Recruitment, Screening and Hiring Policy

PURPOSE

The purpose of this Recruitment, Screening and Hiring Policy is to ensure that Hudson County Community College (“College”) attracts, recruits, hires and retains a highly qualified, professional, talented, and diverse workforce through fair, equitable and inclusive processes.

POLICY

The College and its Board of Trustees (“Board”) are committed to playing an active role in developing a highly qualified, professional, talented, inclusive and diverse workforce within its faculty, staff and administration. The College is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment in all personnel actions. Fair, equitable and inclusive processes will be utilized for employee recruitment, employment, promotion, transfer, reclassification, change of title, training, benefits implementation, salary administration and general working conditions, consistent with the College’s Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Policy. At all times the College will take appropriate action to advance the recruitment, hiring and retention of a diverse workforce.

The College will provide all employees a safe, professional and productive working environment and perform the relevant professional and background checks, testing and examinations as may be appropriate or required by law. The College will further facilitate opportunities for the professional development of its workforce. The Board delegates to the President the responsibility to develop procedures and guidelines for the implementation of this policy. The Office of Human Resources will ensure compliance with this policy in all personnel actions.

Approved by Board of Trustees: September 10, 2019

Procedures

Recruitment, Screening and Hiring Procedure

Files

• Guidelines for Suggested Composition of Screening Committee Members
• Applicant Screening - Screening Committee Steps

1. Introduction

Through its policy on Recruitment, Screening and Hiring, The Board of Trustees has established the College’s expectations for a fair and equitable employee recruitment and hiring process.  The Board wants to ensure that the College recruits in a manner that provides an array of qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds for the vacancies that may exist. These procedures are provided to ensure that the College’s recruitment and hiring actions for full time employees, are consistent with Board policy, are uniform throughout the College, and are in accordance with equal opportunity employment and affirmative action guidelines, statutes, and regulations. To the extent possible, the procedure may be used for recruitment and hiring actions of temporary full time and part time employees.

2. Position Openings

2.01 Proposal of New Positions                                                                                     

To propose a new position, the Supervising Cabinet Member, upon consultation with the Vice President for Human Resources and Executive Vice President and Provost/COO, submits a recommended new position to be added to the College’s staffing table including funding, effective and start dates of the position(s), to the President for review and approval of the Cabinet and approval of the Board.

2.02 Filling Vacant Existing Positions

To fill a vacant position, the hiring manager or the Supervising Cabinet Member conducts an administrative review to ascertain whether the position should be retained, restructured, or eliminated, or whether the minimum or preferred qualifications for the position should be revised in consultation with the Vice President for Human Resources or designee. Requests to post the position for advertising are submitted to the Office of Human Resources following approval by the President. 

3. Vacancy Postings

3.01 Job Postings

To begin the recruitment process, a completed Position Analysis Form and the proposed vacancy announcement for posting is submitted to the Office of Human Resources. All positions are posted on the College’s website and external postings are made in a select set of recruitment sites. Positions must be posted a minimum of ten (10) working days before an offer can be extended to either an internal or external candidate. Positions may be posted for internal candidates’ consideration only, or posted both internally and externally.

3.02 Specialized Recruitment

During each stage of the recruitment process, and upon consultation with the Vice President for Human Resources, the number of recruitment sites may be enhanced in order to permit more targeted marketing in national and specialty industry publications, to allow for the most diverse, equitable and inclusive recruitment strategy possible.  From time to time the college may make a recommendation to enlist the services of a specialized search or recruitment firm, subject to review and approval of the President and Board of Trustees when applicable.

4. Applicant Screening

4.01 Screening Committee

The Screening Committee identifies, interviews and recommends candidates to move forward in the selection process. Members of the Screening Committee are appointed by the Hiring Manager following composition guidelines, upon consultation with the Vice President for Human Resources or designee and with the approval of the President. The membership of the Screening Committee may be expanded or revised to ensure a diverse, equitable and inclusive committee. The Chair of the Screening Committee, as may be appointed by the Hiring Manager or determined by the committee, is the spokesperson for all committee business; coordinator of committee meetings and timelines, and work; and liaison to the hiring manager.

4.02 Instructions and Orientation

All members of the Screening Committee receive an orientation and instructions from the Vice President for Human Resources or designee at the first committee meeting or sooner. This may include written instructions and expectations set forth for the committee, including the procedures for recruitment, screening and hiring; implicit bias training; confidentiality; timeliness of the review process; evaluation tools and criteria; interview format, questions and guidelines; recordkeeping requirements; and reference check recommendations.

5. Interviews

5.01 Review of Applications

As applications are received, they will be reviewed by the Screening Committee or, at the request of the Screening Committee, by the Office of Human Resources in order to ensure that minimum qualifications for the position are met by the applicant. Where there are questions regarding the fulfillment of the minimum qualifications, the Vice President for Human Resources will consult with the immediate supervisor for the position and the Supervising Cabinet Member. When it is determined that the minimum qualifications have not been satisfied, the application will be removed from consideration. Applications from those individuals meeting minimum qualifications will be reviewed by the Screening Committee.

5.02 Preliminary Interviews

The Screening Committee will recommend a number of qualified applicants to be invited for a semi-finalist and/or finalist interview, by submitting the list of selected applicants to the Vice President for Human Resources and the Hiring Manager. These recommendations will be reviewed with the Hiring Manager and the Supervising Cabinet Member/President before interviews are scheduled. The Hiring Manager and/or President may request to add an applicant to the list of candidates, or remove an applicant from the list to be interviewed. These measures are intended to ensure that all promising candidates, including those from traditionally underrepresented groups, are considered, and that semi-finalist and finalist candidates meet acceptable standards for future consideration. The Screening Committee may conduct the preliminary interviews by phone, video conference or in-person.

5.03 Finalist Interviews

After the committee conducts the preliminary interviews, it will recommend a list of finalists by submitting the list to the Vice President for Human Resources, the Hiring Manager and the Supervising Cabinet Member/President. These recommendations will be reviewed by the Hiring Manager and Supervising Cabinet Member/President before finalist interviews are scheduled. The Hiring Manager and/or the President may request to add an applicant to the list of finalists, or remove a candidate at this stage for the reasons described above. Finalist interviews will include an opportunity for interaction with committee members and the College community. A full-day schedule of interviews, including an open forum with the College community, meeting with the President’s Executive Council, and/or specially designated departments/personnel, may be recommended for positions of Executive Director level or above. Individuals under consideration for full-time faculty positions will also be required to conduct a teaching demonstration as part of the interview process. 

6. Hiring Recommendations

The Screening Committee will gather feedback and evaluation of finalists from all participating in the interview process, and compile a list of strengths and weaknesses of each finalist, without regard to order of preference, for consideration by the Hiring Manager, Supervising Cabinet Member and President. The Office of Human Resources or the Hiring Manager will conduct a detailed professional reference check of the candidates, based on the list of professional references provided by each candidate and others identified by College personnel conducting the reference checks as able to speak knowledgeably about the applicant’s skills, background, and abilities.

7. Hiring

7.01 Board Review and Approval

Informed by the feedback received from the Screening Committee and College community, and in consultation with the Supervising Cabinet Member, the President will recommend a finalist to the Board of Trustees for Board review and approval. Appropriate background checks/clearances will be completed before a finalist is recommended to the Board of Trustees.

7.02 Onboarding

Upon Board review and approval, the candidate will be expected to complete New Hire paperwork on or before his/her start date, as outlined in the conditional Offer Letter, and provide other supporting documentation for the employee file. The Hiring Manager will be responsible for coordinating the onboarding of the employee. The Office of Human Resources will provide resources and tools for the onboarding information and recommendations to the hiring manager and the department.

Approved: July 14, 2020
Approved by: Cabinet
Category: Human Resources
Responsible Department: Human Resources
Scheduled for Review: July, 2023

Return to Policies and Procedures