Active Recruitment
Advertising Your Position
The university is committed to running open public searches aimed at attracting qualified, diverse applicant pools. Although your position will be posted automatically to the University of Idaho careers page, additional advertising is crucial because the success or failure of identifying, attracting, and maintaining a pool of qualified candidates depends, in part, on the quality and variety of communication and media used to inform potential applicants and the coordination and timely placement of advertisements and other announcements.
The University of Idaho contracts with JobElephant to post faculty and staff job vacancies within contracted advertising sites. JobElephant is an advertising agency that posts our positions with our contracted advertisers after our positions are posted on the University of Idaho website. Specializing in recruitment advertising, their clients span the public and private sectors, including many colleges and universities in the United States. In addition to this contracted advertising, departments are also encouraged to initiate advertising in journals, publications and other recruiting media that are relevant to the position. If your department wishes to place additional advertising, JobElephant is also available to identify and suggest venues. You may contact Employment Equity and Compliance for a current list of contracted advertising.
In addition to traditional and technology-based advertising venues, we must engage in “active recruitment” to build our applicant pools. All active recruitment strategies should be noted and retained as part of the search documentation.
What is Active Recruiting?
The informal exchange of information among colleagues is still one of the most successful practices for identifying qualified job applicants, so long as underrepresented candidates are included.
Active recruiting is required by OFCCP regulations to increase applicant pools for individuals with disabilities and certain classes of protected veterans. See below for more information on active recruiting for individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.
You are actively recruiting if you have:
- Networked to make connections to diverse communities, such as:
- Professional organizations representing diverse groups
- Conferences, seminars, job fairs and networking events
- Other professional social networking media, such as LinkedIn and Facebook.
- Joining online groups relevant to your department and taking an active part in them.
- Your own diverse friends, neighbors and colleagues
- Asked members of the search committee to call colleagues to see if they know of individuals who might be qualified for and interested in this position.
- Called or sent the full position description to relevant professional organizations or networks.
- Engaged local networks of people in related fields at the University or area colleges, corporations, and businesses to see if they know of potential candidates.
- Had a discussion in a department or search committee meeting to brainstorm other active recruiting strategies early in the search process.
The following links provide information on active recruiting for qualified individuals with disabilities and qualified veterans.