ACHS Hiring Process: Going at it Blind

By Rebecca Ebnet-Desens

Saying goodbye to exemplary staff as they move to other parts of their career journey never makes the top 10 list of things to do in a day. That said, the growth of staff members does make my top 10—my top five, even—and so here we are, searching for a new human to fill the position of curator/archivist at the Anoka County Historical Society.

Over the past couple of months, we put out the call. Through the gift of PPP and CARES funds (big thanks to the County of Anoka and City of Anoka for selecting us as a recipient!) the Board of Directors resolved to NOT cut the open position and make the budget look a bit shinier for 2021. It felt like low-hanging fruit, that full-time position, but in reality…what is a museum without someone caring for all the legacy items archived there? That position stands as the single most important, mission-driven role at ACHS. So, no pressure. As we have worked with our Facing Change consultant on DEAI concepts for two years, we thought it most appropriate to put change into true action. The hiring process is fraught with bias (unintended or otherwise) and the challenge of mitigating that, even a little, felt like one we could rise to. We decided to create a blind process.

First, we gathered resumes and cover letters like any other job posting. I sorted them into “qualified” and “unqualified” through the barest of means possible. We accepted history degrees, library and archiving degrees, and life experience as qualifying skills we would need for our new human. These applicants received the same message from me, which laid out the process, expectations, and deadlines associated with achieving employment at ACHS.

They next received an invitation to Survey Monkey, where they found a 17-question written interview waiting for them. They all had at least a week to complete this document. The form asked about their work experience, how they would react to various elements of culture at ACHS, and specifics about projects they will work on.

Our next step as a selection committee of six was to read the 27 responses without seeing their names. This was the crucial point. We wanted to rank the answers strictly on the content and merit of the words and concepts presented. A personality truly began to take form. The committee also noticed how some people wrote casually, while others treated it like a grant application. Some answers added humor, others forgot they weren’t texting. All of them conveyed professional experience and effort. It was truly a humbling experience for us to read the lives before us and hear the thoughts given space to accommodate introverts, autism, and stuttering.

From the rankings, the selection committee created a top 10 and top five list to select candidates for an interview over zoom, which we recorded with the permission of the candidates. This allowed us to hold the interview with just Sara (ACHS volunteer coordinator) and myself rather than the entire selection committee. By recording the interviews, we also shared them with our part-time staff, who until this point, had not been included in the process--or even watch them again ourselves. Interviewing over Zoom is difficult for everyone to read body language, but most difficult for the candidate. Now, not only do they need to select the “right” attire to fit the organization, but they must construct a background and monitor their environment for distractions. They need a steady internet connection and good microphone as well as decent lighting. I’m happy to say it was actually MY internet connection that went wonky during one conversation, and MY cat that popped up in the background of another. The candidates took it all in stride.

At this point in the process, we had established our top five to be skilled, thoughtful, and full of great ideas for ACHS. Because of the written interview prior to this, we had far more information than a typical face-to-face interview. This played forward in the comfort zone on both sides of the screen, as the candidates said they felt like they had more time to think through their responses, time to research ACHS, and have many of their questions answered prior to our meeting. All of this meant the Zoom interview gave us context of personality and verbal delivery, as well as a chance to follow up on some of the answers they provided. Within a list of more serious questions, we also asked things like, “how do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich” or “how many dishes are left on your counter at bedtime”? The quirky question disarmed the candidate, and they would laugh, think, then provide an honest answer—which said so much about their work process, planning, or preferred environment. “When do you pack for a trip” really asked, “what is your project planning strategy”? Where I would answer such a question with, “a couple days in advance and if I forgot my toothbrush, I could always find a new one wherever I was going” they detailed out lists made and rechecked, packing done and redone, weather reports watched, and itineraries written. For an archivist, this is a much more useful strategy than mine. For a director, however, rigidity is the enemy of a productive workday.

We invited two of the humans to the museum last Friday to have a socially distanced, masked tour of the building. The candidates spent time one-on-one with staff members to hear about the work each of them does and how they share space with the archivist/curator position. We answered questions, opened boxes, and poked around the stacks in the collections. This was their chance to see if they could imagine themselves into our space, our work, and our culture. I’m happy to report that one did, in fact, accept our offer and will begin working with us before year-end. We are thrilled to have a full staff once more and excited to see where our new three-headed monster will take the Anoka County Historical Society. I learned so much about myself as a leader—the rules I inadvertently follow, the edge I would be inclined to give to those I knew or had “put in their time” with us in the past. My own proclivity for one type of personality over another, my bias as a white female—all of these were silenced. In what still is a flawed system of hiring, I’m excited to see who I get to work with next. I’m proud ACHS took a different path on finding that human.