Student Jobs

Inclusive Student Employment Practices

Institutional Statement on Diversity

“Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW–Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background — people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.”

Inclusive Practices

The following resources have been compiled to assist hiring managers in facilitating inclusive hiring practices in their departments. These resources are here to be utilized by hiring managers and their students to learn about important Social Justice topics including workshops and best practices to create a more equitable, inclusive and diverse workplace. They aim to provide hiring managers with the tools and information to increase mindfulness of these topics and how they impact the student experience during and after the hiring process.

Before starting your recruitment process it is highly recommended to view the Unconscious Bias Video and Guidebook provided by the Office of Human Resources Talent Recruitment and Engagement team:

The Office of Human Resources has also shared a “Recruitment Lifecycle” that can assist you in employing inclusive hiring practices during every step of the recruitment process:

In order to create an inclusive hiring and selection process, it is important to identify and eliminate unconscious and hidden biases. The following resources will help expand knowledge on unconscious bias and provide suggested strategies for reducing bias during the student employee recruitment process.

Pronoun Usage: 

“You can’t know what pronouns someone uses just by looking at them… Using someone’s pronouns correctly is important because it shows that you respect them. -UW-Madison Gender and Sexuality Campus Center Pronoun Guide

Inclusive Language Information

Job Description Action Verbs

When creating a job description or conducting an interview, avoid using words that may be exclusionary. This can include traditionally gendered words or phrases, as well as those that are unique to the department or team, such as acronyms or office specific terms.

Possible action verbs to use in your next job posting:

Social Justice aims to open the doors of access to everyone. The following resources include events and readings/documentaries to help build an understanding on the topic of Social Justice. The following have been graciously compiled by the Wisconsin Union’s Social Justice Hub:

“The Gender and Sexuality Campus Center (GSCC) is a unit on campus that is aimed to actively address oppression in all forms and affirms, includes and celebrates people across the spectrum of gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, including their intersectional experiences and perspectives.”

The GSCC provides a multitude of trainings, resources and guides for supporting the LGBTQ+ community:

For additional information or support, contact the GSCC at: lgbt@studentlife.wisc.edu

The Principles of Supervision and Management is an 11 week program that addresses recruitment, hiring, inclusion/diversity, bias and more!

Key Program Elements

  • Attend classes with the same group of participants to build a network over time
  • Discuss the complexities and nuances in managing others
  • Practice skills for navigating real-work scenarios

Learn more about Principles of Supervision and Management

Student Employment Podcast Series

The Podcast Series seeks to support our supervisory and leadership skills with student employees by focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. No matter whether you supervise students or not, everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in discussions. The topics as well as guest facilitators for the discussion session will rotate each month. Typically discussion sessions will include an opportunity to hear more on the topic as well as participate as comfortable by sharing ideas, posing questions, and collaborating on best practices.

How to participate:

  1. Listen to the featured podcast episode.
  2. Join the discussion session.

Not able to listen ahead of time? No worries, we’d still encourage you consider attending the discussion session if able.

If you need an accommodation to attend this event, please email student.employment@finaid.wisc.edu. All accommodation requests should be made no less than two weeks before the event. We will attempt to fulfill requests made after this date, but cannot guarantee they will be met.

January Featured Podcast:

  • Identity in the Workplace
  • Join the conversation January 28th 10:30-11:30am (CT) on the role our identities play in the workplace.
    • Featuring Guest Facilitators-
      • Nicole Schumacher- Scholarship Aid Manager, Office of Student Financial Aid
      • Lo Klink- Assistant Director of Special Awards and Student Engagement, Office of Student Financial Aid
    • No registration required-you will be able to access the session 15 minutes prior to the start time by clicking “Join the conversation” above.

February Featured Podcast:

  • Podcast details coming soon!
  • Join the conversation February 26th 10:30-11:30am (CT) on
    • generational diversity.
    • Featuring Guest Facilitator-
      • DeVon Wilson- Director of Center for Academic Excellence
    • No registration required-you will be able to access the session 15 minutes prior to the start time by clicking “Join the conversation” above.

Upcoming Podcast Discussions

Previous Podcast Episodes

Free LinkedIn Learning modules:

Inclusion@UW Courses:

  • Participate in intentional conversations
  • Explore new learning opportunities
  • Visit Inclusion@UW for more information

Is there a resource that we haven’t yet highlighted? Please let us know!

We want to expand this resource! Resource recommendations can be sent to student.employment@finaid.wisc.edu with the subject “Inclusive Student Employment Practices Recommendation”. We appreciate your collaboration!