Hiring Resources

OHR's Talent Acquisition department has partnered with Circa to ensure that University jobs are automatically posted on the following sites:

• LatPro
• African American Hires
• Veteran Jobs
• All LGBT Jobs
• Asian Hires
• We Hire Women
• Over Fifty Jobs
• Native Jobs
• Disability Jobs
• Diversity Jobs
• Minnesota Works

Circa also has access to a local non-profit organization databases. Contact your Talent Acquisition representative for more information.

OHR's Talent Acquisition department has a premium subscription to LinkedIn Recruiter, a platform for finding candidates and managing your search online. With LinkedIn Recruiter, Talent Acquisition recruiters can find quality candidates using time-saving search criteria and can keep track of them using features such as projects, tags, and notes.

To submit a request, please fill out this form.

Please note: Not all job openings will benefit from a posting on LinkedIn. We encourage you to contact your recruiter for guidance on what types of jobs benefit from LinkedIn postings. 

For additional outreach sites, please browse this list of more than 100 options. Reach out to your recruiter if you'd like to advertise with any of these sources.

Complete the HireRight – New User Access Request form. The employee will receive an email directly from HireRight with login credentials once the request is processed.

There are three accounts set up in HireRight for the University that have different permissions and purposes, selectable in the top right corner once logged in. Depending on the unit, access to all three accounts
may not be needed.

The three accounts:

• University of Minnesota (Background) or UMN001: Standard pre-employment checks
  • This account is not authorized for international background checks. If you know the individual will have an international address, order through the International Background account.
• University of Minnesota (Safety of Minors) or UMN002: Safety of Minors checks, required every 3 years
• University of Minnesota (International Background) or UMN003: Standard pre-employment checks for international candidates
  • If the candidate enters an international address and the request was made on the Background (UMN001) account, you can order the additional services that you need within this International account by selecting ‘A la Carte Adjudication’ and scrolling down to check the boxes of the services you do need (e.g. Global Education, Global Criminal).

The University of Minnesota is set up with the following background check request packages.

• A la Carte Adjudication
• Standard
• Standard + Education
• Standard + Education + Employment
• Standard + MVR
  • For where driving is an essential responsibility for this position
• Student Worker 
  • Does not include the Federal Criminal-level check
• Student Worker + MVR
  • For where driving is an essential responsibility for this position

If what is needed is not available, select the ‘A la Carte Adjudication’ option and scroll down to choose the individual services needed. Consult the Price List on the left-hand side menu for more detail on pricing of individual services and contact HireRight with any specific questions on additional services.

NOTE: This is the best option for ordering the Global Criminal or Global Education service within the International Background (UMN003) account if it is discovered that an international check is needed for a candidate originally ordered on the Background (UMN001) account, where international orders will not go through.

Review the Background Check and Verifications policy and the Safety of Minors policy for more information on when a background check is required or advised. For help submitting a background check request once logged in to HireRight, go to Help & Training on the left-hand menu and select Training & Documentation for more detailed guides or email jobcentr@umn.edu for assistance.

Units will still need to send the Summary of Rights to the candidate.
 

Adjustments may be made to the contact information for this account, including the email that receives any notifications for the account (e.g., emails indicating pass, fail, no response, review needed, etc.). Some units adjust this to have all notifications sent to one central email inbox managed by the unit. Individual user accounts will still be needed, but the notifications can be set up to send to the same address.

To change the email address, go to the left-hand menu, select Account Setup, and click on My User Profile.

On the lower half of the screen, change the email address associated with the account and click Save. 

To enable or disable billing access, change the college/unit a user is associated with, or deactivate a user, fill out this form.

Submit, track, and review your job openings and applications through myu.umn.edu/employment.

Human Resources Management Services (HRMS) Instruction offers extensive training on using PeopleSoft to hire new employees. See their webpages on hiring for supervisors and HR professionals. You will need to sign in to your University of Minnesota account to view these resources.

Popular resources:

• Roles and Approval (.docx)
• Create a Job Opening
• Hiring Manager—Manage Job Openings and Applicants
• Unit Recruiter—Manage Job Openings and Applicants
• Offer and Prepare for Hire
• HRMS Recruiting Solutions Queries (pdf)

The Relocation Assistance Program (RAP) can provide essential support for newly hired faculty and staff moving to Minnesota. RAP services include help with:

• Housing
• Moving
• Spouse/partner employment
• Childcare and education
• And more

OHR recommends reference checks for all final staff candidates. You have two options for checking references:

• SkillSurvey References is the University's online, automated reference-checking tool. It generates reference reports that allow you to make better hiring decisions. See more details below.
• If you decide not to use SkillSurvey, you may use a separate phone reference-checking guide provided by your unit HR team.

Talk with your unit's HR representative for more information about this process or to register for one of the monthly SkillSurvey training sessions to learn more about this tool. For strategies on using SkillSurvey to best fit your hiring needs, see "When is the best time to use SkillSurvey Reference?" (pdf).

SkillSurvey helps to create a fuller picture of job candidates. It provides a detailed report on each candidate based on the feedback from their references, which can supplement your interview and background-checking processes.

Benefits include:

• Higher-quality hires: Questions focus on competency and behavioral skills directly correlated with success for the role, and the confidential process ensures more accurate information.
• Quicker, more efficient hiring: On average, employers hear from the required three references (at least one manager) in less than two business days.
• A pipeline for future hires: For units that use SkillSurvey earlier in the selection process (after the phone interview but before a face-to-face interview), candidates can opt in to learn more about the University's future employment opportunities, creating a deeper pipeline of talent.
• Improved reference verification: See IP addresses from each respondent, ensuring the authenticity of references.
• A more consistent hiring process: Using the same questions and reference process helps you compare candidates for the same position.
• Better onboarding for your new hire: Use feedback to work with candidates during the onboarding and training process.

Each reference receives a survey of about 30 competency-based questions, specific to the role, and a comments section asking about a candidate's top three ways to improve and top three work-related strengths. References are asked to rate a particular behavior of a candidate on a scale from 1 (they never display that behavior) to 7 (they always display that behavior).

Use the completed feedback reports to help select your final candidates. On the reports, reference ratings for candidates are generally high—in fact, 90% of candidates rate 6 or higher. With all ratings being similar, how can you differentiate between candidates? The feedback report gives an average rating for each question, showing how your candidate compares to others who have been reference-checked using the same or a similar survey. SkillSurvey studies have found that candidates in the bottom fifth percentile (meaning 95% of candidates—out of thousands—received a better rating) are the most likely to turn over for cause within the first year of hire.

The system also tracks IP addresses from each respondent. If one or more of the references' IP addresses match, that will be highlighted in red on the cover page of the feedback report. If the reference is from a different city, state, or organization, that could be a red flag for a reference's authenticity. Not all matching IP addresses indicate risk, however. For example, a job candidate who asked a colleague at the same company to be a reference will likely have the same IP address as the reference.

See a sample SkillSurvey report (pdf).

• SkillSurvey Reference FAQ (pdf)
• Guide to features (pdf)

Spark Hire is an applicant screening tool that will reduce your time filling a job opening.

The platform allows you to request one-way video interviews from candidates. The full hiring team can review the completed video interviews at their convenience, making it easy to schedule interviews. You can also share the interviews with other interested parties to get them involved earlier in the hiring process.

When you’re ready to start screening applicants, fill out this form for the Talent Acquisition team with as much detail as possible. Attach your job description, interview questions, candidate list, and optional intro/outro videos.

Before submitting the form, remove the job posting from the website and check that you have compiled the full list of candidates you want to invite. This is important for consistency, equity, and inclusion. Each candidate should be given the same amount of time to prepare for the interview.

After submitting the form, you will receive a reminder email asking you to contact the candidates to let them know they have been selected to take part in a first-round video interview. The reminder email will include details on what to let candidates know about the video interview.

The Talent Acquisition team will send invitations with links to the Spark Hire interview to the candidate directly within three business days of submitting the form. The candidate can use a cell phone, tablet, or laptop to complete the interview. If candidates do not have access to reliable internet or to a recording device, you can work with the Talent Acquisition team to help the candidate use University technology for the interview. Candidates will be able to review their recorded responses to the interview questions before submitting their interviews.

Once the candidate submits their responses, you can share them with your team to review.

Our Talent Acquisition team has also created this set of videos using Spark Hire to provide answers to frequently asked questions. View a pdf transcript.

Please reach out to your Talent Acquisition consultant or specialist with any further questions. The Talent Acquisition team has also created slides about the platform.