Procedures for Recruitment,
Interviewing and Selection
for New and Replacement Positions
I. Position Approval
A. Request Prior to the initiation of
recruitment procedures, approval for new positions must be obtained from the President
through the appropriate administrative channels (Chairperson/Dean/Vice President for
Academic Affairs). Replacement positions will normally be approved by the VPAA. The
following information must accompany requests for both new and replacement positions:
1. Position Description--This is developed by the department chair and dean of the
college and reviewed by the VPAA and President to make certain it reflects the duties and
responsibilities of the position to be filled.
2. Source of funding
3. Salary range
4. Proposed academic rank
5. Length of appointment
6. Minimum qualifications
7. Narrative justification, including supporting data, for filling
the position.
B. Response Based upon all information
available, the President, with the advice and assistance of the VPAA and the Vice
President for Administration, will let the dean and department in question know whether
the position is approved. A negative decision will be accompanied by reasons for the
denial. A favorable decision will be communicated to the dean and department with the
following information as guidance:
1. Appointment type
a. Probationary
b. Soft money
c. Fixed-length
2. Proposed academic rank
3. Salary range
II. Recruitment
It is important to remember that we are recruiting as well as screening and that our
advance planning, fairness, enthusiasm, and courtesy are all important elements in hiring
the people who best match UMF's needs. We must scrupulously honor the candidates' rights
to confidentiality, not divulging their names to anyone until the on-campus interviews.
The deans, the VPAA, and the President have access to the candidate pool; otherwise,
access to the application files is limited to members of the search committee. We must
also be careful not to ask questions that might be considered discriminatory. (See
Pre-employment Inquiry Guide.) All questions regarding salary or terms of employment
should be referred to the dean so that a consistent official response may be given.
A. Once approval is obtained, the search chair will begin the search in accordance with
affirmative action and faculty unit agreement guidelines.
B. A formal search committee composed of at least five people including one student
must be formed. Minorities and women should be represented to the extent possible. In the
case of small departments and perhaps even larger departments, there should be a mix of
people from inside and outside the program and, in the case of small programs, perhaps
from outside the campus.
Early in the process the VPAA, Dean, and AA/EEO Director will meet with search
committee chairs to review procedures and answer questions. The search chair should
contact the AA/EEO Director so that an affirmative action observer can be selected to
participate in the search process. The observer should be contacted for a detailed
explanation of EEO guidelines and advice regarding sources of recruitment and should be
invited to all search committee meetings. The AA/EEO Director can also be consulted for
additional help at any time. The search committee should use criteria for screening
consistent with the information provided in the position request and approval, and these
should not change during the process. Any change in criteria will constitute a new
position and will necessitate a new search.
C. The search chair should obtain from the UMF Hiring Webpage the most current position
announcement form (departments.umf.maine.edu/personnel/word/fac
position annc.doc) and options for the UMF boilerplate (departments.umf.maine.edu/personnel/word/boiler
fac prf 1200.doc). A position announcement should be developed by
the committee in consultation with the affirmative action observer utilizing
information provided by the position announcement and the AA/EEO Director. The
position announcement should be submitted with part I of the AA report for approval by the
dean, VPAA and President.
D. After the position announcement has been approved by the VPAA, the VPAA's office
will submit it to the Personnel Office so that the opening can be advertised on our
Employment Webpage.
The chair will contact the Personnel Office to obtain the following:
1. Labels for UMF budget unit managers who should receive the vacancy announcement.
2. Labels for University of Maine System EEO directors who should receive the vacancy
announcement.
3. Information card about availability of crime statistics, to be sent to all
applicants with the letter acknowledging receipt of their application materials (as
mandated by Federal law).
Note: The hiring unit is responsible for sending out the mailings listed in #1, #2, and
#3 above.
E. If the position in question is to be filled with the expectation that it may
continue beyond a year's (9-months') duration, then all the guidelines that pertain to
affirmative action must be observed. If, because of time limitations and/or other factors,
a position cannot be advertised nationally to develop a sufficient pool of applicants,
then an individual may be hired on a fixed-length contract. No position may be filled on a
regular basis without a national search. (Note: on occasion a search may be limited to
Maine or the New England states; however, strong justification must be given for this and
approval granted by the President).
F. UMF should not skimp on money for advertising; this is the key to developing an
adequate pool of qualified candidates. Advertisements will not provide a specific salary
figure, but will either announce a salary range or list the salary as competitive depending
upon qualifications and experience. Advertisements will be placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education and in special
interest publications when appropriate. The dean and the VPAA must review ads before they
are placed. The VPAA's office will place the group ads.
Our full boilerplate is used in display ads and with each position as it is advertised
on our Webpage. A concise boilerplate is used for other print ads and is found on the UMF
Hiring Webpage. Even when space is extremely limited, reference to the UMF Webpage and
UMF's status as an AA/EEO employer must be given in all ads.
G. The dean will meet periodically with the search committee chair to review the search
process and progress.
III. Documentation
Search committee chairs should make sure that the following documentation is kept:
A. List of all candidates who submitted applications
B. Brief checklist of why people were eliminated at the first cut (e.g., does not
possess doctorate, teaching experience considerably less than other candidates). All
reasons that candidates were eliminated need to be clearly job related and traceable to
the required and preferred qualifications for the job.
C. List of those who made the first cut and individual explanations about reasons for
subsequently eliminating some in that pool. This can be a brief description, just a phrase
or sentence, but it should be more extensive than the checklist used in describing those
eliminated in the first cut.
D. List of candidates interviewed by telephone and reason why some of them were not
invited to campus. Since these candidates are presumably qualified, the reasons need to be
spelled out very carefully. Note: All telephone interview notes from
individual search committee members must be kept.
E. List of candidates interviewed on campus and reason for ranking. Note:
All notes from individual search committee members made while interviewing
candidates on campus must be kept.
F. Copies of position request, position announcement, all affirmative action reports,
and ads placed anywhere. A brief description of any other hiring activities, at
conferences, for example, should also be included. The VPAA's office will keep the
original Chronicle of Higher Education ad.
IV. Screening
A. Once a sufficient applicant pool has been formed (this may vary depending upon the position; normally a minimum of 30 applicants but sometimes as few as 8-10), the search committee should submit part 2 of the AA report and, after approval, should proceed with the process of reviewing applicants according to the criteria originally formulated. If there are fewer than eight applicants, the search chair should seek guidance from the dean and the VPAA.
B. Complete credentials (i.e., letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc.) will be required from the top 25-30 applicants, if not from the entire applicant pool. Voting members of search committees must not write references for candidates. (Exceptions to this policy need to be approved in advance by the Afffirmative Action Director.) The dossiers of the top 25-30 candidates should be made available to the dean and the VPAA, if requested, so that she/he will have some idea of the qualifications of the candidates in the pool. The VPAA and the dean will plan to read in depth the credentials of the top ten and in further depth those of the top three.
C. Complete credentials (i.e., letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc.) will be required from the top 25-30 applicants, if not from the entire applicant pool. Voting members of search committees must not write references for candidates. (Exceptions to this policy need to be approved in advance by the Afffirmative Action Director.) The dossiers of the top 25-30 candidates should be made available to the dean and the VPAA, if requested, so that she/he will have some idea of the qualifications of the candidates in the pool. The VPAA and the dean will plan to read in depth the credentials of the top ten and in further depth those of the top three.
D. After reviewing the dossiers and selecting the top group of candidates (10-15?), that group should each be sent a packet of appropriate UMF materials (such as catalog, map, brochures, Farmington First, etc.).
E. Next, telephone interviews should be conducted with each of the top ten to fifteen candidates to further narrow the candidate pool. The search committee should formulate questions in advance of the telephone interviews, taking care to ask the same questions of each candidate for the sake of consistency. However, follow-up to the main questions may be spontaneous. Many committees have found that they get to know candidates best by presenting them with scenarios in some of their questions and asking how they would handle the situation. Each candidate should be phone interviewed by the majority of the search committee. Telephone conversations with applicants as well as others must be documented in writing. The chair should ask candidates in the telephone interview pool permission to contact their references.
F. References must be called before candidates are invited to campus. Interviews at national conventions (subject to approval by the VPAA) may be an appropriate way to narrow the field at this stage.
G. Based on credentials, letters of recommendation, telephone reference checks, and telephone interviews, a minimum of three candidates should be selected to be invited to campus to interview for each position. The search committee chair, department chair, and dean will recommend candidates to be invited to campus. The VPAA must approve candidates before an invitation for a campus visit is extended. Part 3 of the AA report should be filed and approved prior to issuing invitations for on-campus visits. Expenses for the on-campus interview will be paid in full by the University for each candidate.
V. On-Campus Interviews
A. A candidate for a faculty position should be required to present a demonstration
class, lecture and/or seminar and should be prepared in advance for this portion of the
interview.
B. Candidates to campus should spend a minimum of one full day (and therefore two
nights) on campus.
C. The interview schedule should include the following features:
1. time to meet with the search committee (including the AA observer) and with each of
the members of the discipline or department singly or in groups;
2. an opportunity to meet with people from outside the program to get some sense of the
total campus community and of cross-disciplinary relationships with the program doing the
hiring (possibly by arranging a lunch get-together on campus with a half dozen faculty
representative from various areas);
3. a session with student representatives from the department or discipline
4. an individual meeting of at least a half hour (preferably an hour) each with the
VPAA and the Dean. NOTE: The Chair should make certain that the Dean and the VPAA will be
available to meet the candidates and should not schedule candidates' visits when they are
off campus. (If necessary, sometimes the President can stand in for the VPAA.)
5. consistency across candidates so that all candidates have the same opportunities to
meet with various constituencies
D. In the interest of fairness, in-house candidates need to be treated like other
candidates as much as possible, even though that will seem artificial at times. They
should follow the same interview schedule, including telephone interviews, and meet with
the same people as outside candidates. Members of the search committee must be careful to
provide them with the same information, no more or less, than other candidates. Of course,
confidentiality must be maintained. They may opt to forego such activities as the campus
tour.
E. For candidates invited to UMF for on-campus job interviews, we will pay
transportation costs equivalent to the amount that it would cost to bring them from the
area in which we have advertised (usually National, but occasionally Regional for
short-term appointments). While we do not discourage applicants from outside the
recruitment area, we cannot cover their transportation costs beyond it. For international
applicants, we will generally pay transportation costs from Boston or New York airports.
Exceptions can be made if the home country is significantly closer to another U.S.
airport.
Airline tickets will be purchased through the department that is searching for the
position. The most economical tickets that are feasible should be purchased; this almost
always entails a Saturday night stay. (The weekend day is usually spent showing the
candidate the region.) When necessary, candidates can be put up in a designated hotel in
Portland. (Contact the VPAA's Office for further information.) Transportation to and from
Portland will be provided by a member of the search committee, and generally no more than
three faculty members will dine off-campus with the candidates. University funds cannot be
used to purchase alcohol.
VI. Final Selection
A. The search committee's recommendation and the affirmative action observer's report,
together with Part 4 of the Affirmative Action Report, should be forwarded to the
Department Chairperson, the Dean, the VPAA and ultimately to the President for final
approval.
B. The aim is to hire the candidate who best fits the stated criteria for the position
and goals and objectives of the institution (including its affirmative action goals) while
staying within the limits of the institutional budget. Even so, there will normally be
room for salary negotiation so the best possible candidate can be hired. Final contract
and salary negotiation will be handled through the office of the VPAA.
VII. Contacting Finalists
A. The dean will notify the successful finalist and negotiate a reasonable amount of
time for the candidate to consider the offer.
B. The dean will also notify the unsuccessful finalists.
VII. Follow-Up
A. All applications will be acknowledged upon receipt.
B. The search chair will notify all unsuccessful candidates as soon as it is clear that
their candidacy is no longer viable. A phone call directly to the unsuccessful
candidate or a letter to her or him is acceptable; however, e-mail and phone messages
should not be used. Unsuccessful finalists should be telephoned as soon as a hire is
made.
C. Complete documentation must be retained in the department for a minimum of three (3)
years for all applicants, with background information regarding search committee decisions
concerning the applicants.
Revised: 12/10/2004
fac p&p 1200 |
