We are committed to taking the equal opportunity mandate of the German equal opportunities implementation agreement seriously, and to maintaining or increasing the number of female employees at HZB (especially in OU where women are underrepresented), and to reflecting diversity.
This requires your active support already during the advertising and recruiting phase because the Equal Opportunity Representative (EOR) must check the entire selection process for equal opportunities and should not only be involved during the interviews with the applicants.
Below, you will find our recommendations for the involvement of the EOR in hiring procedures at HZB:
As a rule, you will find the name of your responsible and to be contacted Equal Opportunity Representative in the Umantis shortly after the start of the advertisement. The EOR will sit in on the interviews, if time permits, and partakes in the hiring decision. The EOR have the right of appeal.
We therefore advise all those directly responsible for the hiring process to involve the EOR and her deputies as early as possible when scheduling the interviews (2 weeks in advance), i.e., no later than the application deadline, so that formal errors and resulting objections can be avoided.
Please provide the responsible EOR with all necessary information such as shortlist of candidates, ranking list plus selection criterion (evaluation matrix) and an explanation why female candidates have not been invited (all only if this information cannot be found already in Umantis).
Umantis offers the possibility of initial evaluation for different participants of the application process, which is visible for all with access to the tender. If you do not use this tool, please provide the EOR with other documentation, and thus give us the possibility to understand your evaluation criteria or decision for your short-listing.
It is helpful for you and for us to have an evaluation matrix for the interviews that shows how well each applicant meets the individual requirements for the position. You can find a sample template here.
-> To compare scientific output use the "academic age", i.e. years since completion of the PhD minus times for child care, care of relatives, illness etc.
In principle, the number of female applicants should be reflected in the number of applicants who are invited to the interview.
Since there are many calls for applications and related processes at HZB, the assigned EOR decides and informs in timely manner, which interviews she will attend, depending on the respective information she receives in advance.
During the interviews, the Equal Opportunity Representative has an advisory and reviewing role.
In the case of positions to be filled that deviate from the norm, such as short-term contracts for which less applicants are expected, particularly qualified candidates who have been identified prior to tender process, internal advertisements or other exceptional cases, the EOR must be involved as early as possible to be able to monitor equal opportunities in those cases as well.
Different interview formats (partly analog, partly digital) for one cohort should be avoided if possible.
The law mandates: In the case of equal qualifications, and if women are represented by less than 50% in the tendering OU, the female applicant is to be given preference.
According to German law the following circumstances cannot be used as criteria in a hiring process: any career breaks, reductions in working time or the demands on time due to childcare or other care of relatives, the income situation of the applicant's partner, or the intention to reduce working hours or take career breaks due to family demands.
