Human Resources and the Office of Equal Opportunity are taking strides to improve and streamline the hiring process and attract and retain good employees.
“In today’s job market, speed is a key factor in hiring the right person for a vacant position. Human Resources and the Office of Equal Opportunity are implementing a number of strategies to reduce the timeline from initiating a search to getting a person onboard for many job openings and ensuring we are attracting the best job candidates,” said Brett Anderson, interim vice president for Human Resources.
Accelerated search process
Although not a new tool, the university offers an accelerated search process that is currently underused. Less than 25% of the jobs that qualify for the process are currently plugged into an accelerated search option, which can shave weeks to months off of a typical search.
Qualifications for an accelerated search include administrative professional jobs with a salary cap of up to $80,000. To learn more about the faster option to fill open positions, visit the Office of Equal Opportunity website oeo.colostate.edu/types-of-searches-at-csu.
Signing bonuses can be offered by departments
Like most workplaces, attracting and retaining the right employees for a job is different for the university in the wake of the pandemic. A working group comprised of representatives from Human Resources, the Office of Equal Opportunity and individuals across the university with human resources-related responsibilities recently identified best practices for employee recruitment – including allowing departments and units to offer signing bonuses when hiring for some hard-to-fill jobs.
Signing bonuses can be offered and funded by departments and units for faculty, administrative professional and state classified positions when:
- An open position is critical to operations and when it is open for an extended time, it could have a significant impact to university or departmental objectives.
- There have been failed searches for the position in the past, multiple or extended job vacancies or a small number of applicants for the job have been received in past searches, providing evidence that the job is difficult to fill.
- Other companies and universities offer signing bonuses for these specific jobs, making it more difficult to fill the position if the university does not also offer a signing bonus.
- The job requires a unique set of skills.
Signing bonuses may vary in amount. All signing bonuses are a one-time payment.
Current university employees and former employees cannot receive the signing bonuses. However, in addition to offering signing bonuses, retention bonuses can be offered to current employees in roles that are the same or very similar to positions with signing bonuses.
More information about signing and retention bonuses is available by contacting Human Resources.
Faster hiring records processing in place
When a new employee is hired, a background check is required – a process that usually takes a handful of days but can take weeks in exceptional circumstances. Human Resources recently hired a full-time background check specialist, significantly expediting the process.
In addition, Human Resources is working to streamline the background check which will move up start dates for new employees. This includes:
- Reviewing the current background check policy to tighten the process.
- Create a more efficient paperwork process.
- Provide human resources representatives involved in search process with online access to background check status updates.
What does a background process entail?
When a new employee is hired, the university works with a third-party vendor to conduct a background check. The information that is checked can depend upon the job that the person will fill.
Background checks may include working with agencies (for example, city police departments) to check for:
- Criminal and arrest records (checked for all new hires).
- Sex offender records (checked for all new hires).
- Motor vehicle driving record (if a job involves driving for the university, such as a bus driver).
- Credit check and other financial checks (for employees who have access to sensitive financial information).
- International records of significance, such as being identified by federal agencies as a national security risk (called a “restricted party screening” – checked for all new hires including those arriving from outside the United States).
This process can take only a few days up to weeks, depending upon what records are checked, both the number of areas where a new hire has lived or worked that need to be checked (such as a criminal records check from multiple municipalities that are past residences) as well as the efficiencies of agencies within those areas in responding to requests.
In addition, Human Resources has reduced the number of administrative professional position descriptions awaiting job classification reviews at any one time from about 200 this summer to 50 and slashed the turn-around time for these reviews.
Pilot process to evaluate additional job search efficiencies
Human Resources and the Office of Equal Opportunity are working with university partners to pilot a new, streamlined search process for administrative professional positions during Fall 2022.
The refinements tested in the pilot will not replace the current standard search process but will provide a more agile option to the university community when work is completed in 2023.
The refined process is being piloted with five units across the university and will be rolled out to additional university divisions in 2023.
The pilot tests reduce the number of individuals involved in a hire and provide the hiring authority — usually the person who will manage the new hire — the ability to work directly with the division or unit’s human resources team in the search process.
By reducing the search committee member numbers, streamlining steps in the process including recruitment, selection and hiring, reaching a decision can be accomplished more quickly and efficiently.
The project also tests the ability of a division or unit to make non-substantiative changes to a job description without review by Human Resources. Changes that would no longer need to be reviewed include correcting typos or other minor changes. Examples of changes that still require a review include changes to decision-making responsibilities or job titles.
Depending upon the results of the pilot project, the strategies that are being piloted could reduce the days required to fill a position. Currently, a typical search can average about 100 days. The streamlined process could also reduce the number of candidates who withdraw from a search because of the length of the process while improving the candidate experience and the quality of applicant pools.
Results of the pilot and recommended implementation steps will be shared across units and departments through training for employees with significant human resource duties. To learn more about the pilot, visit the Office of Equal Opportunity website at oeo.colostate.edu/ap-search-pilot-process.
University-wide performance management process development
A key to keeping employees engaged is providing regular feedback about their performance.
This summer, two presidential fellows joined Human Resources to look at building a university-wide performance management system. They engaged an advisory committee from across the university to gather information and provide insight into process development. This includes a recent survey of employees – and results came in from more than 70 different university departments.
“While results are still being evaluated, it’s clear that employees agree that a uniform process is needed,” Anderson said. “Employees commented that the review and evaluation process seems to change from year to year and that they’re glad to see that this project will be driven by data and industry best practices.”
Presidential Leadership Fellows Emily Ambrose and Kelly McKenna, along with Human Resources and the advisory committee, will propose a uniform performance management structure to university leadership in mid-2023.
