Recruitment and Hiring of Staff
Goals of a Successful Recruitment Process
- Attract and retain highly qualified individuals to Miami University
- Engage in active recruitment of members of traditional underrepresented groups
- Provide potential applicants an equal opportunity to apply and compete for vacancies
- Comprehensively gather information about each applicant’s qualifications for a vacancy
- Interview a pool of qualified applications that includes representation of underrepresented groups
- Select a candidate that has the potential for succeeding in an inclusive, supportive and highly professional environment
Overview
Step 1: Begin the Search
- Review information about the hiring process on Miami's Human Resources site.
- Verify through administrative channels (e.g., dean, provost, academic personnel) permission to begin a search.
- Select a search committee, and develop general timeline.
- Determine job-related criteria and documents to be collected from applicants (e.g., cover letter, resume, reference list).
- Identify potential sites for advertising the position if appropriate.
- Develop and complete a requisition via Miami's hiring software PageUp.
- Once the position has been fully approved, it will be posted on the University’s employment website with other open positions at Miami for review by both internal and external potential applicants.
Step 2: Screen and Recommend for Interview
- Applications are posted by candidates directly on the PageUp applicant system.
- Prepare rubric or screening instrument to evaluate each applicant using the qualifications listed in the position description.
- Once the screening date has passed, search committees score or rank applicants based upon the required and desired qualifications listed in the position description. Applications can be reviewed and downloaded via PageUp.
- Search committee meets to decide upon finalists to interview. If additional information needs to be collected to help narrow down the applicants, phone interviews may need to be scheduled.
Step 3: Interview and Selection
- Schedule interviews, and prepare interview questions.
- Conduct interviews in a consistent manner using permissible inquiries.
- Check references.
- Secure necessary approvals (dean, provost, academic personnel).
- Make a verbal offer to the desired candidate (remaining within the approved salary range).
- Complete an Employment Recommendation Request via PageUp.
Step 4: Hire
- Academic Personnel or Human Resources sends official offer letter to successful candidate, and applicant accepts offer online.
- The search committee chair sends letters to unsuccessful candidates.
- New employee must complete new hire employment requirements as outlined in communications he/she will receive from Human Resources
- Department, program or office welcomes, orients and trains the new employee on job-related responsibilities and the mission of the unit.
Guidelines
Search Committee
- Search committee chair is generally the head of the department, office or program or her /his designee. The chair is responsible for ensuring that: (1) the search committee is as diverse as practicable; (2) recruitment and hiring processes are in accordance with University policy and procedures including policies related to equal opportunity; (3) there is a position description and that the applicant pool is approved by the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity; (4) the search committee members understand what is expected of them; and (5) all applicants are treated equitably throughout the entire recruitment and hiring process.
- Confidentiality must be maintained throughout the entire hiring process. Members should not discuss any aspect of the search outside of committee meetings.
- The size of the committee can affect the progress of the search. A large committee can ensure greater diversity of perspectives, but it can also make scheduling meetings difficult.
- Search committees should include members of underrepresented groups or other individuals who can bring a diverse point of view due to their various roles in the University community.
- Undergraduate students, graduate students and other University staff may serve on search committees.
- Questions regarding equitable treatment of applicants should be directed to the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity.
Position Description
- Position descriptions form the basis for advertisements, screening criteria, interview questions, salary determinations and job expectations. They are also used to determine the status of the position under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
- When describing the essential duties of the position, focus on the primary responsibilities (typically 4-8 items), and list them in such a way that an employee could be evaluated from this list. You can do this by using concrete, action verbs, describing the person or object that receives the action, and explaining the purpose of the action. Example: “Plans and implements recruitment events for prospective students in the academic department.”
- Limit the required qualifications to those that are fundamental to perform the position responsibilities. Make sure the qualifications are clearly measurable and written so that the applicant knows whether they are minimally qualified for the position.
- Desired qualifications can be subjective. For example, “two or more years of student advising” is objective and thus should be a required qualification, while “ability to meet deadlines” is subjective and should be part of the desired qualifications list.
- Make sure the salary range is approved and in alignment with other similar positions across the University.
Application Evaluations
- To ensure consistency, make sure that all search committee members base their evaluations on the same criteria which are aligned with those in the position description. Documentation for meeting qualifications should be found in the cover letter, resume/CV, interviews, references or any other materials requested of all applicants.
- Eliminate any applicants who are not minimally qualified.
- Remember that the desired qualifications are not essential for being considered for the job.
- If an applicant volunteers that they are not eligible to work in the United States, contact Academic Personnel prior to screening them.
- An incomplete application is defined as an applicant not attaching all required documents. Incomplete applications should be treated consistently. If one incomplete application is considered, then all incomplete applications must be accepted and reviewed.
Conduct Interviews
- The purpose of an interview is to elaborate on the information contained in the application, to collect new job-related information, and to better assess communication skills.
- Although there is not a required minimum number of candidates that must be interviewed, whenever possible it is a good practice to interview at least three individuals for comparison purposes.
- To the extent possible, each applicant should be interviewed in the same environment, under similar conditions, and ideally introduced to the same group of individuals.
- Internal applicants should be interviewed in the same manner as other applicants.
- Telephone interviews can be used in lieu of campus visits when the distance and/or funding prevent the individual from coming to campus. However, telephone interviews are not optimum conditions under which to evaluate an applicant. If a telephone interview is conducted with one applicant, it is recommended that all applications be initially interviewed by phone to ensure fairness.
- Interview questions should be directly related to the responsibilities and qualifications of the position.
- To begin the interview, introduce committee members, and describe the format/length of the interview.
- If during an interview , an applicant disclosed personal information not relevant to the job, the search committee chair should steer the conversation back to the interview questions.
- Make sure that the applicant does approximately 75% of the talking.
- Try not to imply an employment offer; avoid using statements like, “you would be responsible for . . .”
- Recognize that we all have personal and sometimes unconscious biases. Try to avoid attributing characteristics to the applicant that may not exist, jumping to conclusions, overgeneralizing, stereotyping, or making snap judgments.
Check References
- Information can be gathered via letters or by contacting references by phone.
- Checking references is a good rule of thumb for all candidates that you are seriously considering. At a minimum, be sure to contact the references of the top candidate before making a verbal offer.
- Ask questions that are related to the duties, responsibilities, and qualifications of the position.
- If contacting individuals other than the references listed, it is recommended that the applicant be notified. Ask the applicant if there is anyone they wish not to be contacted.
- If negative comments are received from a reference, it is recommended that the comments be confirmed or refuted by an additional reference.
Recordkeeping
- The unit is required to keep all documentation on each search for a minimum of three years, after which time the records should be destroyed.
Contact Academic Personnel
Roudebush Hall, Room 1
501 E. High St.
Oxford, OH 45056
