On January 26th 2017, the HR experts of the LIBRA partner and associated institutes will participated in the LIBRA workshop on “Best practice in gender-inclusive recruitment processes” at CeMM in Vienna, Austria. The workshop gave training and first-hand insight into the topic of unbiased recruitment, to support the goal of the LIBRA project to remove gender barriers in the hiring process of leading positions at research institutes.
The workshop participants got a detailed understanding of the different areas of recruitment and potential solutions to avoid gender biases and to create an objective and transparent hiring process. Based on this theoretical framework, the participants analyzed their own job advertisements and developd the LIBRA rules for recruitment. The LIBRA rules and conclusions of the workshop will be published in the format of a guideline.
Topics of the workshop
- Understand the root causes of gender gaps in STEM
- Explore concrete, research-based strategies for closing the gap through gender-inclusive recruitment
- Identify steps in the recruitment process - from writing a job advertisement to choosing a candidate and making an offer - where actions need to be taken
- Exchange knowledge and experiences with experts in the field
The experts
- Anna Beninger, Director, Research at Catalyst Inc., USA
Anna has a lead role in developing new research on the challenges and opportunities for women in STEM industries and academia at Catalyst, a leading nonprofit organization with the mission to accelerate progress for women through workplace inclusion. Catalyst works with businesses, governments, organizations, and individuals who share their goal of creating workplaces where employees representing every dimension of diversity can thrive.
- Dr. Saher Ahmed, Athena SWAN Project Manager, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK
Saher is the Athena SWAN Project Manager at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) and co-ordinates the Wellcome Genome Campus-wide Sex in Science Programme. Saher has over a decade of experience of working on Diversity in STEM projects and has set-up national projects to tackle the under-representation of women in STEM. Saher currently manages WTSI’s Women in Science Programme and is responsible for influencing change in policies, practices and provisions that disproportionately disadvantage people according to their gender.
- Eva Lübke, Research Assistant and Project Manager at the Chair of Econometrics at the University of Mannheim, Germany
Eva was involved in the EU-funded project FESTA (Female Empowerment in Science and Technology Academia) and she was part of the “Integration Team for Human Resources, Gender and Diversity Management” at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. There, she co-developed the handbook on “Gender-sensitive Design of Criteria and Recruitment, Appointment and Promotion Processes in Academia”, which was implemented by several European Universities.
