Although it may not be a huge concern at many institutions, there are
occasions when mathematics departments are faced with a need for a
statistician to handle any advanced course offerings in statistics.  For
those who have such needs, hiring a quality statistician who not only
teaches effectively but stays many years (perhaps their entire remaining
career years) can prove quite daunting.  In Fall 2000 we were faced with
this situation - our statistician informed us at Christmas time that he
was leaving at the end of the academic year.  I got to chair the search
committee; we advertised for tenure-track beginning the Fall 2001 and sent
ads through the Chronicles, ASA and MAA since we're mostly interested in
teaching.

   We only had 21 applicants as a result of the late start, and really
lucked out (long story!).  Our hire came from a biostatistics position at
the medical center at the University of Kansas, and took a huge pay cut to
join us, since he wanted to be in an academic environment and have a bit
less stress than he had doing statistical analysis for medical doctors
running clinical trials.  We have an actuarial science program here
(registered as an Advanced Undergraduate Program as designated by the
Society of Actuaries), with some good students so that helped.  If your
institution has such a program, or the ability to start one, that's an
added attraction.

   It'd be a good move to see if your Dean will commit early to your
offering certain perks during phone or campus interviews to keep top
statistics candidates interested, and to show them that your institution
is committed to hiring and retaining someone good.  This might include
start-up funds for buying special software such as SAS which is quite
expensive, or even a reduced teaching load.  If there are some good
consulting opportunities in your area, try to get a good handle on some to
share with a potential hire.  Our new statistician is pretty involved that
way in Topeka, and the extra money helps make up for the big hit he took
in salary to come here.  (He gets about $150 an hour for stuff he does
outside school, as part of a three-person independent consulting firm.)

   Tied in with this, will paid outside consulting work count as scholarly
activity for tenure and promotion at your school?  Here at Washburn there
has been some debate on that issue....some feel that paid work is like
moonlighting, regardless of the expertise being tapped, and thus shouldn't
count towards tenure/promotion.  If consulting work does count towards
tenure, that's another big plus.  Unpaid consulting work for other faculty
on campus certainly counts big - statistical analysis projects that have
come to our department include work in kinesiology (in physical
education), biology (a fruit fly reproduction study), and education
(learning outcomes and assessment).  It might be tricky to determine
whether this work counts more as "service" as opposed to "scholarship"
despite the fact that some real expertise is being tapped.  How this is
viewed can vary widely from institution to institution, so it is important
for the hiring committee to adequately convey the current thinking on this
at their school to prospective candidates.

   It definitely pays to get an early start on a search for a bonafide
statistician, and it is also wise to advertise a range for the starting
salary - being up front about this can save some real surprises later on.
But, with a properly worded ad, and some careful maneuvering on the part
of the hiring committee and the administration, it is quite possible to
hire a statistician who easily meets or exceeds your expectations, and
will stay in your department for a long time.  If you are in this
situation for hiring this year, good luck!