Strategic Hiring: Using Job Analysis to Effectively Select Online Faculty
Unlike training and professional development, hiring faculty for online teaching remains underexplored by scholars. It is imperative that faculty hiring be approached thoughtfully and strategically so that institutions can deliver quality online instruction in alignment with their missions, visions, and values. To address this need, this article illustrates how to use job analysis as the foundation of an institution’s effective, strategic selection of online faculty. As institutions clarify the place and shape of online instruction given their approaches to market differentiation and branding, a future-oriented, strategic approach to job analysis is an asset in faculty hiring. To equip distance learning administrators with the knowledge to contribute to strategic job analysis at their institutions, this article outlines human resources practices in conducting job analysis, illustrates their application to faculty jobs with online teaching responsibilities, and elaborates how job analysis shapes effective, valid, and legally defensible recruitment and selection processes. With these techniques in hand, distance learning administrators can promote effective hiring of faculty for online teaching aligned with their institutions’ missions, visions, and values.
