Implementing a Holistic Review Toolkit for Faculty Recruitment and Retention

A diverse workforce improves health care, educational outcomes, and research agendas. Currently, faculty from historically excluded groups remain underrepresented in academic medicine. Resources are needed in academic medical centers for those charged with recruiting and retaining a diverse and talented workforce.

Informed by the successful use of holistic review in medical student admissions, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) developed and piloted a toolkit for use in faculty recruitment and retention at five academic medical centers. Institutions led toolkit-guided holistic review workshops ranging from 2.5 to 3 hours in duration for leaders and faculty to identify and prioritize selection criteria used to modify faculty recruitment and retention materials and processes. AAMC surveys at pilot initiation and at two time points during implementation assessed satisfaction with and perceptions of the toolkit.

At the first survey time point, the average toolkit rating across five institutions ranged from 3.2 to 4.4 (out of a maximum of 5.0) for helpfulness and from 3.5 to 4.9 for ease of use. At the second survey time point, the helpfulness of the tools received average ratings of 3.0-4.8. In respondents' qualitative comments, we identified varying strategies for implementation and few barriers to implementation other than reluctance of some faculty to use scripted tools and concerns about anonymity in the exit interviews.

The toolkit was well received and easy to implement. It will be important to study the use of these materials across other institutions, with attention to their impact on faculty diversity.