Faculty Recruitment and Selection for College Positions

Purpose:

To set forth procedures to be used in the recruitment and selection of employees by the college, to increase college-wide effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process, to create uniformity in the selection practices, and to ensure compliance with all applicable federal and state regulations regarding matters of employment. The procedures for implementation of this policy are provided below.

Procedure and/or Process Definitions:

Administrative, professional, and teaching faculty: full-time faculty-ranked positions that are governed by the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) and the respective policies of the VCCS and which are not covered by the Virginia Personnel Act.

Applicant: : an individual who has filed an application for a vacant or new position.

Candidate: an applicant who has been screened and invited for an interview.

Closing date: the end of a fixed recruitment period.

Committee chair: a person chosen to head a screening and/or interviewing committee.

Employment discrimination: the act of screening out, creating employment barriers, or denying employment or employment opportunities to an individual or group of individuals for non-merit reasons.

Hiring manager: the budget manager in an organizational unit.

Open-until-filled recruitment:a recruitment strategy that allows the agency to receive and consider applications on an ongoing basis for those positions for which vacancies constantly exist or frequently recur.

Screening/Interviewing/selection committee: a group of persons appointed for the purpose of screening, interviewing, and recommending candidates for employment consideration.

Search Advocate: a member of the college community who has received formal VCCS training in the Search Advocate initiative and has volunteered to serve as an impartial representative to a selection process to ensure the equity and fairness of the process. Search Advocates function as neutral process advisors advancing inclusiveness in the search and selection process. Search Advocates are currently assigned to all full-time Teaching Faculty-ranked positions and Administrative Faculty at the Dean/Director level and above, these categories will be expanded as more Search Advocates are trained.

Procedures:

1. Administrative, professional, and teaching faculty vacant positions

   1. In accordance with VCCS policies and procedures, when a vacancy occurs, the Office of Human Resources will review the status of former college employees who may be eligible for recall due to layoff or current employees who may be eligible for reinstatement due to certain types of leave of absences.

   2. Upon approval to fill a new or vacant faculty rank position, the Office of Human Resources will develop the job announcement from the current position description or teaching faculty requirements. (Note: Position descriptions are not required for teaching faculty positions.) The hiring manager will approve the final advertisement.

   3. Positions may be filled without posting in the following instances:

      1. transfers and demotions in lieu of termination or layoff;
      2. Reynolds, other Virginia community colleges, or system-office lateral transfers; or
      3. when the same type of position (with the same duties) becomes vacant within ninety (90) calendar days of the closing date of the recruited position

   4. Positions requiring posting must be submitted to Human Resources via the approved Position Request Form. Upon timely receipt of this form, Human Resources will initiate the appropriate advertising options.

2. Prior to the initial application review date/closing date

   1. The hiring manager will name a screening/interview committee. The hiring manager may serve as the committee chair or name a committee chair to act on their behalf for the respective vacancy. At least two other committee members will be named. Other criteria for the committee composition are as follows:

      1. The committee must consist of a minimum of three (3) persons.

      2. Two (2) individuals must have expertise in the job-specific field.

      3. One (1) individual must be from another department/school (can include non-Reynolds employees).

      4. Each person on the committee should hold faculty rank (exception may be allowed for special expertise in the field or for constituency group representation).

      5. Each committee must have a diverse representation of Reynolds employees who reflect the college community.

      6. Each applicable faculty selection committee must have a Reynolds Search Advocate as a part of the process (HR to coordinate the Search Advocate and provide the committee chair the name and contact information

3. Committee tasks

   1. Prior to the initial application review date of the vacant position, the hiring manager and/or the committee chair will provide the following items to the recruitment coordinator;

      1. Interview Questions
      2. Demonstration Topic and Rating Form (Faculty)

   2. Candidates for teaching faculty vacancies are required to perform a teaching/ presentation demonstration during the interview process. For administrative and professional faculty positions, the demonstration is optional. However, demonstrations of this type are encouraged.

   3. If the recruitment coordinator is unable to initiate the selection committee’s review due to lack of qualified applicants the hiring manager will be contacted who may choose to re-advertise.

   4. Upon receipt of the applicant/recruitment package, the committee chair will immediately convene the screening/interview committee to review the following documents:

      1. Screening Spreadsheet/Listing of applicants

      2. Reynolds ADA General Information (chair to sign)

      3. Reynolds EEO Statement for Search and Screening Committees (chair to sign)

      4. Copy of the position description (PAF positions only) and the position announcement

      5. Interview questions and demonstration information

      6. Selection Committee Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest Agreement (each committee member will sign)

   5. Each member of the screening/interview committee will independently screen each applicant and each member will rate each applicant individually. Upon completion of this task, the committee members will meet to discuss the screening ratings and jointly provide an overall rating for each candidate. Those candidates who meet the highest number of required and preferred qualifications should be invited for interview. The committee must provide a final spreadsheet with combined committee scores that will show how the interviewees were selected based on scores.

4. The interview process

   1. The committee chair will ensure that the selected applicants are contacted by telephone/email and scheduled for an interview promptly. Committees are not required to offer an alternative interview date/time if an applicant is unable to select from the initial interview date/times offered. Committees are required to make at least two (2) attempts to contact the applicant for an interview by phone and email. If the committee is unable to schedule the interview, the chair must ensure that this is documented.

   2. Interviews may be conducted in-person or virtually (i.e., Zoom) or a combination for first- and second-round interviews.

   3. The screening/interview committee will conduct the interviews for the invited candidates. The hiring manager may elect to sit in on the initial interviews as a silent observer. The interviewers may ask additional questions in response to any statements or questions from the candidate or to clarify information indicated or omitted from the application. Additionally, the committee chair will:

      1. conduct each interview within the same amount of time;

      2. introduce the members of the screening/interview committee;

      3. give a brief overview of the college and the vacant position;

      4. use the same list of questions to interview each candidate;

      5. provide each applicant with the same opportunity to conduct his/her teaching/presentation demonstration (if applicable);

      6. give each candidate the opportunity to ask questions of the committee; and

      7. review candidate’s application materials for unusual patterns, i.e., lapses in employment, reason for leaving, incomplete information, and then ask any follow-up questions of the candidate as needed.

   4. Each interviewer or committee member will record notes on the candidate’s interview responses on the Reynolds Interview Question Sheet, and indicate the overall interview rating score on the Reynolds Interview Question Sheet for each candidate. Each interviewer will also evaluate the applicant’s demonstration of ability (if applicable) and record the rating for this exercise.

   5. Based on the outcome of the submitted application, interview, and applicant teaching/presentation demonstration (if applicable), the committee chair, with input from the committee members, the committee provides the names of the highest ranked candidate(s) for further consideration to the hiring manager.

   6. The names are forwarded to the hiring manager via memorandum/email in ranked order, listing the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate interviewed (HR is copied on this correspondence). The memorandum must also summarize the selection process up to the present time. At a minimum, the summary must include the following:

      1. names and job titles of interview committee members;

      2. description of the committee’s screening process activities, including date(s) of meeting(s);

      3. number of applicants contacted for interview and number actually interviewed (and reasons for non-interview);

      4. date interviews held; and

      5. strengths and weaknesses of each candidate interviewed.

   7. Telephone references may be conducted by the hiring manager, or designee, using the approved Telephone Reference Check Form (Faculty). The timing that the references are conducted is at the discretion of the hiring manager. These can be completed prior to recommending the top candidate(s), or at the conclusion of the second interviews and may be conducted on the top candidate only or on all top candidates being considered. It is preferred that at least two (2) former supervisory checks be made for each candidate. If two (2) supervisory references are unattainable, at least one (1) former supervisory reference and one (1) character reference should be obtained.

   8. At the conclusion of the reference-check process, the hiring manager may:

      1. choose a candidate from those recommended by the screening/interview committee;

      2. conduct a second interview of one or more of the candidates recommended by the screening/interview committee from the ranked order. The hiring manager may assemble a separate committee to assist with the second interview process; committee composition and interview questions will be provided to human resources prior to conducting second interviews.

   9. Once the final selection is made, the hiring manager should communicate this to the Office of Human Resources by email/memorandum and ensure that all documents related to the search are uploaded to the committee’s SharePoint site or provided as hard-copy to the college’s recruitment coordinator. Faculty ranked positions also require the draft of the VCCS-10 be provided to the Office of Human Resources for review.

5. Making the Job Offer

   1. Should the president elect to interview the final candidate, upon completion of the final interview, the President’s Office will contact human resources to give approval or disapproval of the selected candidate.

   2. The Office of Human Resources will provide the hiring manager with the salary offer information via email for consideration and the hiring manager will extend the job offer to the selected candidate and determine the starting date. Upon acceptance by the candidate, the hiring manager will inform the Office of Human Resources of the agreed upon salary and start date; HR will begin the onboarding process immediately.

Other Information:

Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM) Policy No. 2.10, Hiring

VCCS Policy Section 3.03, Recruitment and Selection

Reynolds Policy 3-01, Recruitment and Selection

Reynolds Policy 3-11, Reasonable Accommodation,

Reynolds Policy 3-25, Equal Employment Opportunity and Nondiscrimination, 

Reynolds Policy 3-39, Employment Background Screening, 

Reynolds Demonstration Topic and Rating Sheet

Reynolds Interview Question Sheet

Reynolds Search Committee Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest Agreement

Reynolds Telephone Reference Check Form (Faculty)