UGA Career Center’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
The UGA Career Center is committed to celebrating difference and diversity on our campus while supporting all UGA students and alumni in their career development. We work to provide inclusive and impactful environments, programming, career coaching, and resources that increase access to career readiness for our students of color, students with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ students, indigenous students, first generation students and historically marginalized students as a meaningful way to expand the social capital of our diverse student body.
We recognize that our students who belong to marginalized communities are more deeply impacted by challenges to gain social capital and/or the networks of relationships that help graduates enter and thrive in the workplace. Therefore, we our work to empower students to design their own version of career success through workshops, programming, mentoring, and consulting appointments. We acknowledge that diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts will never be completed or perfected, rather they are ongoing and evolving. Because of this, we are committed to evolving our office and efforts as needed for our students, alumni, colleagues, employers, and each other. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, we have developed definitive efforts toward D&I. Below, we describe our specific efforts to offer more accessible, and inclusive career development services to all UGA students and alumni. We call this our D&I Action Plan.
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Action Plan
Click/tap the commitments below to learn more:
ACTION
- Hosted 6 Diversity & Inclusion Arch Ready Programs, engaging 604 students. Topics included:
- Introduction to Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace (Fall 2021) - 56 attendees
- Identities in the Workplace (Fall 2021) - 110 attendees
- Disabilities in the Workplace (Fall 2021) - 104 attendees
- Introduction to Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace (Spring 2022) – 102 attendees
- Identities in the Workplace (Spring 2022) – 119 attendees
- International Career Development – 113 attendees
- Updated identity-based resources to include career and community resources for first-generation students, student athletes, and students of low socioeconomic status; these resources support other identities such as racial and ethnic identities, gender identities, students with disabilities and veterans
- Sponsored an International Student Life Coffee Hour
- Consultant staff partnered with 13 identity-based campus offices to support students
ACTION
- Provided D&I presentation best practices training to Career Consultants
- Continued to assess the inclusivity of language in presentations, print materials, and content imagery
- 96% of students who completed the Arch Ready Professionalism Certificate strongly agree/agree they were provided with examples and materials that helped them feel included and that applied to their situation or identity
- Ensured all virtual programs had closed captions enabled
- Offered a variety of student and alumni appointment types including in-person, phone, and virtual appointments
- Included an access statement on all event and program website promotions
ACTION
- Invited diverse panelists to participate in programming to be more representative of UGA students, alumni, and the workforce at large
- 94% of Arch Ready Professionalism Certificate earners strongly agree or agree that they learned from panelists of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities on career-related topics
- Awarded 573 scholarships for professional attire totaling $114,600
- Partnered with SGA Clothing Closet during our Fall and Spring Career & Internship Fairs; regularly promote this resource to students via email, social media and career coaching appointments
- Hosted a Diversity & Inclusion Career Conference engaging 23 employers and 76 students
- Career Center Employer Partners Program, an exclusive partnership opportunity designed to maximize an organization’s recruiting effectiveness at UGA, includes a diversity recruiting package ($7,500)
- Included D&I agenda topic during all Employer Breakfast Meetings
- Developed a list of D&I Recruiting Resources for employers
ACTION
- We continue to evaluate and revise our recruitment and selection process to ensure inclusivity.
- Include external DAR Talent Management representative in search committee
- Created and utilize “fit” document outlining explicit skills and qualities required for the position
- Updated candidate interview questions and evaluation form to reflect job description and fit document
- Development & Alumni Relations Division Chief Diversity Officer is present during hiring and recruiting meetings and provides D&I insights to the hiring committee within the context of recruiting new staff members during each vacancy posting meeting
- Vacant full-time positions are posted across a variety of job boards. Examples include:
- DAR Careers Page
- Insight Into Diversity
- Talent Management Newsletter
- Inside Higher Ed
- SoACE
- NACE
- LinkedIn Recruiter
- HigherEdJobs
- All departing employees and graduate assistants are invited to participate in an exit interview to provide feedback and discuss their experiences working with us.
- Changes were made to our student intern recruitment to attract and hire student staff members who reflect our student body.
- Updated job description to be more inclusive with the following strategies in mind:
- We recruit all majors and invite all students to apply
- We used inclusive language (removed superlatives like "world-class," "all-star," "best,")
- We added a D&I statement to the position posting
- We source candidates through diverse means by:
- Sharing job openings with campus partners
- Soliciting referrals from current student employees
- We seek to mitigate implicit bias throughout the recruiting and hiring process by:
- Involving a committee
- Focusing on qualifications and using a rubric to align a candidate’s skills with the job posting
- Being mindful of team needs (skill gaps, major gaps, underrepresented student populations) and looking for "culture add" not "culture fit"
- Using standardized interview questions that have been reviewed for biased questions.
- Following up with all candidates when making a hiring decision
- Including pay on job descriptions
- Updated job description to be more inclusive with the following strategies in mind:
ACTION
- Career Center D&I Committee: The Career Center D&I Committee is committed to using assessments to understand office culture, trends, and needs to make informed decisions what programming, training, and resources are needed to support our constituents and each other. The Committee facilitates diversity programs and initiatives in and for the office. It consists of members from our operations team, leadership team, and career consultant team. The committee is also a great opportunity for employees to get involved and contribute to positive change for our office and staff.
- Committee Action:
- Updated Career Center D&I Statement and Action Plan
- Added new D&I centered Arch Ready Programs
- Completed office-wide assessment of DEI needs, concerns, and attitudes
- Developed DEI training modules
- Created a series of ongoing educational opportunities (Lunch and Learns, guest speakers, etc.)
- Updated list of identity-based student resources
- Assessed programming for inclusivity
- Created D&I centered programming resources for staff
- Upcoming Committee Projects:
- Student and employer-facing website assessment for accessibility and inclusivity
- Evaluation of how we build campus and external partnerships to support staff and students with diverse identities
- Establish a digital DEI Resource Library for staff and student workers to reference
- Grow training modules and education opportunities for staff and student workers
Next Steps and Continued Commitment
While the UGA Career Center is proud of the work we are doing, we know that work in diversity, inclusion, and equity is ongoing. Over the next semester and year, we hope to create new resources and processes to ensure we are providing diverse, inclusive, and equitable services to our students, employers, campus partners, and staff. Below is a list of action items that we plan to complete.
- Implicit Bias and Microaggressions Training (scheduled for July 2022)
- Virtual D&I Networking Event (scheduled for September 2022) and in-person D&I Networking Event at Maggiano’s in Atlanta (scheduled for November 2022) to connect students with employers committed to D&I and build their social capital
- Evaluate career outcomes data to understand disparities; ensure students from historically marginalized communities are gaining equitable access to employment opportunities
- Assess student and employer websites to ensure inclusive language is used and sites are accessible
- Evaluate how campus and external partnerships are developed to support staff and students with diverse identities
- Establish a digital D&I Resource Library for staff and student workers to reference
- Continue to enhance training modules and education opportunities for staff and student workers
- Provide ongoing D&I learning programs for staff that include guest speakers to discuss specific D&I-related issues, training on supporting various student identities
- Consistently share D&I related articles, podcasts, and books, stay up to date and informed on current issues and topics
- Integrate advocacy into our work by empowering our team to self-advocate, advocate as an ally, and help students develop strategies to advocate for themselves in the workplace through workshops, programming, and the development of accessible resources
- Write and share career development blog posts that are inclusive of identities
- Create spaces to engage in difficult dialogue