Hiring Process

Hiring the best candidate to meet the strategic goals of a unit and the Division has never been more important.  The best way to hire a great candidate is to ensure you have a diverse and strong candidate pool.

Please reference the following procedural guidance for information on designing the position, search process, search committee, active recruitment techniques, and hiring process guidance.  The Hiring & Onboarding page also has many resources for the process that should be referenced.

Goals

  • Identify the needs of the position to craft a position description
  • Ensure a strong and diverse candidate pool through active recruitment techniques
  • Recognize and avoid unconscious biases that influence hiring decisions
  • Utilize best practices to minimize legal and human resource risks; ensure compliance; maintain confidentiality of candidates during private periods of the search process
  • Hire the very best candidate that meets the needs of the unit and ALVSCE

Approvals

Affirmative division business office review and approval from the Dean is required for the following positions prior to posting a position or convening a search committee:

  • Chapter 5 administrative appointments, regardless of funding;
  • Any faculty position, including Career-track and Multi-year, regardless of funding;
  • And positions funded from a division funding line (CALS, AES or CES);
  • Positions with the title Academic Advisor or Manager of Finance and Administration, or derivative

Additional requirements

  • Please follow this Faculty Search Matrix for must do's as it relates to ALVSCE and University Policies.
  • Tenure and continuing track positions must receive approval from the Provost through the yearly hiring plan process; this approval will be sought by the Dean
  • All Professor of Practice (POP) must be hired as Academic (9-month) appointment
  • All ALVSCE (Faculty, University Staff and Appointed Professional) positions must be posted in Talent 
  • During the interview process, candidates must be asked if they require extra time between interviews for lengthily agendas or all day interviews. 

Confidentiality

All employee searches should be kept confidential and discussed only with the members of the search committee or relevant individuals in the chain of command.  Once there is a formal candidate pool, the committee chair should seek permission from the candidates (preferably in writing) to disclose their names publicly as finalists.  This preserves the applicants’ privacy.  Some searches may be conducted confidentially throughout the entire process due to the potential that a public phase would discourage applicants.

Faculty Positions (CE/C, TE/T, or POP) – College Funded Positions

  1. Follow Faculty Search Matrix above for step-by-step process. 
  2. All tenure/continuing track employees, and those funded from a college funding line (Teaching/Research or Cooperative Extension), must be approved by the Dean and Provost prior to posting a position or convening a search committee. 
  3. The Dean or designee will appoint a search chair, who will convene a search committee in consultation with the Dean or designee.
  4. Search committees for tenure and continuing track positions must follow rules set by the Provost's Office to increase and expand the diversity and strength of the candidate pool.  These rules can be found on the Faculty Affairs website.
  5. The Dean, designee, or search chair will develop a job description and a position posting with the search committee that incorporates faculty consultation.  All position postings will be reviewed and approved by ALVSCE Division Business Services before being routed to the Provost, and HR for posting in Talent. Need to attached the Representation of Committee and Recruitment short form per Faculty Affairs to Talent. 
    1. If using a Search Firm, please ensure all required steps are followed to avoid complications. Please see Hiring through a Search Firm Process for details. 
  6. The correct recruitment strategy should be used to obtain the strongest candidate pool (e.g. advertising nationally, in trade publications, locally, headhunter, etc.).  Additional assistance for recruitment strategies is available from the Division of Human Resources in the office of Recruitment and Outreach. Please contact them at HR-Recruitment.
  7. PRIOR TO REVIEWING APPLICANTS, the search committee should develop a skills rubric to fairly and uniformly review all candidates’ materials.  The rubric also helps to avoid conscious and unconscious biases and provide support for the decision if an applicant were to file a grievance.  Once the review date has passed, the committee may begin reviewing applicants.  NOTE: these rubrics and all materials used to assess candidates (including handwritten notes) are to be retained as part of the legal documentation of the search for up to three years per Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) guidance.
  8. Search Committee Chair and Unit Head are required to receive approval from the CALS Assistant Dean for Faculty Advancement to move forward prior to first interview, campus interview and final decision to ensure a diverse candidate pool and equity. 
  9. Search committees are encouraged to utilize Skype, Zoom, tele and videoconference interviews prior to bringing employees to campus for a live interview.
  10. Unit leaders should be actively consulting and communicating with the applicable mission leaders (Associate Deans) throughout the search process, including inviting Associate Deans to candidate seminars, consulting with Associate Deans on the decision prior to selecting a finalist, and discussing terms of offer like unique startup package issues and workloads.
  11. Prior to making an offer, please send all hiring documents: draft offer letter, employees’ application, CV and letters of reference or other required documents to ALVSCE Business Services for final approval.  Evidence of tenure or continuing at the candidate’s previous institution may also be required.  Requests should include all startup package expectations and funding sources, if any.  ALVSCE Business Services will seek approval from the appropriate EC mission leader before forwarding the hiring package to the Provost’s Office for final review and approval.
    1. For Tenure/Continuing Status Only: The faculty candidate must meet (30 mins) with Provost Liesl Folks before making an offer in writing to the candidate. See here to set a meeting. 
  12. Once the College and Provost have given final approval to make the offer of employment, the hiring unit’s business office can start the Offer Letter process in Talent and eventual new hire process in Manager Self-Service.
    1. Ensure the offer letter is routed correctly through Talent as a college funded position. 

Faculty Positions (Year to Year or non-tenure track) – Non-College Funded Positions

  1. All faculty positions must be reviewed and approved by the Dean.
  2. Best Practice is to follow most of the Faculty Search Matrix to ensure proper hiring, avoid mistakes, and ensure find the most qualified candidate. Not all steps may be applicable. 
  3. All position postings will be reviewed and approved by ALVSCE Division Business Services before being routed to the Provost, and HR for posting in Talent. Please review the Talent routing approval guide for information. 
  4. The correct recruitment strategy should be used to obtain the strongest candidate pool (e.g. advertising nationally, in trade publications, locally, headhunter, etc.).  Additional assistance for recruitment strategies is available from the Division of Human Resources in the office of Recruitment and Outreach. Please contact them at HR-Recruitment.
  5. PRIOR TO REVIEWING APPLICANTS, the search committee should develop a skills rubric to fairly and uniformly review all candidates’ materials.  The rubric also helps to avoid conscious and unconscious biases and provide support for the decision if an applicant were to file a grievance.  Once the review date has passed, the committee may begin reviewing applicants.  NOTE: these rubrics and all materials used to assess candidates (including handwritten notes) are to be retained as part of the legal documentation of the search for up to three years per Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) guidance.
  6. Search committees are encouraged to utilize Skype, Zoom, tele and videoconference interviews prior to bringing employees to campus for a live interview.
  7. Unit leaders should be actively consulting and communicating with the applicable mission leaders (Associate Deans) throughout the search process, including inviting Associate Deans to candidate seminars, consulting with Associate Deans on the decision prior to selecting a finalist, and discussing terms of offer like unique startup package issues and workloads.
  8. Prior to making an offer, please send all hiring documents: draft offer letter, employees’ application, and CV or other required documents to ALVSCE Business Services for final approval. 
  9. Once the Provost has given final approval to make the offer of employment, the hiring unit’s business office can start the Offer Letter process in Talent and eventual new hire process in Manager Self-Service.

University Staff (including ancillary staff) or Appointed Professionals (Postdocs)

  1. University Staff and Appointed Professional-Postdoc positions are usually departmentally or soft funded (not college funded).  Departmentally funded positions like these do not require the Dean’s approval.  Position descriptions, selection and charge of a search chair and convening of the search committee should be from direction of the unit leader.
    1. If the Unit would like to request an additional Common Cost position, the Unit Head or Business Officer needs to write up a business justification for the additional position and email to Janis Rutherford. Justification needs to include job title, salary range, expected start date, how this benefits the department, workload distribution if applicable, and impact if position is not approved. 
  2. Once a complete position description is developed it should be posted to Talent using the appropriate position template.    These postings can go straight to Human Resources and do not need to be routed through ALVSCE Business Services, UNLESS these are a Common Cost position. Please review the Talent routing approval guide for information. 
  3. Please proactively seek a strong and diverse candidate pool using techniques found in step 4 of the previous section.  Also, please seek counsel from Human Resources on recruitment strategies, also outlined in step 4 of the previous section.
  4. Once the position is posted and you have reached the review date you can begin the fair and uniform review of all applicants.  Please utilize a skills rubric as described in step 5 in the previous section.
  5. Once the unit leader has approved the offer of employment, the hiring unit’s business office can start the new hire process in Manager Self-Service.

Additional information on successful searches can be found at:

Category

Human Resources (HR)

Display on Which Audience Pages

Faculty
Staff
Students (GAs, Post Docs, and Student Workers)

Date Policy Created

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Date Policy Revised (If Applicable)

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Policy Keywords

postdoc, postdoctoral, hiring