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Office of Human Resources

Interviews & Offers

Before you start

As you start considering candidates, be sure to complete the Ethical and Legal Obligations in the Hiring Process training in MyPath. This twenty-minute online training is required for everyone involved in interviewing applicants, including those who may only be reviewing resumes on behalf of a hiring team.

If you will be hiring someone under the age of 18, understand the strict state and federal regulations concerning child labor laws.

Reviewing resumes

Once the position is posted, you’ll want to review resumes regularly against the job requirements to identify candidates you’d like to engage with. Consider education, experience, and overall background, as well as career progression, as appropriate.

Phone screening

This step provides the hiring manager with the first opportunity to interact with the applicant. A standard list of questions should be crafted for each interview to ensure that the process is consistent and that the manager and applicant remain focused. The phone interview should be used to efficiently vet the required education and experience criteria and the applicant’s interest or motivation. If there is a specific shift or scheduling requirement to consider, this should also be part of the phone interview.

  • Applicants can be scheduled for an interview at the conclusion of the phone interview or contacted at a future date to schedule.

Building your hiring committee

As you plan to interview candidates, consider who you’d like on the interview team. Key stakeholders, partners, and peers of the position may all provide valuable perspectives on which candidate is most likely to be successful. That being said, the number of interviews conducted, and number of participants, should be weighed against the complexity of the vacant role. For example, more than two interviews, including a job shadow, for an entry-level role is not advised.

Be sure that members of the interviewing team complete the Ethical and Legal Obligations in the Hiring Process training, which is required for everyone involved in interviewing candidates.

Share the job description, interview topics and/or questions, and candidates’ resumes with your interview team ahead of the scheduled interview. Candidate information should be kept confidential, regardless of whether the candidate is an internal or external one.

Interviewing

Interviewing is much easier and more effective if you have the right interview questions. Use key segments of the job responsibilities to identify areas to explore, such as communication, organizational skills, customer service, or specific technical skills or experiences. Ask questions that require candidates to share specific examples of situations they’ve been in and experiences they’ve had that highlight the skills or experience you’re looking for. Behavioral-based interview questions are another tool to help interviewers assess how a candidate may engage or perform as an employee.

It is important to note that any question asked in an interview cannot relate to a protected class, such as need for an accommodation, marital status, gender identity, veteran status, or sexual orientation. Questions should only pertain to the candidate’s ability and experience related to the position, and decisions should be made based on the same criteria. The “Hiring Process Bundle” in MyPath offers more resources for structuring an interview, including appropriate interview questions

A best practice is to provide your interview team with an interview scorecard and scoring rubric where they can rate each candidate on the competencies you’ve identified for the position; this helps ensure a thoughtful, systematic, and equitable approach to considering candidates. An interview scorecard is a new feature available in myURHR and will allow interview teams to easily rate and log interview outcomes within the system.

After interviews are conducted, review your interview team’s feedback via myURHR. Your manager will likely want to interview the top one or two candidates before a final decision is made.

Accommodations

If an applicant requests an accommodation during the hiring or interviewing process (e.g., the applicant is deaf or hard of hearing and needs an interpreter or has a mobility impairment and needs a close-in parking spot for the interview) and you are unsure how to proceed with obtaining that accommodation, please call (585) 275-4995 for assistance.

Salary History

Effective January 2020, New York State legislation prohibits employers from asking for salary history from an applicant. Additionally, employers are prohibited from using an applicant’s current or past salary as a consideration in determining the compensation for the position. You cannot ask any questions with regard to current or past salary, including:

  • What is your current salary?
  • What is your past salary?

You cannot use an internal or external applicant’s current or past salary as a starting point for determining their salary offer.

You cannot refuse to interview, hire, promote or employ based on salary history. For example, you cannot tell a candidate they are “out of the range” or will not be considered because their salary expectation is too high.

You can ask:
“I do not want to know what salary you make currently or have made in the past. Can you give me an idea of the salary range that you might find acceptable for this position?”

What if a candidate volunteers a salary that is outside of the range that we offer for a position?

You may follow up with: “Your current salary is actually not something that is relevant to this process, but I would like to share the salary range for this position so that you can make an informed decision about your level of interest in this opportunity.”

OR

“Given the salary range that I’ve shared, do you still have interest in the position?”

You should save conversations about salary range, whenever possible, for the end of an interview. If a candidate divulges their current or past salary you should not ask follow up questions with regards to their salary history.

References

Reference checking is the final opportunity to obtain important information about your applicant’s past performance. Reference templates are built into myURHR Workday to complete professional reference tasks conveniently within the system.

Some reference check best practices are:

  • Conduct three (or, at a minimum, two) reference checks.
  • Use professional references rather than personal ones since personal references aren’t as helpful in professional settings.
  • Ideally, at least one of the references should be a former supervisor since they will be able to offer the most direct assessment of the applicant’s skills and abilities. However, candidates are often hesitant to offer a current supervisor if still employed or may not have the current contact information for a former. If the candidate is not able to provide a supervisor as a reference, this should not be held against them as a determining factor.
  • If there are aspects of the candidate’s qualifications that you’re hesitant about, take the opportunity to follow up directly with targeted, probing questions to test your concerns.
  • If you’re having difficulty reaching a particular person, ask the candidate if they can assist or provide another contact.

Please note that reference information is considered confidential and should not be shared with the applicant or with individuals who are not associated with making the hiring decision.

Making an Offer

Once you’ve selected the final candidate, ensure they have completed the University application. All individuals who have been selected to interview for a position MUST have completed the University application. It is strongly encouraged that this step is completed prior to any interviews occurring.

Offer initiation and review processes will now be completed in myURHR, including HR Business Partner review and Finance approval if needed. If you have questions regarding possible compensation, please contact your HR Business Partner to discuss the salary. HR will consider the candidate’s qualifications and experience, as well as the qualifications and experience of incumbent employees. Finance will also be engaged according to departmental practices.

Once the salary has been determined and approvals obtained, the offer will go through a final review from the assigned HR Liaison. The HR Service Center will notify you through myURHR once the offer has been approved, and then you may call the candidate to extend the offer verbally.

Once the offer has been verbally accepted, you will advance the candidate forward in myURHR. The HR Liaison will complete a series of pre-hire tasks in myURHR to generate new hire paperwork and send to the candidate.

Once a candidate has accepted the job offer, return to myURHR Workday to update the disposition of each candidate who was not selected. External applicants (excluding applicants for faculty, nursing practice, and Strong Staffing positions) with a disposition of Not Selected will receive an automated email from myURHR 24 hours after the final disposition, notifying them they have not been selected. Please note that this final disposition step must be completed before the HR Liaison will close the requisition.

Training

Training is available in MyPath by searching “recruitment.”

Quick Reference Cards are also available on the University IT website.