Hiring a Staff Member
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The Provost Administrative Affairs Human Resources (PAA HR) office can guide you through the hiring process for vacancies, replacements, and/or reorganizations, reclassifications, etc. Utilizing our services will protect both you and the university; ensuring that all university and federal guidelines are being followed.
This page will assist you with posting a position, selecting and interviewing potential candidates, checking references, offering a position, and finalizing the hiring process. If you have any questions, please contact your Human Resources Director or Erin Gerew, Sr. Recruiter, Provost Centers.
Exception to the Hiring Freeze
As of April 13, 2020, there is a University-wide hiring freeze for all new and replacement positions, except for grant-funded positions, through June 30, 2021. No hires should be made unless they have been approved through the exception process. Please visit our Exception to the Hiring Freeze Request page (PennKey Required) for details and to submit your request.
- Obtain approval from your department's director.
- Use Workday@Penn to complete an online Job Requisition, including a PIQ.
- A Job Requisition is required to create a position in a Supervisory Organization for all populations (Staff, Academic, Postdoc, Temporary, and Student worker).
- The Position Information Questionnaire (PIQ) is required for all openings and is part of the online requisition.
- The Tip Sheet here provides checklists for information you will need to include for your Job Requisition and PIQ, as well as the steps you will need to take to complete both processes.
- Remember to include a justification for the position.
- Once the Job Requisition and PIQ are complete, it will move through the approval flow, as designated in Workday, by appropriate staff in your department/center.
- The Recruiting Coordinator and central HR Recruiter will post the job as appropriate on Workday’s Job Board.
- For Recruiting Coordinators, review this tip sheet for posting a staff job, closing a job requisition, freezing a job requisition, and reassigning responsibilities for managing candidates in the application process.
The Staff Job Application process in Workday@Penn covers how applications are collected and candidates are reviewed after the Job Requisition has been approved and the job has been posted. The Staff Job Application process begins when a candidate applies using an internal or external career site.
This tip sheet provides step-by-step guidance for phases of the Job Application process, including: Review Candidate, Interview, Initiate and Extend Offer, Background Check, Ready for Hire and Undo Move.
Review Candidates
All applicants (internal and external) must apply for positions via Workday@Penn. If you are directly contacted by candidates, please ask them to apply online. If you place an advertisement, please contact Erin Gerew at (215) 898-4921 for the quick link and suggested wording to use.
Anyone with a recruiting-enabled role in the Supervisory Organization (Manager, HR Analyst, HR Partner, Recruiter, and Recruiting Coordinator) may view candidates who have applied for a position. Only the Primary Recruiter may take action to move a candidate forward and/or decline a candidate.
If selecting Move Forward, options include: Screen, Manager Screen, Spark Hire Video Interview, and Interview.
The PAA HR team is available if you have questions or need assistance with the interviewing process. Additional assistance with interviewing will be available soon in the revised Hiring Officer’s Handbook. Please be aware that there are questions you may not ask a candidate before hiring. Please contact your Human Resources Director for a list of pre-employment dos and don'ts.
Interviewing the candidate is required before conducting a reference check or initiating an offer.
- When you have selected a final candidate, check a minimum of two references (include a current supervisor). Best practice is to perform a Reference Check before initiating an offer. A reference check can be done manually or via integration with SkillSurvey.
- After moving the candidate forward to the Offer stage, the Primary Recruiter must enter details to initiate the offer, and complete the Complete Questionnaire – Hiring Proposal task. Once an offer successfully initiated, the Hiring Proposal Questionnaire will then be routed for review and approval.
- Once the designated approvers have reviewed and approved the hire, they will contact you to discuss the starting salary. Please DO NOT make any offers, verbal or otherwise, before PAA HR has approved the hire and reviewed the details of the offer.
- Before completing the Extend Offer to Candidate task in Workday@Penn, the Primary Recruiter should verbally extend the offer and confirm the candidate intends to accept the offer.
- Once the position hire and salary are approved, the Primary Recruiter may extend the offer to the candidate. Refer to the Hiring Officer Handbook for more information on extending a formal offer to a candidate, available soon.
- The Hiring Manager will complete the Generate Offer Letter for Candidate task in Workday.
- After the candidate accepts the offer, they will be moved forward to the Background Check stage. The Primary Recruiter will select the Background Check Package based on the Job Profile and PIQ.
- Background checks will be completed through Workday’s integration with Hire Right.
Once all the necessary steps are completed, the Primary Recruiter may designate the candidate as Ready for Hire. The candidate must undergo a Background Check and Reference Check before being designated Ready for Hire in Workday@Penn.
The candidate will receive an email notification with instructions. The candidate will log into their Workday candidate account and have tasks to provide Date of Birth (DOB) and Social Security Number (SSN). Once the candidate completes these tasks they are automatically moved to the completed status. This completes the Job Application process in Workday.
The HR Analyst in the new hire’s Supervisory Organization will receive an Inbox task to Hire the candidate. The HR Analyst is responsible for completing all remaining Hire steps and initiating the candidate’s Onboarding process in Workday.
This tip sheet, Hiring a Staff Candidate provides the step-by-step instructions for an HR Analyst or HR Partner to hire a Staff candidate in Workday, including assigning costing allocations, assigning organization, and onboarding set-up. Click here for the tip-sheet on Onboarding Setup in Workday. If you have any questions about the hiring process, please contact Erin Gerew before you begin to complete this step.
For more information on completing the in-person portion of Onboarding for new hires, see Onboarding and I-9 Process.
- Review expectations and goals with the staff member.
- Meet with him/her at regular intervals to review progress.
- At the end of the four-month introductory period for external candidates, complete an Introductory Period Performance Plan through the Online Performance Appraisal System, and review with the staff member.
