Recruiting Procedures for Academic and Student Affairs - Academic/Administrative Personnel (POA1 & POA2)

These procedures are to be used to recruit the following permanent, full-time personnel categories in Academic and Student Affairs:

1. Faculty:
   1. college and library faculty - special, specific term, and continuous appointments
   2. department chairpersons/school directors
2. Associate and Assistant directors
3. Directors
4. Associate and Assistant Deans
5. Deans
6. Associate and Assistant Vice Chancellors

The following table lists the different recruiting authorities for each personnel category listed above:

Category	Hiring Manager	Approver	Final Approver
1a) college and library faculty	department/school	dean	SVCASA
1b) department chairpersons/school directors	dean	dean	SVCASA
2) associate and assistant directors	director	SVCASA	Chancellor
3) directors	SVCASA	SVCASA	Chancellor
4) associate and assistant deans	dean	dean	SVCASA
5) deans	SVCASA	SVCASA	Chancellor
6) associate and assistant vice chancellors	SVCASA	SVCASA	Chancellor

The NEOGOV employment application system will be used to recruit for positions in any of the above academic/administrative personnel categories. Training in the use of NEOGOV is available in an on-line tutorial or from a campus trainer.

The following paper forms will continue to be used:

1. position justification form (with waivers only)
2. waiver request form or waiver of the competitive search process request form
3. position announcement
4. degree verification form
5. letter of offer guideline

The position justification form for use with a waiver or waiver of the competitive search process is available on the Academic and Student Affairs web site under "Forms and Guidelines." Blank position announcement forms may be obtained from the Office of Academic and Student Affairs. This form and all other paper recruiting forms will also be available on the Academic and Student Affairs web site.

Each step in the recruiting process is outlined chronologically below:

Step 1

The liaison/originator prepares a NEOGOV requisition (See attached document entitled Creating a Requisition in NeoGov for UNO) and sends it electronically to the department head/school director (first approver). The department head/school director reviews the requisition and forwards it to the dean for review. After review, the dean electronically sends it to the Budget Office who reviews and sends it to the Senior Vice Chancellor's Office. The requisition will be reviewed and approved or rejected by the Chancellor's Cabinet.

The Liaison, hiring manager(s), department head/school director, dean, Senior Vice Chancellor, Budget Office, and Human Resources will be able to view the requisition process on-line. A copy of the position announcement will be sent to Nebraska Job Service.

Each hire will need a separate requisition. It is possible to hire more than one candidate from the same pool of applicants. If you wish to do so, please contact the Office of Academic and Student Affairs for details.

Search committees should be constituted so that there is appropriate protected class representation and, if necessary, the search/screen authority should bring in individuals from other related areas to accomplish this. Otherwise, the structure of search committees should be determined by the Dean. Search committee members (hiring managers) will be able to review applications on-line.

If the dean wishes to request a waiver of the competitive search process or waiver of affirmative action procedures, a waiver request or waiver of the competitive search process request should be submitted instead of the NEOGOV requisition and the waiver should be sent with the position justification to the Budget Office and the Office of Academic and Student Affairs. Legitimate reasons for requesting a waiver are listed in the instructions for filing the waiver request form.

Each position announcement should be prepared as follows:

1. The position announcement will be part of the NEOGOV requisition as well as being placed in publications and on websites.
2. Position announcements should be worded as concisely as possible to reduce advertising costs.
3. Each position announcement should reflect the required qualifications and description of duties specified in the requisition and give either a specific or general indication of compensation.
4. Also, the position announcement should clearly designate which aspects of the qualifications and described duties are required. Three questions to ask in determining whether a qualification or duty is required are:
   • Are the same qualifications and duties required of the employee currently holding this position?
   • Would deleting these qualifications and duties fundamentally alter this position?
   • What are the consequences of removing these qualifications and duties from the description of this position?
5. The Senior Vice Chancellor requires the following statement be placed at or near the top of all position announcements and advertisements:
   "The university and department have a strong commitment to achieving diversity among faculty and staff. We are particularly interested in receiving applications from members of under-represented groups and strongly encourage women and persons of color to apply for this position."
   Assistance in developing a diverse applicant pool will be given to department heads/school directors.
6. The search committee chair or department head/school director should be listed as contact person.
7. Position announcement advertisements should be placed in periodicals or on web sites that will be available to as many potential applicants for the position as possible. If it is a possibility that a foreign national may be hired, it is important to place the position announcement in at least one paper publication.
8. The application deadline for a nationally advertised requisition should be set no earlier than 30 days after the position is posted and advertised. A position cannot be offered to an applicant before this date. For locally or internally advertised positions, the requisition must remain open for at least 5 days before an offer is made.

The Office of Academic and Student Affairs will provide up to 200 of the printed position announcement forms for each position. The form will also be available on our web site. The hiring manager may take advantage of bulk mailing of position announcements by mailing at least 200 position announcements. The position announcements should be taken to the mailroom sorted in zip code order.

Step 2

Academic and Student Affairs must approve the position announcement for all approved requisitions. Upon approval of the announcement, advertisements should be placed in appropriate publications and web sites. Academic and Student Affairs needs to receive a list of publications or web sites in which the ad is placed. Each advertisement should include wording such as "To apply for this position, go to www.unomaha.edu."

Step 3

Academic and Student Affairs will provide information on the level of availability of protected class applicants for that particular job group for all approved requisitions. Search committees are required to attend a Search Workshop before review of applications begins.

Step 4

Applications will be electronically received and stored. An e-mail should be sent to each applicant with an incomplete application to apprise them of remaining required document(s) so that applications will be complete when the screening process begins. Paper applications cannot be accepted. In some cases, applicants may have supplemental materials (e.g., books) they do not have available electronically that they can submit separately.

Step 5

The following list of suggestions and observations may be of assistance to the hiring manager and search committee in conducting the initial phases of each search.

1. Begin by reviewing resumes to eliminate any applicants who are obviously not qualified. In other words, individuals who lack essential qualifications and are not able to perform the essential duties of the position should be removed from the pool. It is possible to set up screening questions within NEOGOV that will electronically screen out and notify applicants who don't meet the required qualifications if the search/screen authority chooses to do so.
2. Once the initial pool of potentially qualified applicants is identified, other materials such as letters of recommendation requested of applicants may be reviewed to establish a preliminary ranking of applicants. The same set of criteria should be applied to the consideration and ranking of each applicant.
3. Rather than requesting letters of recommendation, the hiring manager may find it more useful to request a list of references with telephone numbers. The search committee should then develop a set of questions to ask each reference listed by each finalist for the position and telephone each reference summarizing his/her response to the questions. Many search committees have found this to be a much more useful approach than the traditional letter of recommendation.
4. Once finalists are identified, some search committees also have found it useful to conduct conference call interviews of applicants. Alternatively, a member of the search committee may wish to attend a professional meeting to interview applicants before bringing finalists to campus for an interview.

Step 6

The hiring manager shall review all applicants with the search committee and the Chair/Director prior to establishing a list of finalists. Once finalists are identified, their status in NEOGOV must be changed to "Finalist". Academic and Student Affairs must be notified of this change via e-mail or fax when this is completed. OASA will fax the finalist list to the dean's office for approval. Once the Senior Vice Chancellor has approved the finalist list, the dean's office and department/school will be notified.

The finalist list report generated using NEOGOV must be approved by the Dean and the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs prior to interviewing candidates.

The finalist list will be evaluated for affirmative action/EEO purposes by comparing it to the data collected from applicants by NEOGOV. Assistance in developing a diverse finalist list will be given to department heads/school directors. Upon the Senior Vice Chancellor's approval of the finalist list, a demographic data summary will be generated for the search and sent to the hiring authority.

Step 7

When finalists are brought in for interviews:

1. Travel expenses may be handled in two ways. 1. The department/school may purchase the airline ticket and mail it to the applicant. 2. Alternatively, the applicant may purchase his/her ticket and be reimbursed by the department/school.
2. Any hotel may be used, however, the Office of Academic and Student Affairs maintains a list of hotels/motels with special discounts for UNO. The department/school may obtain this list from the Office of Academic and Student Affairs make reservations directly with the appropriate hotel/motel, and process requisition(s) to implement payment.
3. When finalists are brought in for interview, in addition to meetings with appropriate individuals in each unit, a 30-minute appointment may be scheduled with a representative from the Office of Academic and Student Affairs if the department/school wishes to do so.
4. The Office of Academic and Student Affairs will assemble packets of information that departments may pick up to send or give to interviewees.
5. Several real estate firms in Omaha have corporate relocation assistance programs in which a representative from the firm will meet with candidates and provide information. The Office of Academic and Student Affairs can provide names and telephone numbers of the appropriate representatives from real estate firms.
6. Guidance in conducting the interview process, interviewing techniques, and the appropriate questions to ask candidates will be discussed with the search committee prior to the beginning of review of applications. In general, applicants should be interviewed on the basis of job-related qualifications only.

Each applicant should be asked the same general questions and all applicants should be treated with fairness, equality, and consistency. Under federal law, it is illegal to make direct inquiries about an applicant's age, marital or parental status, pregnancy if the applicant is female, health, membership in organizations not relevant to the position, citizenship, honorable discharge from military service, or disability.

Step 8

Before an offer to an applicant is made, a terminal degree verification must be done by the dean's office and a degree verification form must be completed. This verification may be conducted by contacting the awarding institution by telephone. A copy of the degree verification form must be sent to the Office of Academic and Student Affairs with the draft letter of offer.

Step 9

The dean is responsible for sending the letter of offer.

For full-time positions, letters of offer must be reviewed by and receive approval from the Office of Academic and Student Affairs prior to mailing. The steps are as follows:

1. A copy of the dean's letter of offer to the candidate will be sent or faxed to the Office of Academic and Student Affairs accompanied by the degree verification.
2. Upon receipt, Academic and Student Affairs will check the candidate name against the human resources management system (SAP) and active and inactive personnel files for existing and previous appointments.
3. The Office of Academic and Student Affairs will review the letter for compliance with the Regents Bylaws, the bargaining unit contract, and the Office of Academic and Student Affairs Recruiting Guidelines letter of offer format.
4. If approved, a copy will be faxed to the dean's/director's office.
5. If a letter is revised subsequent to initial approval, changes must be submitted to Academic and Student Affairs for approval by fax.

To identify these letters when they are sent to the Office of Academic and Student Affairs, either the requisition number or the waiver request number should be noted on the letters.

Step 10

Once a finalist has accepted an offer or the finalists have all refused the offer, the search is closed. When the search committee does not wish to receive further applications, the hiring manager should ask Academic and Student Affairs to mark the requisition "Closed". Upon hiring or closing a search with no hire, the hiring manager must immediately change the status of all applicants who were not hired to "Not Hired" and add a reason code in NEOGOV. The requisition can then be marked "Filled". It is important to retrieve any information that will be needed e.g. for sending thank you letters to applicants not hired before marking the requisition "Filled". That information will not be accessible after the requisition is "Filled". NEOGOV will electronically store the applications and other electronic search materials for two years.

Step 11

The Office of Academic and Student Affairs maintains a personnel folder on all personnel with an academic appointment and is responsible for reporting all new academic appointments at the rank of assistant professor and above to the Board of Regents. The office of the dean should submit the following to the Office of Academic and Student Affairs as soon as each is available after a finalist has accepted an offer:

1. a copy of the letter of offer signed by the recipient indicating acceptance of the offer
2. a PAF
3. a PDF (may be submitted directly to Human Resources)
4. an I9 (may be submitted directly to Human Resources)
5. a W-4 (may be submitted directly to Human Resources)
6. copies of official transcripts for terminal degrees
7. direct deposit form

Faculty Recruiting Dual Career Statement

This statement is made as an effort to facilitate faculty recruitment and retention since national surveys indicate that an increasing number of faculty are members of dual career couples. The purpose of this statement is to inform applicants for faculty positions at UNOmaha with dual career needs that inquiries about career opportunities for domestic partners will not jeopardize candidacy for any faculty position and that this institution has a commitment to assist with career placement of domestic partners for tenure-track or tenured new full-time faculty hires who are new to the Omaha area.

Although UNOmaha does not have funding to create positions for partners of new faculty hires or to fund fellowships for qualified partners of new faculty hires, the Office of Academic Affairs is prepared to assist department chairpersons/school directors and deans to recruit and retain faculty with dual career needs in the following ways:

• External Assistance. Upon receipt of a resume and statement of career interests and objectives from the partner of a new faculty member, contacts will be made with appropriate area employers and agencies of which the University is aware on behalf of the partner.
• Internal Assistance. Services of the UNOmaha Career Planning and Placement Office will be made available to the partner. Partners will be provided access to recreational facilities and library and parking privileges on the same basis as full-time faculty and staff. If a partner appears to be qualified for any part-time or full-time open faculty/staff position at UNOmaha, the Office of Academic Affairs will facilitate arrangements for interviews concerning these positions.

The above services will be made available to the couple for up to one year after relocation to the Omaha area. Sharon Ulmar and Deborah Smith-Howell will be responsible for facilitating the above services. Contact information is as follows:

Deborah Smith-Howell, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs & Dean for Graduate Studies
(402) 554-4849, FAX (402) 554-4896, or e-mail dsmith-howell@mail.unomaha.edu