Identify Your Constituency
The nature of your institutional priorities, and of your institution’s unique anchor mission, will cascade into the details of your implementation. Before you start pulling data, reach an agreement with the internal team and leadership about the constituency that your hiring strategy will focus on.
In a place-based local employment strategy, your “place” may be as small as a few census tracts in a big city, or it may encompass most to all of a medium-sized or small city. Even if there are no specific boundaries to your institution’s economic footprint, starting from a clear definition of the place is key. Further, you will want to clarify whether there is a particular angle to diversity hiring that your institution should be addressing in this strategy: Are you looking to improve racial minority representation, a gender imbalance, or is there a special focus on disabled citizens or veterans? Essentially, you are taking care to identify who the people are behind the strategies, plans, and data.