How do you recruit and retain the best staff and faculty?

This is the challenge that Cornell's Division of Human Resources has taken on and was the focus of nine presentations and a roundtable discussion at the Cornell Diversity and Compliance Update Meeting, Nov. 9.

"Cornell President David Skorton has indicated that the university will soon need to return to a healthy pace of faculty hiring," said Lynette Chappell-Williams, associate vice president for diversity and inclusion. "Right now, we are in the midst of a hiring pause. But when we emerge from our current financial difficulties, we will need to adapt to a new reality. We are going to need the most creative, innovative and highest-functioning workforce possible."

Chappell-Williams pointed to statistics showing that as more women and individuals from underrepresented populations gain higher education degrees, the world's workforce is progressively becoming more diverse. "Cornell needs to attract and retain this diverse workforce to be competitive among its peers," she said.

Presenters and some of the 85 Cornell human resource professionals and administrators attending the meeting offered such suggestions as:

"Cornell has won numerous workplace awards over the past few years, indicating that we are instituting best practices," said Chappell-Williams. "Now we need to ensure that those practices are widely adapted throughout the university, as well as adopt others."