Department/Office:                                                                      Rec. No.:              

 

                                    SAMPLE SEARCH AND SCREEN PROCEDURES

 

COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION

1.    Elect a chair and a secretary.  The secretary shall be responsible for posting a notice of meetings through the Campus Connection (or outside the HR Office if unable to get in Campus Connection) and taking minutes of meetings.

2.    A [simple/two-thirds] majority of committee members constitute a quorum necessary to conduct committee business, although a two-thirds majority is required to amend these procedures.  Members [may/may not] vote by proxy.  The chair is a voting member of the committee.

3.    All voting shall be done by show of hands unless a roll-call vote is requested by any member of the committee.  The secretary shall maintain a record of all votes.

4.    All deliberations of the committee and the names of nominees and candidates are confidential.  Public statements are to be made only by the chair, and all questions relating to the business or progress of the committee are to be referred to the chair for reply.

5.    The secretary, in compliance with open meetings rules, will post all meetings - noting if any meeting will go into a closed session and an open session. 

6.    Evaluation meetings may be closed by majority vote of those in attendance (taken by roll call), for the purpose of discussing individual candidates.  The chair or presiding officer will announce they will entertain a motion "to convene in a closed session to consider personal history information about applicants for the position of                            as pro­vided in section 19.85 (1)(f) of Wisconsin Statutes." Upon completing business in a closed session, the committee may not reconvene in an open session within 12 hours, unless notice of the subsequent open session was included in the original meeting notice.

7.    Committee members shall not be considered for the position.

 

 

COMMITTEE RECORD

1.    All material concerning individual nominees/applicants is confi­dential. 

2.    The chair shall be the custodian of all application materials and shall be responsible for their maintenance and making them available to the committee.

3.    The chair shall maintain a file of committee documents and records as required by the HR Office.

4.    The chair will keep a list of all applicants, including those who withdraw at a later stage.  Applicants requesting confidentiality may be identified on such a list by candidate number.

5.    The assistant to the chancellor for affirmative action & diversity shall compile summary data on the sex and racial/ethnic background of the applicant pool from EEO forms returned to Affirmative Action & Diversity.

 

 

SEARCH PROCEDURES

1.    Before the position can be advertised, the committee will submit the following documents to the assistant    to the chancellor for affirmative action & diversity:

·          Recruitment Efforts Form (salmon form)

·          Position Vacancy Form (yellow form)

·          Selection Criteria (based on position description and responsibilities in Position Vacancy Form)

·          Search and Screen Committee Procedures (these procedures)

2.    On the Recruitment Efforts Form, the committee will indicate proposed recruitment methods:

·            Where the position will be advertised, e.g., The Chronicle, other newspapers, professional journals and meetings, the Internet

·            Other contacts, e.g., letters to presidents/chancellors, deans, director, alumni

3.    On the Position Vacancy Form, the committee will indicate the:

·            Application deadline: four weeks from the first ad for a national search and two weeks for a local search

·            Application procedure, specifying the contents of a complete application

4.    The chair will work with UW-L Advancement & External Relations regarding the wording and placement of advertisements.

5.    Upon receipt of a written nomination or application, the chair will send an acknowledgment letter (see attached sample), accompanied by an EEO form (furnished by the AA Office, but with a candidate number added by the search contact person) and a Request for Confidentiality Form (see attached sample).

 

 

INITIAL SCREENING

1.   Each committee member shall review all candidate files.

2.   The committee shall use the previously approved selection criteria to develop a pool of acceptable applicants.

3.     After complete discussion of each candidate’s credentials and application materials, the committee shall vote to (a)  Retain for detailed evaluation (the chair may seek further information from the applicant) or (b) Remove from further consideration.  Identify appropriate “reason code” (See list of codes on reverse side of Applicant Interview List form.)  Candidates not ­retained may be notified in writing that they are no longer under consideration and thanked for their interest.

 

SECOND SCREENING

1.    The committee may solicit additional material from candidates retained for further consideration: 

(a) Candidates may be asked to respond in writing to a more detailed position description and criteria established by the committee and furnished to the candidates at this stage, or 

(b) Candidates may be asked to provide any additional materials in support of their candidacy, to respond to any specific questions developed by the committee, and/or to provide additional references, or

(c) The committee may conduct telephone reference checks on each of the semifinalists. Calls will be made by a [team of committee members/committee member as assigned by the chair], using a standard set of questions.  For each call, a written record will be maintained.  (see attached sample).

2.    Committee members making telephone reference checks shall share the information obtained with the committee.  The chair or designee may seek further information about each semifinalist as needed, while respecting the semifinalist’s need for confidentiality.  [If the committee wishes to make “off list” calls, the procedures need to specify, including any provision for the candidate to specifically identify any individuals s/he does not wish to have called.] A written record must be maintained for each call. This would also be the appropriate time to ask if accommodations for disability are needed by any candidate.

3.    The committee shall discuss and vote on each candidate to select those to be moved to finalist status.  A [simple/two thirds] majority vote [of those present] is required to advance a candidate. The committee should strive to identify 5-10 finalists. [In faculty searches, the committee may want to forward its recommendations to the department for approval at this time.]

4.    Should a candidate fail to be advanced to finalist status on the ini­tial vote, s/he can be brought to a re-vote only once.  Any committee member may request a re-vote.

5.    The committee shall vote to cluster the candidates in two “tiers,” listed alphabetically.  The top tier shall include the 3-4 candidates the committee believes should be invited to interview on campus.  The second tier shall include the remaining highly qualified candidates, who the committee believes would be suitable for the position if the top tier candidates are unavailable or are determined to be unacceptable after an interview.

6.    The chair may consult with the assistant to the chancellor for affirmative action & diversity to determine whether the applicant pool generated by the search is sufficiently diverse, and whether individual candidates in these two tiers reflect the diversity of the pool, as determined from returned EEO forms.

7.    After consultation with and approval from the dean/division officer, the chair shall submit the Applicant List, identifying these two tiers of candidates, to the assistant to the chancellor for affirmative action & diversity for approval to interview.  This list must specify reason codes for all candidates, for whom an interview is not sought.

 

FINAL SCREENING

1.    After the assistant to the chancellor for affirmative action & diversity approves candidates for interview, via E-mail, with a copy to Human Resources, the chair shall contact each approved candidate to schedule a campus interview. 

2.    Personal interviews will be conducted with legal and identical/similar questions asked of each candidate, as indicated in the reference materials found in the Faculty & Academic Staff Recruitment Reference Manual.

3.    After gathering information, interviewing, etc., committee members shall vote on the finalists, one at a time.  A [simple/two thirds] majority vote of the committee [present] is required to move the finalist to the recommendation to hire.

 

 

RECOMMENDATION TO HIRE

1.    The committee shall deliver its recommendation(s) to hire, with supporting information, to the dean/division officer (department chair/director).  The dean/division officer shall request the authorization of the assistant to the chancellor for affirmative action & diversity and the provost/vice chancellor to extend an offer.  This communication is to be made via E‑mail, with a copy to recruit@mail.uwlax.edu.  More than one candidate may be approved to reduce delay if first/second candidate decline offer.

2.    If the candidate accepts the offered position, the Personnel Action Form (back of the pink sheet) shall be completed and forwarded to the Human Resources Office, along with materials from the candidate’s file that are needed to draft the contract letter and create the candidate’s personnel file.  (See Recruitment Manual for a listing of this information.)

3.    After selection has been assured, the chair will notify all candidates not previously notified that the position has been filled.

4.     The chair will prepare final committee materials and is responsible for the archiving or other disposition of committee records in consultation with HR.