Doctors and healthcare workers, editors and lawyers, chefs, computer programmers, police officers, postal clerks and professors all are among the wide array of jobs the Michigan Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) has gathered in a new central online portal.
The Web site, www.michiganherc.org, opens with more than 1,200 job postings at 24 Michigan colleges and universities, though that number is expected to increase. As Michigan has lost manufacturing jobs, the number of jobs connected to the education and healthcare sectors and the many supporting roles that accompany them has continued to grow.
“By working together, we can keep the best workers in the state and attract new talent to Michigan,” says Linda Berauer, director of Michigan HERC. “Regions known for their large pools of knowledge workers already have similar HERC organizations. Michigan HERC makes our state more competitive.”
Jobs include research, professional, executive, administrative and support positions in academia, hospital and health care facilities, as well as tenure-track and instructional faculty and positions in information technology and the trades. Users can set up and save multiple profiles with specific search criteria and register to receive e-mail alerts when new positions are posted that fit their queries.
The central location of job postings with links to member campuses, regional resources, diversity Web sites and aids for dual career couples, as well as the site’s ability to accommodate dual-career searches, distinguishes Michigan HERC from other employment Web sites.
“The MI-HERC site is unique in that the focus is on the higher education sector in a specific geographic area with the member schools posting virtually all of their jobs because they can list all their jobs for free,” Berauer says. “If someone is focused on finding a place in the higher education sector in Michigan, the MI-HERC site will allow them to see what’s available in a good percentage of institutions with a single click.”
Michigan colleges and universities created HERC to share information and resources to attract and retain talent, help achieve a diverse workforce and reduce costs through joint purchasing arrangements. In addition to the shared Web site, HERC organizes forums where staff from member institutions can network and interact, sharing successful methods and best practices for addressing recruitment and retention issues, including issues related to placing partners and keeping their staffs diverse.
