These instructions are for the Non-senate Recruitment Applicants Screening Criteria Worksheet, which is the second of the two required documents of the Non-Senate Position Approval Packet (the packet’s first required document is the Non-senate Recruitment Set-up Form).

You can download the Non-senate Recruitment Applicants Screening Criteria Worksheet from the APO's Forms web page (under the section titled, Recruitment Forms).

Overview of The Applicants' Screening Criteria

The Applicants Screening Criteria Worksheet is designed to help you develop the screening criteria that the search committee will use in Recruit to document their evaluation of the individual applicants.

The most important thing to remember is that your recruitment’s screening criteria must be based on the advertised position (i.e., job posting). Since the final job posting is not yet available to you, refer to your completed Non-senate Recruitment Set-up Form when completing the screening criteria worksheet. This will allow you to cross-reference the information you entered in the form’s Basic Qualifications section; any preferred experience, qualifications, or position duties detailed in the form’s Position Description section; and/or the required application materials.

When the division and the APO conduct their individual reviews of your screening criteria worksheet, they will ensure the selected criteria correspond to the information provided in your recruitment set-up form and they will verify that the criteria are appropriate for the position’s title series. For example, you cannot use the Section 2 criterion, Did not meet teaching requirements when your recruitment is for a research title, since instructional duties are not included in any of the research title series.

Based on your screening criteria worksheet, the APO will produce your recruitment’s Approved Applicants Screening Criteria, which will be uploaded to the Recruit system once the recruitment goes live. When it is time to conduct the official review of the recruitment’s applications, the search committee chair will be able to download the screening criteria from the recruitment’s Documentation Page.

How the Screening Criteria is Organized

The recruitment’s screening criteria document is broken into sections that correspond to the various stages of the applicant review process. Each of the sections are defined below.

Section 1 Screening Criteria: For Applicants Who Do Not Meet the Advertised Basic Qualifications

Section 1 criteria are based on the recruitment’s basic qualifications and the first step of the application review process it to determine if an applicant meets or does not meet the recruitment’s basic qualifications.

At this stage of the review process, the committee’s evaluations are based exclusively on the application materials submitted in the Recruit system. If the search committee determines that an applicant does not meet the basic qualifications, they assign the applicable Section 1 screening criteria, which removes the applicant from further consideration.

When completing this section of the worksheet, select the stock criteria that correspond to your recruitment’s proposed basic qualifications. Provide custom criteria if the worksheet’s stock criteria do not address qualifications or experience included in the Basic Qualifications section of your recruitment set-up form.

Don’t be surprised if you realize that you need to revise the basic qualifications section of your Non-senate Recruitment Set-Up Form when completing the worksheet. For example, you may want to use the Section 1 screening criterion, Did not meet basic research requirements, but you see that your recruitment’s basic qualifications do not include a research requirement. As a result, you will need to update your set-up form’s basic qualifications to list a minimum research requirement (e.g., A minimum of two years’ experience conducting field research. Experience must be obtained after the degree has been awarded).

Section 2 Screening Criteria: For Applicants Who Meet the Basic Qualifications, but Are Insufficiently Qualified for the Position

For the applicants who advanced from Section 1, the next step for the committee is to determine if the remaining applicants are sufficiently qualified to remain under consideration. Section 2 criteria go beyond the advertised basic qualifications and can therefore be based on any of the qualifications, job duties, expectations for performance, or professional experience included in the job posting.

At this stage of the review process, the committee’s evaluations continue to be based exclusively on the application materials submitted in the Recruit system. If the search committee determines that an applicant is not sufficiently qualified for the position, they assign the applicable Section 2 screening criteria, which removes the applicant from further consideration.

When completing this section of the worksheet, select the stock criteria that correspond to the most critical qualifications, expertise, or aspects of the position listed in your recruitment set-up form (refer to the information you provided in the Position Description and the Basic Qualifications sections of the form). Provide custom criteria if the worksheet’s stock criteria do not address qualifications or expertise that will be included in your job posting.

OPTIONAL Section 2.5 Screening Criteria: Allows Committee to Learn More About Applicants’ Qualifications Before Advancing to the Interview Stage.

Up to this stage of the review process, the committee’s evaluations have been restricted to the application materials submitted in the Recruit system. Unless your recruitment’s screening criteria includes a Section 2.5, all remaining applicants will advance to the interview stage. However, if your screening criteria includes a Section 2.5, the committee can request additional information in order to learn more about the applicants’ qualifications, before it advances to the candidate interviews. By requesting additional information, the committee can further evaluate the applicants’ job-related qualifications and if necessary, remove applicants from further consideration so only the most qualified candidates advance to the interview stage.

The most common methods used by committees for requesting additional information are the following:

• Committee conducts reference checks.
• Committee requests confidential letters.
• Committee conducts brief, preliminary interviews.

Including Section 2.5 is helpful if you anticipate the applicant pool will be large and/or if the job posting includes a qualification or area of expertise that the committee cannot thoroughly assess based solely on the application file (e.g., a candidate’s proficiency in a foreign language or the ability to effectively communicate to a diverse audience complex theories/procedures).

When completing this section of the worksheet, first identify how you will request the additional information. Select from the worksheet’s stock options or provide a custom method if the standard methods are not applicable. The next step is to identify qualification(s), expertise, or aspect(s) of the position listed in your recruitment set-up form that the committee will want to learn more about in their request for additional information. APO will create criteria based on the qualifications/ expertise provided in the worksheet. The criteria will allow the search committee, if necessary, to remove an applicant from further consideration based on the information provided in their request for additional information. 

Section 3 Screening Criteria: For Applicants Who Advance to the Interview Stage

Applicants who were not removed from consideration thus far, advance to the interview stage and must be assigned Section 3 criteria (this includes applicants designated as alternate interviewees). Section 3 criteria are designed not only to document why an applicant has advanced to this stage of the review process, but they also demonstrate how the applicants compared to one another prior to the interviews. Each qualification included in Section 3 includes different options to select from in order to address each candidate’s strength in the given area (e.g., Area of specialty matches programmatic needs, Area of specialty is a very good match with programmatic needs, and Area of specialty is an outstanding match with programmatic needs).

When completing this section of the worksheet, select the stock criteria that correspond to the most critical qualifications, expertise, or aspects of the position listed in your recruitment set-up form (refer to the information you provided in the Position Description and the Basic Qualifications sections of the form). Provide custom criteria if the worksheet’s stock criteria do not address qualifications/areas of expertise that will be included in your job posting.

Post-interview Narratives

Once the candidate interviews have concluded, the committee will provide post-interview narratives to document their final evaluations of the interviewees. The post-interview narratives will be included in the recruitment’s search report. The recruitment’s Approved Applicants Screening Criteria document will provide the requirements for the committee’s post-interview narratives.