Posting a Position

Position Description 

The position description becomes the hiring official/search committee’s touchstone for all succeeding acts of recruitment, interview, and selection. Performing a careful analysis of the advertised job is essential to beginning a search. The position description, which is prepared by the hiring official/department, initiates the recruitment process. The position description must be clearly defined using no discriminatory language. Advice may be sought from the predecessor in the job, supervisor, peers, subordinates, external partners, and others to ensure the position description is comprehensive. The position description will include primary and secondary duties, as well as qualifications and experience applicants must possess. A well-constructed job description will yield the best results when searching for applicants.

Special consideration should be given when developing minimum and preferred qualifications. The position description must not include skills and competencies not required to perform position duties, which may eliminate otherwise qualified applicants, nor written qualifications stated in such a way as to give the perception of pre-selection. 

Criteria that are not specified in the original posting summary cannot be considered when evaluating applicants. The search committee must clearly understand and endorse the minimum and preferred qualifications expected of applicants as well as standards for evaluation of the applicants.

What are Essential and Non-Essential Duties?

Essential duties are the basic job duties that an employee must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation. In order to comply with the nondiscrimination in employment requirements of the ADA (Title 1), it is necessary to identify the essential duties of all jobs and to identify the physical demands associated with performing the essential functions.

Non-essential duties are important to the position; however, could be redesigned or reassigned to other employees, if necessary. A supervisor should carefully examine each position to determine which functions or tasks are essential to performance or non-essential.  

In accordance with the university’s equal employment opportunity and affirmative action obligations, all regular vacancies must be listed with Human Resources for announcement to university employees and the public through normal job posting procedures. As a general rule, staff positions must be advertised for a minimum of fourteen (14) days - maximum of ninety (90) days. As a general rule, faculty positions must be advertised for a minimum of thirty (30) days.  As of July 15, 2014, to assist departments in the recruitment process, a minimum 2-week posting period may be used for the following positions:  "Visiting" Faculty, "Clinical" Faculty, Instructors and Lecturers.

When composing a position announcement, the hiring official/search committee should take into consideration the qualifications and criteria it will use to screen applications. The advertisement must be gender-neutral and demonstrate cultural sensitivity. OEOC reviews each announcement to ensure that the text is not discriminatory.

When deciding on application materials, the hiring official/search committee may choose to limit the material requested of applicants in order to solicit the broadest group of qualified individuals. Making the application package burdensome could exclude qualified applicants from applying. Additional materials can be requested later in the search process, if needed.

Advertising only in the traditional publications will often result in a homogeneous pool of traditional applicants. To create a broad, rich, and diverse applicant pool, hiring official/search committee are required to minimally advertise in three recruitment sources within their respective discipline or field that target diverse populations (Diverse Recruiting Policy: Academic Policy Series 1405.16G & Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 204.1). It should include, but not be limited to, the placement of advertisements in publications and/or on list serves, distribution to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and others with programs that serve underrepresented groups, use of placement services, and other efforts to increase the pool of qualified applicants. For examples, please visit: Diverse Recruitment Sources. The plan should list the names of journals, newspapers, professional organization publications, and electronic postings to be used. Advertising in appropriate publications and contacting relevant organizations will not only assist in enlarging the applicant pool, but will also convey the commitment of the unit and institution to recruit women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. As an effort to recruit and retain employees, encourage individuals to watch the video: The University of Arkansas: A Great Place To Call Home for more information about the University of Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas community.

All advertising, including any form of announcement whether by e-mail, letter, the Web, list service, journal, etc., must be approved prior to publication by OEOC. OEOC will verify that the advertisement minimally contains:

Position title and unit/department name

Current URL to the university career portal with the search number

UA’s mandatory EO & AA statement

Utilize the Example External Position Announcement for further assistance