Introduction

Promotion and tenure processes evaluate professors' contributions in three areas: research, teaching, and service. The outcome significantly impacts the faculty member's career and is a large investment for the institution.

Challenges

• Internal and external colleagues of the professor may be asked to supply letters of support, which are all submitted at different times.
• The approval process may be long, with layers of committees and individual approvals.
• The final outcome and feedback needs to be shared with many stakeholders at once.

Solutions

• Use the reference letters functionality to allow the professor to request up to 20 letters of support.
• Build a routing step for each level of approval, and pass feedback on at each stage.
• During the award process, copy any relevant stakeholders, such as Department Chairs, Deans, and the Provost.

Tips

• Customize reference letter writer instructions to emphasize what information should be included in the letter, based on the writer's relationship to the faculty member.
• Build in some extra time for reference letters to be submitted by keeping the Reference Letter Deadline past the Internal Submission Deadline.
• Collect file uploads in three main categories: research, teaching, and service. That way, reviewers can navigate to those sections quickly later on when they download submission packets. The file upload labels become section headings in the table of contents of the packet.
• Offer an optional file upload for other supplementary materials that don't neatly fit into the three main categories. 
• Use the instructions boxes in the file uploads section to clarify what samples should be included for each section. For example, teaching evaluations from students, a publications list for research, and committee participation for service.
• If approvals align with your organizational structure (i.e., Department Chairs, Deans, etc.) you may be able to automate your approval process using Department Driven Routing Steps.
• If using a committee, activate the Routing Step Recap to share reviews among committee members after reviews are submitted. This recap can help guide discussion of reviews are done prior to an in-person meeting.
• Before awarding, download a PDF of the submission with or without reviews to attach to the award email as a summary of the application and review process.
• Share anonymous feedback at the end of the process, regardless of the decision to provide transparency and show the thoroughness of the review.

Have more questions about this topic? Go to the Community Forum to pose the question to other users or submit a support ticket to InfoReady.