Planning your recruitment

The Benefits of Recruitment Planning

  • Sets the foundation for a good faith effort to recruit a diverse applicant pool
  • Prepares the panel for managing bias in the hiring process
  • Creates efficiency and saves money
  • Provides legal protection to the University

Managing Implicit Bias in the Hiring Process

Keys to a Fair & Equitable Recruitment:

  • Interview panel should reflect UCOP diversity
  • Implicit bias training for everyone involved in hiring process
  • Schedule a separate panel kick-off meeting to discuss requirements before interviews begin so all interviewers understand what the job requires and what the Hiring Manager is looking for in the successful candidate
Links to UCOP Implicit Bias Training:

Assessing Staffing Needs

Determine if there is a vacancy to be filled. Positions are posted to fill current or projected vacancies where the previous incumbent has given notice or is no longer in the position.

Determine whether to recruit, restructure or reorganize; determine the type of appointment you need - Career, Limited, Contract, etc. See the Hiring Manager Toolkit for more information.

Determine duties to be performed and requirements to perform those duties. The required skills, knowledge and experience for a position are posted when the position is recruited. These requirements serve as the basis for creating the interview questions, selecting the best qualified candidate, and both documenting and defending the selection. All interviewees are required to meet all the posted requirements so it is important that the requirements are realistic, specific and measurable.

To get started, create a position description in Job Builder, a system application that houses all pre-defined job standard templates. A Job Standard (aka Job Description) describes the scope, key responsibilities, knowledge and skill requirements of a specific job level within a job family. All job standards are categorized by job family, job function, job category and job code.

Once the appropriate job standard has been identified, edit the template to meet the current needs of your open position.  Next, submit the revised job description to your HR Business Partner for review, who will route it through Compensation to be classified. If you need access to Job Builder, send an e-mail to your HR Business Partner for access.  After Compensation approves the position description and it has been approved though position control, your HR Business Partner will create a posting in the applicant tracking system, TAM, and submit it for departmental review and approval before it goes live on the web.

Determine Recruiting Strategy

When the Recruiter receives notification that the job posting has been submitted to the application tracking system, TAM, for review, they will reach out to you for a recruitment strategy meeting to discuss your recruitment goals and candidate development plan, which includes how you want to advertise and conduct outreach for the position. All jobs are posted to our free advertising sites (e.g. Cal Jobs, HERC, America’s Job Exchange, and Indeed).  Upon request, your Recruiter can obtain quotes from UC’s recruitment advertising agency to expand the reach of your ad, and advise you on cost for additional advertising sources.  They may also be able to give you advice on which sites will gain you the most visibility for your position.  In order to document the recruitment process, you will be required to record where this position was advertised on the Interview Data Form or “IDF” provided by the Recruiter.

All advertising of UCOP positions is reviewed by HR to ensure consistency and compliance with UCOP, UC, State and Federal requirements.

UCOP recruits both within and outside its workforce to obtain a diverse pool of qualified applicants. Open communication with internal employees about needs, positions and posting decisions can foster greater employee understanding and sense of fairness.

A recruitment may be limited to employees at UC, UCOP or a Division or Department in order to support career progress of qualified internal candidates or if the requirements of a position are such that only internal applicants would meet the minimum qualifications of the position.  A recruitment may be limited to internal applicants only if the recruitment is consistent with equal employment and affirmative action objectives and will still result in a diverse pool of candidates.  Internal recruitments must be approved by the Chief Human Resources Officer in consultation with the UCOP Affirmative Action Officer.  If the position is in a job group that is underutilized, justification may be required for posting internally. Evidence of a diverse applicant feeder pool or a diverse applicant pool from a past internal recruitment for the same classification may be needed to verify that the position can attract a viable, diverse pool of candidates.  Internal recruitments will be open to all employees holding Career, Limited, and Contract appointments in the eligible group, including layoff applicants exercising preferential re-hire rights.

Special Placement Candidates are applicants who are identified by the University as having “preferential rehire” rights.  To be SPC eligible for recall or preferential rehire, the applicant must meet certain criteria such as a retiree who took a lump sum payout, a retiree who receives a monthly retirement income, a former employee who received medical separation, or an employee who requires vocational rehabilitation. When an applicant identifies themselves as an SPC candidate in TAM, it will show up on the applicant tab of the Manage Job Openings page under the SPC column.

UCOP has reciprocity for SPC rights with UC Berkeley, LBNL, and UCPath Center. Any SPC applicant who meets the minimum requirements of a position will need to be considered for the job prior to the Manager reviewing the rest of the applicant pool. Consult your HR Business Partner or Talent Acquisition Partner to determine if anyone eligible for recall or rehire has applied to your job within the first 14 days. They will walk you through the SPC process.

For information on re-hiring retired UC employees, see Returning retirees.

Posting Requirements

Positions are posted on the UCOP Jobs Page for a minimum of 14 days for PSS level positions or 21 days for MSP level positions, unless you request a longer posting duration. Managers will receive an e-mail notification when the job is live on the job board (TAM). UC is required to post the close date and consider all applicants in the pool who have applied before the close date before making an offer. For example, if a position is posted for two weeks and you are concurrently interviewing, you need to consider all resumes received up to the posted close date before making an offer. Interviews may not begin until after the posted close date.  Sometimes posting durations must be extended beyond the initial close date.  Once a posting passes the initial posting duration, we recommend extending the posting no longer than two weeks at a time. Once a viable candidate surfaces, you will want to remove the posting on the web, interview, check references and make an offer as soon as possible.

Shortening the Posting Duration

If a hiring manager wants to reduce the standard posting duration for a specific position from the 14 or 21- day minimum, a written request must be submitted to the Manager of Talent Acquisition and reference an existing circumstance beyond the department's control, i.e. a business deadline that cannot be changed. The purpose of the standard posting duration is to provide sufficient time to attract a qualified, diverse pool of candidates to fulfill equal employment opportunity.

Reposting a Position

A department may re-open a position within six months of the original posting date.  If it has been more than a month since the position was posted, a note is added, "This posting has been reposted as of (date), and previous applicants need not reapply." If the department wants to re-post a position beyond six months from the original posting date, they will need to create a new position and send it to Compensation for review.  Once approved, it can be posted with the note: "Position previously posted as Job Number _______. Previous applicants need not reapply."

Viable applicant pools

If a position becomes vacant within six months after the full recruitment of another position at the same classification with the same job duties and requirements, the department may make a selection from the original applicant pool. A new position description will need to be submitted and approved by Talent Acquisition Manager to record the new position and hire. 

Closing a posting from the website

TAM is designed to manage web postings by removing them from the web on the close date entered in the system. When you receive the notification from your recruiter, and you will review the applicant pool to verify that you have a diverse, qualified set of candidates to interview. If not, the position needs to be reposted until a sufficient pool has been received. If the posting needs to be extended, please send an e-mail to your recruiter.

Normally, the position is taken off the web when the close date is reached and a sufficient interview pool is received. We do not recommend using Open Until Filled close dates. If a position is Open Until filled and an offer is extended before the posting is removed from the web, this could result in resumes received before the offer was made not being considered for the position.  This leaves UCOP open to complaints. Also, in TAM the Open Until Filled status does not trigger a notification reminder to managers to review the resumes, and sometimes this leads to busy managers not reviewing resumes in a timely manner and losing out on potential candidates.

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