. Now in its third year, this program includes all staff members, including union workers. The program is characterized by its participatory nature; employees are invited to participate in the evaluation of their achievement of prior year goals and objectives. Managers and supervisors evaluate employees on several competencies, including job knowledge, planning and organization, problem solving, communication, interpersonal skills, teamwork, leadership and resource allocation. This practice has allowed HBS to implement a variable pay increase program, which in turn has resulted in increased retention of high performers.

Terms, Conditions And Climate

Terms and conditions of employment that, while affecting all employees, impact some disproportionately more than others. Policies that are family friendly and offer flexible hours and working conditions tend to send welcoming messages to all employees and support multiculturalism and diversity within the workplace. The following promising practices encourage and support workplace diversity.

Work-life and Family-Friendly Policies and Practices

Harvard supports six independently incorporated, tuition-funded day care centers. Each provides high quality care by professional early childhood educators. The University also contracts with providers of back-up and emergency care for children and elder parents and spouses/partners. These contracts allow staff members to use these services at discounted rates when regular arrangements fall through.

Harvard has a proactive and supportive Office of Work and Family, with offices in Cambridge and at the Longwood Campus. Programs supported by these offices include: child care scholarship and adoption assistance programs, information and referral, educational programs and family support groups, and individual assistance on work/life issues. Information for staff and faculty includes the OHR web site work and family section, and a number of publications such as the Harvard University and Affiliates Parenting Resource Handbook. Individual faculties also provide financial and programmatic support for work/life needs of faculty and staff, such as parental leave and appointment extension policies for faculty.

Harvard offers flex time and alternate work schedules in many areas of the organization. Telecommuting is being explored. The Universityís policies on family and medical leave, including leaves for birth and adoptive parents, and the inclusion of spousal equivalents in the University sponsored health plans support recruitment and retention strategies as well as providing important employee benefits.

Strategies Designed To Increase Awareness on Diversity Issues

Several schools have advisory groups to help increase awareness and to assure that faculty and student diversity, or diversity in the classroom remains a central focus. The Graduate School of Education (GSE) released ìA Working Paper on Diversity at the Harvard Graduate School of Educationî in March 1997. The process represents a milestone in recognizing the importance of diversity for the GSE community, and although the paper largely focused on diversity in the classroom it engaged members of the entire community through town meetings and forums.

GSE is developing processes that will integrate diversity into its fundamental operations. Plans are underway to develop two principal programs for its administrative and professional staff. A GSE faculty member will lead GSE exempt staff in a case discussion on mentoring. The case study will involve an African-American woman, her direct supervisor and her mentor. It will raise questions about diversity in the work place, particularly concerning identity, communication, and mentoring. A session on networking is also planned. The second program will bring this work, as well as other diversity topics, to the GSE Forums. The Forums provide discussion opportunities for all staff, students, faculty, and the community.

The Harvard Medical School sponsors activities that promote dialogue on the topic of diversity. The HMS Inter-Society Multicultural Fellows Committee, organized through the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs, represents faculty and student representatives from all academic societies, and seeks to facilitate diversity training and awareness in the Harvard medical community. In 1997, the committee organized a Global Harmony Festival for the medical, dental and public health schools, the affiliated hospitals and the entire Harvard community.

The Advisory Committee on Diversity at the John F. Kennedy School of Government works to create a more positive experience for all that are affiliated with the School. Their projects during 1997 included incorporating diversity-relevant exercises into student orientation, creating pedagogical tools to help faculty skill-build in the area of diversity, and engaging a consultant to work on diversity-related pedagogical and curricular initiatives.

Alternative Dispute Resolution and Programs Designed to Promote Open Communications

This section focuses particularly on voluntary and effective alternative resolution practices that are designed to foster open communications. Regular communication between management and employees, both "top-down" and "bottom-up", the encouragement of ongoing discussions about diversity issues, and continual distribution of information about policies, programs, and practices, contribute greatly to fostering a diverse workplace.

In January of 1991, three Harvard schools; Harvard Medical, Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard School of Dental Medicine established the HMS-HSDM-HSPH Ombuds Office. This office's mission is to provide a safe place for members of the Harvard community (faculty, trainee, staff or students) to go for voicing concerns about discrimination or harassment in the workplace and/or as a referral point for other institutional resources. It operates as an informal resource that tries to provide individuals with advice, support and counsel.

Peer mediation groups exist in several faculties. The regional problem solving teams established through the agreement between Harvard University and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers assist staff and managers in finding creative and satisfactory solutions for workplace disputes. Training in conflict resolution, mediation, and sexual harassment prevention has been sponsored by individual faculties, the Office of Human Resources, and the Office of the General Counsel.

At the Harvard Law School, the Administrative Dean and the head of the Law Library periodically hold skip level meetings at which they meet with various configurations of staff that report to their direct reports either with or without those direct reports present. The purpose of the meetings is to answer general questions or to share updates on specific projects. The meetings may include all staff or sub groups and can be initiated either by staff members or by the head of the unit. The general feedback from staff has been highly positive.

The Central Office of Human Resources has recently established a similar process. The Associate Vice President meets regularly with staff that reports to her direct reports to discuss a variety of issues, including new initiatives and alternative approaches to current work processes.

Management Commitment and Accountability

Management commitment is a driving force in creating and sustaining a diverse workforce. This section focuses on senior management's commitment to increasing the diversity of the workforce, particularly in the university's administrative and professional jobs, and to find ways to include the ideas and leadership perspectives which diversity brings to the workplace.

President Neil Rudenstine earned national recognition for his position on maintaining student diversity. His 1995 report "Diversity and Learning" emphasized the importance of learning from people whose backgrounds differ from one's own. Since that date, he has been a public advocate for diversity in admissions processes and has openly spoken with the media and other university presidents on this important issue. The President has frequently included improving workforce diversity in meetings with the universityís Academic Council and in presentations to Harvard's Board of Overseers.

Provost Harvey Fineberg addressed the university-wide Equal Employment Opportunity Committee in October 1997 and reiterated his commitment to diversity on the grounds of "providing any individual at Harvard, be it student, faculty or staff members with the opportunity to fully develop his/her potential." In November 1997, Provost Fineberg followed that statement by establishing the Office of Strategic Staffing, with the express mandate of promoting the recruitment, development and retention of a highly qualified and diverse workforce. This mandate became one of the Central Administration Strategy Teamís (CAST) top priorities for the coming year.

Dean Joseph Martin, from Harvard Medical School, has spoken widely and unequivocally on his commitment to diversity at the school. In October of 1997 he held a town meeting at HMS's Walter Amphitheater in which he stated: "Diversity in our programs is not a question of fairness but a question of quality- the quality of our educational programs and the quality of care in our medical community. The ethnic and cultural diversity of Harvard's medical students, faculty, and staff- or the lack thereof-contributes directly to the quality and scope of research, education and patient care. A more diverse and culturally representative medical community practices higher quality medicine, the better to serve the larger community." Dean Martin expanded the role and responsibilities of Dr. William Silen, Faculty Dean for Development and Diversity to include the coordination of all diversity programs throughout the medical community. Dean Martin also appointed an executive committee on diversity and department chairs are convened periodically to discuss diversity issues.

Dean Ronald Thiemann of the Harvard Divinity School openly communicated his hopes and expectations for increased diversity among students and staffs in writing during fall 1996. The first letter addressed all members of the HDS community, described diversity as a core value for the School, and outlined specific strategies for student recruitment and staff hiring. The second letter announced expectations that hiring managers were responsible for improving workforce diversity.

Dean Peter Rowe of the Design School gave the senior staff a mandate to review current practices and then to create a comprehensive staff development program. In addition to career-advancement and recognition components and an emphasis on flexibility options, one outcome has been regular all-staff meetings with the dean, where he gives an update of the school's progress in meeting it's goals. This includes the promotion of crossculturalism and internationalism in all aspects of the school, ranging from the curriculum to the composition of the workforce and student body.

HGSE and KSG communicated the importance of diversity to their communities by having their Academic Deans Susan Moore Johnson and Fred Schauer host diversity related activities. Highlights of the initiatives in place at each of these two Schools are discussed in the section titled 'Strategies Designed To Increase Awareness On Diversity Issues'.

Vice President for Administration Sally Zeckhauser discussed the importance of having a diverse workforce at a November 1997 meeting of her senior managers. At this ìTransformational Leadershipî seminar held annually for 100-120 senior administrators from HPRE, UOS, OHR, UIS, HPPS, Harvard University Press, Harvard Magazine, the Arboretum and the Faculty Club, Mrs. Zeckhauser emphasized the role that each manager has in hiring staff who are different from themselves, and in creating a welcoming workplace for all staff members.

Vice President for Finance Beppie Huidekoper has held meetings with her senior managers in which employment goals and other diversity issues were reviewed. Concrete objectives and action plans for calendar year are being developed within Financial Administration for setting up a mentoring program, specialized skills training, internships and expanded recruitment efforts.

A quarterly monitoring process has been developed to assist the Vice Presidents and central administration senior managers in analyzing progress toward recruitment and retention of minorities and women. The Office of Human Resources has developed the reports and the central administration HR Confederation will manage the analysis in each central department. This process will be made available to schools for their review and consideration during summer 1998. The Vice Presidents of Administration and Finance have already initiated a series of meetings in which employment goals and other diversity issues are reviewed with senior managers.

Community Outreach

Community outreach programs encourage and help sustain a diverse workplace as well as further Harvard's role as a member and strong supporter of the increasingly diverse surrounding community. Below are a few examples of Harvard outreach efforts to promote diversity.

Job seekers often have limited knowledge about the number and variety of positions available at colleges and universities. Even members of the local communities near campus may not recognize the opportunities or believe that they are welcome. During 1998, the FAS will be exploring ways to reach out to the local community as an employer. FAS Personnel Services will be examining the possibility of administrative internships for local high school students and opportunities to build on community relationships that already exist through science education programs and student volunteer activities.

The School of Public Health, located in close proximity to neighborhoods with high percentages of minorities, has already implemented several community programs. Some examples are the Mission Hill Career Development Program and partnerships with the Tobin, Farragut, Boston Latin and Madison Park High Schools, the Mattapan Health Center and the Mattapan Community Coalition. The Mission Hill Career Development Program sponsors an eight-week internship for young adults from the surrounding neighborhood, teaching them office and computer skills, helping them write rÈsumÈs and also providing assistance with their job searches. The program brought more than twenty adults to the School of Public Health and to the Harvard Medical School as interns, five of whom were hired in permanent positions.

The Graduate School of Design has instituted several programs involving minority communities in the Greater Boston area. Reclaiming Roxbury is a summer outreach program focusing on early high school students from underrepresented groups in the community. It teaches approximately 12 students concrete architectural skills and benefits Roxbury by attending to urban design problems. Career Discovery, also a summer program, introduces students ranging in age from 16 to 60 to the design profession by providing a comprehensive six-week course of academic and professional activities. Between 200ñ300 students participate. In an effort to contribute to the diversity of the student body, full scholarships are given annually to six to ten students from underrepresented groups. The Community Service Fellowship Project provides opportunities for 20 GSD students to work for 10 weeks in agencies or small community organizations. If a community group cannot afford the stipend, the GSD subsidizes it. The school also sends African American students to the annual conference of NOMA (National Organization of Minority Architects.

The Harvard Medical School (HMS) is also exploring broader and deeper ways to increase its outreach to the local communities. At the K-12 levels, HMS sponsors a Teacher Institute for local middle and high school teachers, has instituted Project Success, a research and career development program for Boston and Cambridge high school students and has developed science curriculum used in area public schools. Through the Commonwealth Fund Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, HMS sponsors leadership forums that are open to the Harvard and Boston communities and focus on health issues impacting minority and disadvantaged populations. HMS is also a founding member of the Biomedical Science Careers Project (BSCP), a New England regional program designed to identify and support the careers of minority high school through graduate level students. To date BSCP has reached more than 2,000 students, postdocs and junior faculty. Other community outreach strategies are also being planned.

The Office of the Assistant to the President works regularly with a range of community, civic and professional organizations concerned with advocacy for people of color. An OAP staff member takes responsibility for coordinating and focusing support from specific Harvard schools and departments for the programs of such organizations as the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., and the Asian-American Unity Committee. Furthermore, by maintaining on-going involvement with professional development organizations such as the Latino Professional Network, el Centro del Cardenal, the Boston Urban Bankers Forum, the Black MBA Associates and the Partnership, OAP staff seek to facilitate and nurture relationships between Harvard managers and networks of minority professionals in the Boston area.

In an effort to encourage academic careers among students of color many Harvard faculty and staff of several schools and departments support "pipeline programs" by volunteering as leaders and mentors. In this connection, the Office of the Assistant to the President coordinates Harvard support for a few of these efforts such as The Leadership Alliance and the MASSPEP program.

2Best Practices of Private Sector Employers -- By special task force headed by Commissioner Reginald E. Jones under the direction of EEOC Chairman Gilbert F. Casellas. Full text can be found at http://www.eeoc.gov/task/practices.html.