Out in the hills of Southeast Ohio, it’s hard to find a job opening for someone like Kay Kemerer, whose husband was hired by Ohio University in March 2012.
Kemerer, who has a degree in business chemistry, spent a year looking for a job before OU hired her as business manager and event coordinator for the Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute.
Since her search, OU’s Human Resources department has unveiled an initiative to help those in similar situations find higher education jobs in the area.
The regional Higher Education Recruitment Consortium is a job search site that allows OU spouses to upload their work experience for a conglomerate of regional institutions to access. OU joined it earlier this month.
Kemerer said her job search in Athens, after her husband John was hired as Campus Care’s medical director, would have been easier if she had such a resource at her disposal.
“When you think of Athens being isolated in Southeast Ohio, the idea is that (the consortium) will improve our ability to recruit faculty and maintain faculty,” said Howard Dewald, associate provost for faculty and academic planning.
The regional database will eventually include all of Ohio, West Pennsylvania and West Virginia. There are 600 participating universities throughout 14 regions in the national program.
Joining the consortium will cost the university $5,000 annually, but Gwenette Brooks, OU director of employment and recruiting, said recruitment is already a costly program for higher education.
“When you consider that sometimes in advertising one single advertisement in The Chronicle of Higher Education is $2,000 to 4,000, a $5,000 investment for a full year is pretty minimal,” she said.
Brooks oversees an informal advising program to provide information to help spouses find work in the area, but the new consortium has more possibilities for job seekers.
“We don’t place (spouses) in jobs, and we don’t go out looking for jobs, but we work to try and provide them with information,” Brooks said.
Kemerer joined the university’s “dual career network” after applying for her current position, which helped her search because, coming from Michigan, she had no professional connections in Southeast Ohio.
“I think that anything you can do to support these people to find fulfilling jobs, I think that would be beneficial,” Kemerer said.
The university doesn’t keep track of the number of couples employed at OU or how many Brooks has helped.
By participating in the regional consortium, OU will be able to attract more candidates because it now has a resource to help their spouses find work, Dewald said.
“You can make an offer to one person but if they have a spouse you can’t make an offer to, they’re likely not going to accept,” Dewald said.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
@DanielleRose84
This article appeared in print under the headline "OU to help employees’ spouses find jobs."
