Recruitment

Recruitment is one of the main ways by which gender balance and equality in the project can be promoted and ensured. It is an EU aim that 40% of the Fellows recruited to the project should be female. However, this does not mean that affirmative action should be used to reach this target, as the primary aim should be to recruit Fellows of the highest quality and with the most potential, regardless of gender or other factors. EVAN partners are asked to use ‘best practice’ when recruiting and appointing fellows, to ensure that EVAN gets the best Fellows through a fair and equitable appointment system. A number of measures can be taken to promote gender and other types of equality:

1. Where possible, ask your institution to include a commitment to equal opportunities on the advertisement for the position. These will vary from country to country, and from institution to institution. The Gender Board can help you to find out what is best practice in your country and institution.

2. Write job descriptions as flexibly as possible, within the guidelines given by your country or institution, and within the remit of EVAN. For example, it might not be possible to advertise the post as part-time, but is it possible to alter core working hours to suit different people?

3. Interview suitably qualified candidates regardless of gender or domestic situation.

4. Have ‘gender neutral’ selection and interview panels. If it is not possible to have equal numbers of males and females on your panels, please ensure that you have at least one man and at least one woman on each panel.

5. Be fair when negotiating and agreeing starting salaries and promotions, and check that people are being paid in a fair, equitable and transparent manner. Be aware that males and females often differ in their approaches to salary negotiation.

Institutional human resources/ personnel contacts for issues related to equality and diversity