The Selection Committee is a group of people who collaborate to assess candidates and make hiring decisions. The Committee’s role is to ensure a fair and transparent process, while eliminating bias and ensuring that equal opportunities are taken into consideration. Although not every business will want – or need – a Selection Committee, it can be an invaluable tool for larger organisations.
For example, when it comes to college football, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee has become a shadowy entity, meeting in private at the Gaylord Texan resort in Grapevine, Texas, deciding which teams will fill the final four spots in the College Football National Championship. This is an essential element of the tournament, as a human element is needed to provide some perspective on the computer rankings and decide which teams are the best in the nation.
A Selection Committee can be used to determine who will be accepted for a particular position in an organisation, as well as to decide what training is required and how long a person should stay in the job before being promoted. The Committee will normally have a chair and other members, and it is important that they are familiar with the procedures and processes that are involved in running a Selection Committee.
It is also important that the Selection Committee members are familiar with the position to be filled, and understand the skills, knowledge and abilities that are expected of a successful candidate. This will allow the Committee to quickly identify the most suitable candidates for interview.
In addition to assessing applicants for their academic credentials, a Selection Committee will also be interested in the practical implications of their work, including the ability to form rapport with students and other faculty members and cope with the workload. A good Selection Committee will be able to see how the applicant would fit into the departmental culture and help the department meet its goals.
If a Selection Committee is looking for tenured academic work, it will be particularly interested in whether the applicant has publishable papers and straightforward post-dissertation projects, and how they would cope with the demands of a full-time academic appointment (including student advising and university service). The Committee may also ask the person who occupied the post before the current vacancy, what their workload was like and what their most memorable teaching moments were.
When it comes to choosing a Selection Committee, it is important that the size of the committee is kept small. Going beyond a few people will typically make it difficult to reach agreement, and can increase the amount of time it takes to hire someone. It is also important that the committee agrees on a scoring system to use, so that all candidates are assessed against the same criteria. Finally, it is important that the Committee members write down their feedback, rather than simply discussing it in a group, as this can easily lead to bias.