HR: Diverse workforce is top priority

by Charles Murphy

Murphy

n the fall of 1999, President Jackson outlined for the University community his vision for making Rochester a more diverse environment for those who work, study, and receive services here.

The Office of Human Resources shares the president's commitment, and I am proud to outline a number of the initiatives we have been undertaking during the past 12 months to support the University's mission.

We have come to expect the University to provide our suddents, our faculty, our staff, our patients, and other visitors, with world-class opportunities in education, research, scholarship, and health care.

I firmly believe that one of the best ways to continue that tradition is to develop the most capable, most talented workforce we possibly can. And that means tapping into the diversity of perspectives and experience that comes with creating a workforce that values and appreciates difference.

When I talk about diversity, I don't mean simply a mix of people from different races working side by side. I use the term in its broadest sense to include people of different races and cultures, ethnicity, genders, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds working not just side by side, but together in the common cause of making this institution an inclusive and welcoming place.

To achieve those goals, during the past year, we have:

• Greatly expanded our outreach efforts to develop a broader contact base when it comes to talking about opportunities that exist at the University. Locally, we have recommitted ourselves to developing relationships with organizations and agencies that serve all populations. At the regional and national levels, we have broadened our contact pool so that departments conducting searches will be able to cast as wide a net as possible to find the best candidates for their jobs.

• Prepared a pilot mentoring program for women and minorities.

• Established a full day, in-house training program on how to manage diversity. The sessions are available to any University department.

• Incorporated our work with that of an external consultant to develop a strategy for creating and maintaining diversity across the University.

• Conducted, along with outside consultants, several department-specific training programs on issues of diversity and its importance in the workplace.

In the future, I hope to report more fully on some of the results of these and other measures.

Overarching all of these initiatives is the simple, but powerful idea that all people should be treated with fairness and with equity. Out of that will come not only a diverse workforce, but a better workforce and a truly world-class work environment.

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Charles Murphy is director of the Office of Human Resources at the University. For more information about Human Resources at Rochester, visit www.rochester.edu/working/employment/HR.

This column is one of an occasional series on administrative issues at the University.

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