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Guidelines for Filling a Student Affairs Staff Vacancy

1. When a position becomes vacant, the director reviews the job to determine whether or not the job needs to be filled and/or duties need to be re-distributed. If the director determines that the job does need to be filled and the duties, for the most part, will remain the same, s/he may proceed with posting the position by sending an e-mail to the Student Affairs Human Resources Manager. If the position is new or the duties have changed significantly, the position must be approved by the Vice President for Student Affairs before it is posted. Once approval has been received by the director, an e-mail indicating the approval should be sent to the Student Affairs Human Resources Manager. Please see information related to posting a new/significantly changed job.
   

2. Once notified that a job has been vacated and needs to be re-filled, Student Affairs Human Resources staff (SAHR) will pull the most recent posting for the position and send it to the unit. The unit will review/edit the posting and return it to SAHR. The posting should accurately reflect the job duties and responsibilities. It should also include a statement or two about the nature or scope of the job and the requirements of the position. In addition to the educational and experience requirements established by the Office of Human Resources, the search committee will want to outline any other skill or knowledge criteria on which they will base the hiring decision. Click here for a sample.
   

3. The position will be posted on the Internal Staff Jobs (ISJ) system, also known as Step 1, for one week. The postings must be entered into the system by HR on Monday to appear on Wednesday. The position remains up on the ISJ for one week and closes the following Tuesday at midnight. To see the university’s procedure for announcing a staff vacancy, please click here.
   

4. After the job has been posted for a week, the unit reviews the applicants’ materials and conducts interviews if the candidate pool is sufficient. Please see information related to interviewing.
   

5. If the candidate pool is insufficient, the unit should notify SAHR and the job will be posted externally. At that point, the unit has the option to carry over any internal candidates for consideration along with the external pool. If any candidates have been interviewed, the unit will want to notify Student Affairs Human Resources accordingly. Any candidates who have not been marked as having been interviewed and who have not been carried-over, will receive a close-off letter automatically, through the EJMS.
   

6. When the job is posted externally, the unit will have the option to advertise the
   position in professional publications, newspapers, on websites and list serves. If the unit would like to advertise for the position, they should contact Student Affairs Human Resources to coordinate that effort and to gather information related to the cost of advertising.
   

7. Once the applicant pool is deemed sufficient, interviews should be conducted by the search committee. Please see information related to interviewing.
   

8. After the interviews are conducted, the committee should evaluate candidates on the criteria that they established at the outset.
   

9. Once the candidates have been ranked by the committee, reference checks should be conducted. Generally, reference checks are conducted only on the final candidate. When possible, a reference will be sought from the employee’s current supervisor. Please see information related to reference checking.
   

10. Once the search committee is satisfied with their final candidate choice, Student Affairs Human Resources Office should be contacted. SAHR will send a link to the supervisor for the disclosure statement which gives PSU permission to conduct a criminal background check. The supervisor should send that link to the candidate. The candidate will need to print the form, sign it and send it (either by fax or mail) to the Office of Human Resources. For information related to background checks, please see HR-96.
    

11. SAHR will work with the Office of Human Resources to establish an appropriate starting salary for the candidate. Once the salary has been obtained and the background check has been completed, SAHR will contact the supervisor and advise him/her that an offer of employment may be made to the candidate. Offers may not be made without approval from Student Affairs Human Resources.
    

12. If the candidate accepts, the unit prepares an offer letter and sends it to the candidate with a copy to SAHR. Once the offer letter has been signed by the candidate, indicating acceptance of the offer, the original letter is sent to SAHR. Please click here for a sample offer letter.
    

13. The supervisor should notify SAHR of which applicants were interviewed and why each was not selected for the position. EJMS will automatically notify all applicants, except those that were interviewed, that the position has been filled.
    

14. The unit will need to send a letter to each candidate who was interviewed but not selected for the position. Please click here for a sample close-off letter.