Holistic Approach to Recruiting

Spring, 2001
by Joyce Herring

Who would think a small, Midwest comprehensive university would be home to one of the most progressive campuses in the country? Yet, Northwest Missouri State University (Northwest), located in Maryville, Missouri, has distinguished itself among American universities in at least three areas: their electronic campus, "culture of quality" and outstanding athletic programs. This dynamic campus community is winner of the 1997 Missouri Quality Award and is recognized nationally for its leadership in applying quality principles to an educational setting

Rives Hewitt, president of The Dalley Hewitt Company, would add a fourth area of accomplishment - their "holistic" approach to recruiting faculty members. "I am honored to represent them because they have a high regard for the "whole" person and value life style issues such as free expression, work/life balance and community involvement. They practice empowerment and total quality management in all aspects of campus life and always push the envelope when it comes to innovation."

Outside the Box Searches

Last year Hewitt conducted a search for the Dean of the Missouri Academy of Computing, Science and Math, an advanced program for gifted and talented high school students. These students complete the junior and senior years of high school while earning college credit. The Academy's mission is to assist the state in reducing the shortage of professionals in the fields of computing, science and math and strengthen performance levels of aspiring high school freshmen and sophomores.

This is not the first "outside the box" search that Hewitt has worked on. Previous assignments include the Director of Maryville Treatment Center TRAILS Program, a collaborative effort with the Missouri Department of Corrections to provide inmates with drug education and counseling that will help them adjust to life when they rejoin society.

"Working with The Dalley Hewitt Company has been a great experience," explained Joseph E. (Tim) Gilmour, Jr., provost at Northwest. "They are able to understand our culture and requirements, then identify a group of outstanding candidates. We always find they provide us with two or three extraordinary prospects we would not have found through traditional search approaches. In addition, Dalley Hewitt's finalist phone interviews and reference checking provide us valuable insights into their strengths and weaknesses and are the best we've seen in the industry."

Culture of Quality

The faculty pushes the frontier in innovative approaches to teaching and learning and is the key driver in Northwest's student-centered, seamless living/learning environment, known as the "culture of quality." Today, Northwest uses the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria as a conceptual framework for discussing quality and as a template for planning and agenda setting. This is a strong selling point when Hewitt is wooing candidates.

Wired Campus

Another selling point is Northwest's comprehensive, electronic campus. In 1987 Northwest equipped every residence hall room and faculty office with a networked computer workstation and still continues its tradition of applying information technology to improve learning processes. Today, Northwest students have state-of-the-art access to the Internet, e-mail, the library and digital databases, Web courses and over 100 instructional videos - all from the convenience of their residence hall rooms.

A beautiful, natural setting complements the high-tech emphasis of the campus. Northwest is the home of the Missouri Arboretum, and its well-kept grounds include a pond and extensive flowerbeds. It's no wonder that Northwest students show greater satisfaction than the national average with every dimension of university life as measured by the Noel-Levitz survey.

"Northwest is a role model for other universities," proclaimed Hewitt, "and we are proud to be a partner with them in finding candidates who want to be a part of this progressive and caring environment."

What Does Holistic Mean?

Holistic often refers to a whole made up of interdependent parts. You are most likely to hear these parts referred to as:

the mind/body connection
mind/body/spirit or
physical/mental/emotional/spiritual aspects

The expanded perspective of holistic as considering the whole person and the whole situation means you can apply holistic as an adjective to almost anything – your career, a new project at work, relationships, wellness and other aspects of your life.

Source: The American Holistic Health Society

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