Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Guidelines for Recruitment and Selection of Administrative, Professional, or Supervisory Staff

EEO/AA Guidelines to Staffing Externally Funded Projects

In addition to the guidelines already described, the following apply to the special circumstances that often relate to recruitment for and transfer from grant-funded positions.

• Recruitment
• Transfer
• Handling Special Situations
  

Recruitment

In order to facilitate prompt initiation of work on an externally-funded project, the broad search for personnel may be undertaken before funds are approved. Classified advertisements and announcements should include the stipulation that the position is available “contingent on the receipt of grant funds.”

Money to cover classified advertising may be written into the grant proposal. An explanatory note should state that this money will be used, with an auditable record kept, to conduct a broad search in line with the obligation imposed on federal contractors by Presidential Executive Order No. 11246, as amended. However, as noted the section on Internal/External Candidates, since the UHR online job listing is easily reached by a large portion of the applicant pool, it is not required that any hiring authority place advertisements with outside media. If there is underutilization of females and/or minorities, or if the hiring authority wishes to target minorities and/or women, there may be a specific media targeted at these groups for the type of position available. The Office of Employment Equity maintains a listing of some such sources.

If the grant agency requires that the proposal name the principal investigator/program director and this position will be held by someone other than the author, the requirement should be fulfilled by spelling out the qualifications and describing the profile of the type of person who will be recruited for the position. This meets the university’s obligations to the granting agency while adhering to the prohibition against pre-selecting a candidate without conducting a broad search. Under no circumstances may the granting agency designate the principal investigator/program director.

When the grant proposal is written by a full-time staff member, the writer may be named in the proposal as principal investigator/program director, and a search need not be conducted for this position. However, there must be broad recruitment for all other positions funded by the grant. As noted in the section on Internal/External Candidates, since the UHR job listing is easily reached by a large portion of the applicant pool, outside advertising is not usually necessary.

If employment on a grant-funded project will strengthen the research training of graduate students and provide financial support for their education, recruitment for specific positions may be limited to the relevant student community with the expectation that the applicant pool will be representative of the racial, ethnic, and sex composition of that community.

Transfer

Upon expiration of the grant funds that provide the salary of a regular university employee occupying an Administrative, Professional, or Supervisory position, that employee may be placed on another externally funded line within the same unit, on the same or a different project, without recourse to a recruitment effort, providing that:

1. the employee’s work performance, evaluated by an appropriate supervisor
   is found to be satisfactory;
2. the employee is fully qualified for the new position;
3. a full search was conducted when the employee was originally hired; and
4. no more than three months has elapsed since the employee went off the
   university payroll if there was a break in service.

When a university-funded staff line becomes available, it is expected that a full search will be conducted and that interested university employees will compete for the vacancy with the external candidates. However, a highly qualified grant-funded employee in the same unit may be transferred or promoted into the open position.

Handling Special Situations

From time to time, hiring situations may arise that require special handling. Hiring authorities are encouraged to discuss these with their vice president or provost. Every effort will be made to accommodate these situations within the law and university procedures. Early consultation is a good guarantee against later delays.

Request for exception should be made to the Associate Vice President for Human Resources.

 

Additional Sections

• Introduction
• Ensuring a Broad Applicant Pool
• Recruitment Requirements
• Positon Description
• Internal/External Candidates
• Applicant Tracking System
• Recruiting for Positions with a Health Hazard
• Search Committees
• Interviewing
  • The Interview Process
  • Interviewing Qualified Individuals with Disabilities
• Selection
• Accommodations
• Record Maintenance
• The Disabled and Covered Veterans
• Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9)
• Attachments
  • Major Laws and Orders Governing Nondiscrimination in Employment
  • NJ Division of Civil Rights Guide on Pre-Employment Inquiries

 

Resources To Help You
Office of Employment Equity - Contacts	732-932-3020, ext. 4030
Office of Employment Equity - Services
EEO/AA Laws and Regulations
Hiring Managers
Hiring Toolkit
Job Applicants and the ADA
Search Firm Guidelines

To submit a comment or to report any problems with this site, please email us. For questions about University Human Resources programs and services, please email our Operations Team.

© 2007 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. All rights reserved.

Last Updated: 07/19/2007