Carnegie Mellon University

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May 12, 2022

HR Recruiting Update

Over the past several months, HR Recruiting has updated the hiring process at CMU including changes to disposition codes, the offer letter, and background check process. Please find a summary of these changes below. If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please contact your HR recruiter.

New Disposition Codes

Effective April 1, 2022, new disposition codes are available in Workday for recruiters, hiring managers and department recruiting assistants. These updated reason codes allow for a more accurate representation of why a candidate was not selected for an open position. Additionally, these updated codes will allow the Office of Human Resources (OHR) to better measure and track trends associated with candidate disposition, withdrawals or offer declines.

As part of this update, HR Recruiting has also ensured that when a disposition code is selected — no matter what stage in the selection process — an appropriate system-generated notification will go out to the candidate. This change will provide a more positive candidate experience by ensuring that all candidates are properly notified about not moving forward in the selection process.

Finally, this update provides an additional option in the Review Stage of the hiring process to include the selection of “Department Phone Screen.” This option was added to provide additional flexibility for hiring managers who prefer to do their own phone screens. This option should be selected when the hiring manager or department — not the HR recruiter — is conducting the initial screening.

New Offer Letter and Background Check Process

Considering recent legislative updates impacting federal contractors, as well as feedback from our campus stakeholders, OHR made a change to the job offer phase of the university’s hiring process.

As of March 1, 2022, a written offer letter must be extended to candidates before initiating the required pre-employment background checks with OHR. Historically, written offers were not issued until after the successful completion of pre-employment background checks, unless required by legislation in some locations where the university operates.

All offer letter templates in Workday Recruiting now include contingency language requiring successful completion of the university’s background check requirements. Hiring managers, in coordination with their HR recruiter, are expected to make this contingency clear to candidates as part of extending the job offer.

With this change, hiring managers should plan for adequate time between the issuance of the written contingent offer letter and the candidate’s targeted start date to allow background checks and the university’s COVID-19 conditions to be completed. OHR recommends 10 business days for these items to be completed. In the event the candidate fails to satisfy the university’s background check requirements, the offer must be rescinded.

New Service Level Agreements

HR Recruiting is developing a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for staff hiring. The document will be shared with hiring parties at time of the intake session. The SLA is intended to serve as a high-level overview of the recruitment process flow while establishing service level expectations for all parties involved in the hiring process in effort to provide an efficient and effective process.