Making Progress on Work that Matters

With fewer active recruitments, Talent Acquisition teams have focused on continuous improvement—a core principle of The Hiring Experience. 

More Improvements Coming 

1. Screening 

Policy requires that only candidates who meet the minimum qualifications are shared with hiring managers. To apply this consistently, service channels and recruitment teams are aligning on best practices.  

Our Screening Optimization Initiative is focused on helping hiring teams focus on interviewing, not screening.

• Providing additional training to ~50 recruitment team members and service channel partners to ensure qualified candidates are identified and shared quickly, and in a policy-aligned way.

• Implementing a standardized screening matrix to improve speed and consistency in identifying qualified candidates across recruitments. 
   

2. Clearer, more consistent hiring steps 

Clearer, shared expectations within Talent Acquisition and across service channels are helping speed things up:

• Intake: Improving the information we gather when starting a new recruitment (P4–M1) to reduce back-and-forth and help recruiters promote roles and reach qualified candidates more quickly. When recruitments stall or fail, we’re taking faster action to reset the search.

• Offers: Recent enhancements in TAM (the applicant tracking system) will allow Talent Acquisition to:

• Automate offer letters to candidates, speeding up this phase and reducing manual steps for TA staff

• Accurately reflect approved salaries and wages on offer letters, reducing downstream corrections
   

3. Improved posting and sourcing support

Talent Acquisition is shifting from a primarily transactional approach (sometimes informally referred to as “post and pray” in HR circles) to a more progressive, consultative partnership model. In a competitive labor market, this means working with departments to position roles more effectively.  

Our focus is on:

• Targeted sourcing, including the use of LinkedIn tools, to reach more relevant candidate pools

• Supporting department-led recruitment efforts by leveraging units’ networks and visibility to attract applicants

• Faster job posting as we become more proficient in Job Builder:

• Reduced time needed to write a job posting (currently ~7 minutes, down from 20 minutes)

• Posting new job orders within 5 business days from Compensation Services approval 

Improved outcomes for hard-to-fill roles 

We’re already seeing larger and stronger applicant pools generated more quickly, and ending with quality hires:

• Student Disability Center roles 
  A unified recruitment strategy across three supervisor and specialist positions increased application velocity.

• Assistant Director, Continuing and Professional Education 
  Targeted outreach following an unsuccessful recruitment resulted in a more focused and qualified applicant pool.

• Director, Math Support Services 
  Proactive outreach increased the applicant pool by 40% over one weekend (from 12 to 21 applicants).

• Director, Gorilla Doctors 
  Partnership on organic, targeted marketing increased the number of qualified applicants from six to 29. 
   

4. Improved communications