The following diversity toolkit is designed to help search committees in each unit achieve Iowa State University’s Affirmative Action Plan (“AAP”) goals, as well as to provide a more inclusive, welcoming and productive workplace. Research has shown that increased cognitive diversity of teams makes them more efficacious in solving complex problems because it broadens the perspective of the team. Diversity across identities, including, but not limited to, bases protected by ISU’s non-discrimination policy helps establish teams with greater cognitive diversity.

This recruitment and retention toolkit does not condone or encourage the use of preference or set asides to achieveproportionality or quotas. The proper use of this recruitment and retention toolkit is to increase the cognitive and identity diversities of teams by ensuring departments receive diverse pools of applicants, and then select applicants from those pools objectively to find the most qualified individual. The process is designed to support the AAP by addressing bias in each stage of the hiring process, promoting awareness to retain employees hired, ensuring employees are integrated into the campus community through mentorship and community resources, and remediating system concerns through effective exit interviews.