A recruitment plan documents the strategy for hiring employees. It acts as a timeline to find qualified applicants and identifies the goals for a particular position. 

Recruitment plans are implemented to ensure that a transparent and unbiased recruitment and selection process is followed with the desired result of hiring the best candidate, based solely on merit, values and the philosophy of the university.

Best practice: Successful recruitment consists of developing a thoughtful and intentional strategy. It involves developing methods and processes to network and interact with potential candidates, even before a position is available. This is considered a proactive approach and includes continuous recruitment and building talent pipelines.

Develop an engaging and inclusive job posting to attract the best diverse pool of candidates. The language must be compelling and descriptive to entice both active and passive candidates.

Use these tips to help write an attractive advertisement:

• Use an enticing job title but keep it simple and searchable.
• Spell out the job title.
• Avoid university or position acronyms and jargon.
• Don't copy and paste the entire position description.
• Incorporate critical job duties and needed qualifications.
• Abstain from listing unnecessary qualifications that may hinder diverse candidates from applying.
• Make it easy to read to avoid excluding individuals with various levels of literacy.
• Use gender neutral verbiage.
• Share perks of working for your specific area and list inclusive benefits to attract a diverse pool of applicants. 
• Highlight the university culture and any developmental opportunities.
• Explain how the position contributes to achieving the university mission and why it is important.
• Incorporate department mission, vision and values to show commitment to diversity and inclusion.
• Link to your specific job posting, not to the main job board.
• Include the position reporting structure.
• Provide clear instructions on how to apply.

Use one of the following job aids to create an online posting to be advertised on USC Jobs.

• Staff (FTE, Research Grant and Time-Limited) [pdf]
• Faculty FTE [pdf]
• Adjunct Faculty/Temporary [pdf]

Adding Department User Roles 

All full-time equivalent (FTE) employees employed by UofSC have been uploaded in the PeopleAdmin system, and have been granted the applicant reviewer and search committee role. If an additional user role needs to be granted to a user, please use Access/Removal Request to Human Resource Systems [pdf]. 

All full-time equivalent (FTE) classified and unclassified staff positions, research grant (RGP) and time-limited (TL) positions, and faculty (FTE) positions must be posted on the USC Jobs online system.

Minimum Posting Time Frame

• All staff FTE positions are required to be posted for 7 calendar days, to include a minimum of 5 working days.
• All faculty tenure-track and professional track positions are required to be posted for a minimum of 5 working days.
• All staff full-time (FTE) and research grant or time-limited (RGP/TL) positions on the Columbia campus with an underutilization should be advertised for a minimum of 14 calendar days. Exceptions may apply. 

Underutilized Letter 

Departments on the Columbia campus with vacant classified staff positions will receive a letter identifying underutilized categories to comply with the University's Affirmative Action Plan.

• Departments must be able to show that recruitment efforts were taken to diversify the applicant pool.

Pro tip: All College/Division and Department HR Contacts have access to the demographics of applicant pools in PeopleAdmin to ensure diversity at all stages of the recruitment and selection process. Use this quick guide [pdf] to access the EEO Report or review sample demographic data [pdf]. 

Positions should be posted on USC Jobs before being sent out to any other sources. 

To ensure employees are aware of exclusive recruitment opportunities within the university, the Internal Job Board in PeopleAdmin is available. For more information on how to list a position opening on the internal job board, refer to the FAQ sheet .

Automatic Postings 

Columbia campus FTE faculty and staff and RGP/TL positions that are posted on USC Jobs are automatically posted online in the following publication at no charge to the department:

• Inside Higher Ed

Other Sources 

Research different sourcing channels to find places where candidates with the needed skill set may be looking. Use these sources to recruit a diverse pool of candidates [pdf]. Consider also using these other recommended sources:

• Monster.com
• CareerBuilder
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• HigherEdJobs
• Academic Keys
• Diverse Issues in Higher Education
• INDEED
• Handshake
• College or department websites
• Listserv of various organizations

Find creative ways to help promote your vacant positions through various social media channels. 

According to Inside Higher Ed, “reaching passive candidates is the key to a high quality, diverse candidate pool." Enlisting your network and the network of others can be a great tool to reach them. Networking should be continuous even when a vacancy is not currently available. 

• Maximize the reach of your social media ads by asking colleagues to share your posts.
• Leverage conferences, committees, job fairs and professional organizations to speak about our university and positions to engage potential employees.
• Share job opportunities with colleagues, friends and family and other professionals to gain referrals.
• Identify and advertise in publications and on listservs targeted to specific disciplines and demographics.
• Actively search company sites and profiles to locate qualified candidates that have the skill set needed to perform in the position or are already in similar roles.
• Send out nudge notes to people in your organization to apply.
• Send targeted invitations for applications to diverse candidates from minority-serving institutions such as HBCUs, women colleges, tribal colleges and Hispanic serving institutions.
• Increase professional network and actively build relationships with individuals from underrepresented groups.
• Identify professional organizations, sororities and fraternities that have members from underrepresented groups.

Customized Services 

The Office of Talent Acquisition attends local job fair events on behalf of the university. To explore these opportunities or for customized services for hard to fill positions, contact the Office of Talent Acquisition by emailing [email protected] or calling 803-777-3821.