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 (unit director or vice president to whom
the hiring unit reports). Replacement positions will normally be approved by the
area vice president. The following information must accompany the request for
both new and replacement positions:
1. Position description developed by the unit director and reviewed by the area vice
president 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. Length of appointment
5. Narrative justification, including supporting data, for filling the
position
B. Response Based upon all information
available, the President, with the advice and assistance of President's Council, will let
the unit in question know whether the position is approved. A favorable decision will be
communicated to the unit with the following information as guidance:
1. Appointment type
a. Continuing
b. Non-renewable fixed length
c. Soft money
2. Length of probationary period
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 unit director, the vice president for that area, 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 search committee chair 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 professional unit agreement guidelines.
B. A formal search committee composed of at least three to five people (usually
including one student) must be formed. Minorities and women should be represented to the
extent possible. There should be a mix of people from inside and outside the unit and, in
some cases, from outside the campus.
Early in the process, the area vice president will meet with the search chair 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 Web page the most current
position announcement form (departments.umf.maine.edu/Personnel/word/prf
position annc.doc) and options for the UMF boilerplate (Personnel.umf.maine.edu/word/boilerplate_prof_200708.doc ).The 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 posted
as specified in Article 7, section B.2. of the professional collective bargaining
agreement. It should also be submitted with part I of the AA report for approval by the
area vice president.
D. After the position announcement has been approved by the area vice president, the
chair 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 and for other recruitment
resources. (Postings within the University of Maine System should include a salary range.)
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. Under some circumstances, normal recruitment
procedures may be waived. A unit seeking to fill a position under one of the following
conditions may request that President's Council approve such a waiver:
1. Temporary positions, which by definition can last no
longer than one year, may be filled without a competitive search. When such a position
extends beyond one year or is to be converted to a regular position, a competitive search
of the appropriate scope must be conducted at that time. For this reason, it is often
advisable to conduct a search for a temporary position if the possibility exists that the
position will be extended or continued. In such cases, search ads should advise potential
applicants that the position may be extended or converted.
2. An internal search, limited to UMF employees, may be
conducted if the expected applicant pool will be sufficient to obtain the desired
knowledge, skills, abilities, and other qualifications and if such a recruitment
limitation is consistent with affirmative action goals.
3. A search may be waived when there is an opportunity to
promote a current employee who is well qualified for a vacant position.
This recruitment limitation must be consistent with affirmative action goals.
4. Where the responsibilities of a position result from a
reorganization or reassignment of functions among positions within the same organizational
unit, a decision may be made not to recruit candidates from outside the unit, in
accordance with the appropriate collective bargaining agreement or personnel policy.
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 negotiable depending
upon qualifications and experience. Advertisements will be placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, in special
interest publications, and on listservs and conference postings when appropriate.
(Although we have discussed advertising is such worthwhile publications as Black Issues in Higher Education and The Hispanic Outlook, we have determined that
our budget does not allow for such outreach and that we will strive to reach minority
candidates through our Affirmative Action hiring procedures with Affirmative Action
Observers assisting in all searches.) All newspaper advertising (national, regional,
state, local) must be placed in the regular classified section, rather than as a display
ad, unless permission to do otherwise has been granted by the area vice president.
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 unit director and/or area vice president 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 have
required qualifications, pertinent 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 were 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 area vice president's office will
keep original ads from The Chronicle of Higher
Education.
IV. Screening
A. Once a sufficient applicant pool has been formed (this will 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.
B. Complete credentials, including a cover letter, resume, and names of references,
will be required from all applicants. Voting members of search committees must not
write references for candidates. Voting members of search committees must not write
references for candidates. (Exceptions to this policy need to be approved in advance
by the Affirmative Action Director.) The dossiers of the candidates should be made
available to the area vice president, if requested, so that she/he will have some idea of
the qualifications of the candidates in the pool.
C. Search committee members must review candidates’ application files on campus only. Files cannot be taken home, as the security and confidentiality of the search could be breached. When a very large applicant pool is being considered, the search committee may wish to break down the initial pool into smaller segments and have a group of readers (at least two for each batch) pre-screen the applications, recommending a given number to the whole committee. Any search committee member who wants access to all files should have it. And if a reader feels strongly that an application should be considered, it should be forwarded to the whole committee.
D. After reviewing the dossiers and selecting the top group of candidates, that group should each be sent a packet of UMF materials (catalog, map, brochures, Farmington First, etc.).
E. Next, telephone interviews should be conducted with each of the top candidates (usually up to 15) 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 area vice president) 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, normally three candidates should be selected to be invited to campus to interview for each position. The search committee chair and unit director will recommend candidates to be invited to campus. The area vice president 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. Candidates who come to campus should usually spend a minimum of one full
day (and therefore two nights) on campus.
B. 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 unit singly or in groups;
2. an opportunity to meet with people from outside the unit to get some sense of the
total campus community;
3. a session with student representatives, when appropriate;
4. an individual meeting of at least a half hour with the area vice president;
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 take to bring them from the
area in which we have advertised ( Maine, Regional [New England], and National). 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 their
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. Transportation to and from the airport or point of arrival will be provided by a
member of the search committee. Generally no more than three UMF employees (interviewers)
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 by the unit
director, the area vice president, 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 area vice president or
his/her designee.
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 for a minimum of three years for
all applicants, with background information regarding search committee decisions
concerning the applicants. This documentation will be retained within the hiring
department at the conclusion of the search.
Revised: 12/19/00 |
