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Cooperative Extension Service |
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U of A Board Policies
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Summary: Establishes hiring procedures for employment of personnel. The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, in establishing its policies and procedures, is bound by University of Arkansas Board of Trustees Policy as well as policies and procedures issued by the State of Arkansas Office of Personnel Management. I. General GuidelinesThe University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service provides equal opportunity in employment and career management for all persons without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected status. The Cooperative Extension Service commits itself to a policy of equal employment opportunity and to a program of affirmative action not solely because of legal requirements but because it believes that such practices are basic to human dignity. Persons requiring special assistance to participate in the application process should notify the Human Resources Office. An applicant must have appropriate authorization by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services through the Form I - 9 process to be eligible for employment with Extension. An individual who is unable to present documents to verify identity and employment eligibility on the first day of work may not begin employment until the required documentation is presented, verified by the hiring supervisor, and photocopied according to I-9 guidelines. The minimum age for employment with Extension is 16 years, with limitations on days scheduled and hours worked. In positions requiring operation of power tools (e.g., weed eaters, chain saws) or heavy machinery (e.g., tractors, combines, forklifts), the minimum age is 18 years. U of A vehicles are not to be driven by employees under the age of 18. Extension recognizes that potential conflicts of interest may exist when members of the same family are employed in the same county, department, or unit. To avoid conflicts of interest which may result from such employment, one family member shall not have direction or supervision of the other and shall not participate in decisions to hire, retain, promote, or determine the salary of the other. For purposes of this policy, "family member" of an employee or the employee’s spouse is defined as children or parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, grandchildren or grandparents, whether by blood or by marriage. This provision applies not only to employees on regular appointment but also to employees in seasonal, temporary, and Work Only When Needed (WOWN) positions. In compliance with Arkansas Code § 21-3-301 et seq. of the State Veteran’s Preference Law, this institution gives preference in appointment and employment for certain veterans provided these veterans have "substantially equal qualifications" to other applicants for the position. According to this order, the hiring supervisor must be able to clearly articulate the valid job-related reason(s) an equally qualified veteran was not selected or appointed to fill a position. The AA/EEO officer will notify the hiring supervisor when an applicant who meets minimum qualifications for a posted position has identified himself/herself as a veteran. If that applicant is selected for an interview, the applicant must send the necessary veteran status documentation directly to the Office of Human Resources as soon as possible. When candidates are given examinations which result in a score used for establishing employment, five (5) points shall be added for qualified veterans and ten (10) points for certain disabled veterans. Employment by Two State Agencies An employee may work for two agencies or institutions concurrently, provided that a request is made by the agency to the Chief Fiscal Officer of the State and provided that the combined salary payments from the agencies do not exceed the larger maximum annual salary of the line item position authorized for either agency from which the employee is being paid. II. Definitions of Title and RankBasic criteria have been established for initially determining rank in order to maintain a degree of continuity in the appointment process. These criteria are found in the Employee Promotion/Career Review section of the policy guide. Non-classified positions have three different titles: (1) a line item title for budgetary purposes, (2) an internal title which designates rank, and (3) a working title determined by the unit head for use with clients. For some positions, the line item and internal titles are the same. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Program PositionsDefinition: A degreed professional in agriculture, family and consumer sciences or a related discipline who is responsible for program implementation at the county level. Line Item Title: County Extension Agent I, II, III, or IV Definition: An academic professional with a Master's degree (Instructor* position only) or Doctorate who creates and delivers subject matter programs to support County Extension Agents and serves as a recognized reference source for the organization in an assigned discipline area. An individual in All But Dissertation "ABD" status may be hired into an Assistant Professor position; however, in such cases the offer letter will stipulate conferral of the doctorate by a certain date as a condition of employment. *There is no in-rank promotion track for Instructors. Line Item & Internal Titles: Distinguished Professor, University
Professor, Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Instructor Definition: Non-classified support personnel with a Bachelor's degree plus a minimum of five years of relevant professional work experience or with a Master's degree (Master's degree preferred) who coordinate work objectives with academic faculty but are responsible for project implementation and management. Program Associates are expected to contribute effectively to program design, results dissemination and/or educational activities and the pursuit of extramural financial support. If hired with a Bachelor's degree, it is strongly suggested that the Master's degree should be obtained within five years. Line Item Title: Program Associate Definition: Non-classified support personnel with a Bachelor's degree who assist in conducting activities under the direction of academic faculty or Program Associates in support of Extension educational programs in an assigned discipline area. Line Item Title: Program Technician -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Support Services Positions1. Senior Project/Program Director Definition: A degreed professional who provides organizational direction to an operational support services unit (e.g., financial services, human resources, or communications), or a degreed professional in a non-classified position within an operational support services unit who has reached Distinguished status. Line Item Title: Sr. Project/Program Director 2. Project/Program Director, Manager, or Specialist Definition: Degreed professionals in non-classified positions within operational support services units. Line Item & (Internal) Titles: Project/Program Director (Support
Specialist III); Project/Program Manager (Support Specialist II);
Project/Program Specialist (Support Specialist I) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C. Other PositionsClassified Position Definition A person employed in a position which has minimum qualifications, salary level, and grade level determined by the State and maintained by the Office of Personnel Management. The State Pay Plan for classified grades 1-26 is found in CESP 12-3, Salary Schedules. Seasonal / Temporary Position Definition A person employed on a seasonal or short-term basis, e.g., 4 weeks to 6 months. In compliance with State regulations, seasonal and temporary employees must work less than 1500 hours in a fiscal year (July 1 of current year through June 30 of following year). The salary schedule for seasonal/temporary positions is found in CESP 12-3, Salary Schedules. Work Only When Needed (WOWN) Definition A person who acts as a substitute for immediate, short-term needs, e.g., to fill in when an employee is sick, or to answer departmental phones until a secretarial vacancy can be posted and filled. Most county offices have a designated WOWN clerical(s) for emergency situations. WOWN employees are not hired through the online employment system. WOWN hiring is a paper process. Before beginning that process, the hiring supervisor must contact Human Resources for the EHIRE-112, Request for Position Vacancy; the EHIRE-124, Application for Employment; and the EHIRE-169 Statement of Essential Physical Requirements. III. Position DescriptionsA position description prepared by the hiring supervisor for any new job or updated for an existing job should be reviewed by the Employment Manager before a request to fill a position is submitted. The position description describes primary duties, tasks, and responsibilities performed entirely or in part by the incumbent. The position description is prepared on an EPERS-129 or another of the EPERS position description forms. The Employment Manager assures that the approved position description is posted in the policy guide.IV. Utilizing Provisional PositionsProvisional positions are positions funded entirely from grant, foundation, or other dollars rather than State funds. Provisional positions are not part of the institution's biennium personnel appropriation. Extension’s Payroll & Position Control Manager in Financial Services submits provisional position requests to the State Office of Personnel Management (O.P.M.) before the position can be announced for hiring. V. County Extension Agent Position VacanciesA. Criteria for Determining Level of Experience The District Director will make a recommendation to the Associate Director for Programs regarding the level of experience needed to fill a particular County Extension Agent position vacancy. When the decision is made to advertise a position without experience required, any eligible county agent intern with satisfactory performance and no disciplinary actions may submit an application for the position and will be given preference over external candidates. When it is determined that a position should be filled by an experienced person, the position will be advertised with the stipulation that experience is required. The applications of current Extension employees will be considered along with any external applications received. B. Employment Requirements for County Extension Agents Applicants for the position of county Extension agent must meet the following requirements: A bachelor’s degree in agriculture, family and consumer science, or a related discipline from an accredited institution is required. A master’s degree is preferred. Applicants with a bachelor’s degree only must meet one of the following requirements: An accumulative grade point average of 2.7* (A = 4) or higher on all course work attempted prior to receipt of the baccalaureate degree.* Completion of 12 hours of graduate study in an agriculture or family and consumer science related field with a grade point average of 3.0 (A = 4) or higher. *Note: Applicants who have held a baccalaureate degree for five (5) years or longer and do not meet the G P A requirements stated above may be considered for a waiver. The Associate Vice President for Agriculture - Extension may grant a waiver after considering the applicant’s post-baccalaureate academic and job experiences. Because it is essential for Extension Agents to be actively involved in the community where they are employed, it is preferred that agents maintain legal residence in the county of employment. County Extension Agents may not initially be appointed to a position in their home county. "Home county" is defined as the county in which the applicant was reared or graduated from high school. If an applicant has five (5) years or more of relevant professional experience outside of the home county, that applicant may be considered for employment in their home county. In situations where a position is posted and no satisfactory applicants are in the applicant pool, individuals may be initially appointed in their home county with special authorization from the Associate Vice President for Agriculture - Extension. Candidates for employment as Interns must meet the same academic requirements and employment procedures as established for County Extension Agents. The initial employment location will be negotiated at the time of hire. The home county and county residence requirements may be waived for the period of the internship. An internship may not last more than two years. Interns who have not secured employment in a County Extension Agent position by the end of the second year of employment will be terminated. C. County Employment Ratio: Non-classified to Secretarial Staff The target ratio of employees in county Extension offices is three non-classified to one full-time secretarial position. Additional secretarial positions (either full-time or half-time) must be justified by the District Director and approved by the Associate Director for Programs and Associate Vice President for Agriculture-Extension. VI. Job PostingsRequesting and Posting Position VacanciesRequests to post and fill vacant positions are accomplished through Extension's online employment system at https://jobs.uaex.edu/hr . To assure equal employment opportunity, all vacant positions (including temporary positions) must be posted. Only Work Only When Needed (WOWN) positions or those filled by transfer when Extension administration has determined a need to reallocate resources (e.g., downsizing, change in program emphasis) are handled outside the online employment system. Paper forms are still used to request and document the WOWN and administrative transfer processes. At the online employment site at https://jobs.uaex.edu/hr, the hiring supervisor (or preparer) creates a user account to begin the posting process. Once the user account is approved, the hiring supervisor can access the online employment system to create job postings. The Welcome page contains a link to the Hiring Supervisor’s Guide, a PowerPoint presentation outlining the online employment process. Postings can be created from scratch, from templates, or from a previous posting. The online Posting Details page captures all information previously found on position vacancy announcement paper forms. On the Posting Details page, the hiring supervisor may also add Posting Specific Questions for initial screening purposes or to solicit additional information from applicants. Once all posting details have been entered, the job posting is electronically forwarded from the hiring unit to Position Control for assignment of a position number and verification of funding availability. Position Control forwards the posting to the Employment Manager for review, and then the posting moves forward electronically for various administrative approvals. After the final administrator has reviewed and approved the posting, the Employment Manager posts the position on the public site http://jobs.uaex.edu where applicants may search and submit applications. Additional recruitment and distribution lists may be developed by the hiring supervisors with assistance from the Affirmative Action and Human Resources Offices. If departmental funds permit, hiring supervisors may ask the Employment Manager to place advertisements in newspapers and on other online job sites. A record of the publications, mailing lists, etc, where the position was advertised must be kept and submitted to the Employment Manager when the position closes. Interns: With approval of the Associate Vice President for
Agriculture-Extension, interns may be given exclusive opportunity to respond
to a posting for a five-day period before general posting begins. If the hiring supervisor indicates in the Posting Details that the position should remain posted beyond the minimum number of days, the posting will be advertised as “Open until filled.” The online application contains a Voluntary Demographic Information page. This applicant data is used solely for statistical purposes to assure Extension’s compliance with federal civil rights law. The hiring supervisor does not have the capacity to view this information, and this information in no way affects an applicant’s employment eligibility. Online applications must be completed in their entirety to be considered. Resumes and other requested documents are additions to, not substitutes for, the completed electronic employment application. VII. Letters of Recommendation or Reference FormsThe online application requests names and contact information for three references. References must be people with knowledge of the applicant’s educational or work-related abilities. Relatives may not be listed; Extension employees may be listed. Only the applicants selected for interview are required to have recommendations from their references on file in order to be considered for a position. The hiring supervisor may request letters of recommendation or may choose to use the E.H.I.R.E.- 113, Reference Form, for applicants scheduled for interview. A minimum of three letters of recommendation or reference forms must be received by the contact person by the interview date. When a former or current Extension employee applies for a position, the hiring supervisor is responsible for reviewing that individual’s Extension work history. The employee personnel file in the Human Resources Office should be examined for performance evaluation ratings and the information provided on the Supervisor's Notice of Termination form. VIII. InterviewsFor affirmative action purposes, the hiring supervisor must submit applicants selected for interview to the Affirmative Action Office (AA/EEO) before interviews may be scheduled in order to determine if the exclusion of a protected class applicant can be justified on the basis of the advertised qualifications. To submit applicants to AA/EEO, the hiring supervisor must change applicant statuses in the online employment system to “Recommend for Interview” or “Not Recommended for Interview” and then click the “Submit Applicants to be Interviewed” button. AA/EEO will review the applicant pool and notify the hiring supervisor that interviews may proceed. Once the hiring supervisor interviews and makes a selection, the status of the selected candidate must be changed to “Recommend for Hire.” The applicant status of each of the other candidates must be changed to show that the candidate was not recommended for hire for the reason indicated. An Appointment Form tab will appear, and the hiring supervisor will be prompted to complete the Appointment Form salary and justification data for the selected candidate. The selected candidate is then moved electronically through the hiring approval process (District Director or Department Head, Assistant Director, Associate Director) and submitted to AA/EEO, AVP and HR for final approval. IX. Search and Screening CommitteesSearch and screening committee members are given view-only access to candidate data as Guest Users in the online employment system at the hiring supervisor site. The Guest User can access this site at http://jobs.uaex.edu/hr. When the number of candidates for a position exceeds three, a Search and Screening Committee may be appointed for filling the following positions: Academic Faculty, Administrators, and District Administrators. Exceptions to this procedure must be approved by the Associate Vice President for Agriculture - Extension. The search and screening committee is appointed by the hiring supervisor and approved by the appropriate administrator and the Affirmative Action Office. Membership will be representative of racial-ethnic groups, males and females, and the organizational units having contact with the position being filled. The Associate Vice President for Agriculture - Extension names the committee chair and sends the letter of appointment to each committee member. A quorum of 80 percent of the membership must be present for any committee meeting to be held. The committee will review employment application documents through the online employment system and will recommend three candidates, unranked, to the appropriate administrator. After the committee completes its action, all committee deliberation documents are submitted to AA/EEO for review and subsequent filing in the Human Resources Office. X. Non-Classified Salary and Rank Approval at AppointmentApproval of salary and rank must be obtained before the AA/EEO officer notifies the hiring supervisor that a verbal or written offer may extended to the candidate. If the proposed salary on the Appointment Form tab exceeds the maximum salary of the approved salary range in the Posting Details, the hiring supervisor must complete the paper EHIRE-119, Proposed Appointment Salary and Rank (a link to the form is provided on the online site). Once the form has been signed by the appropriate administrator and is forwarded to the Employment Manager, the online process may be resumed. XI. Employment TestingApplicants for clerical positions are tested for Microsoft Word proficiency using the Q.W.I.Z. employment skills test. A test for typing proficiency may also be requested by the hiring supervisor. Q.W.I.Z. tests may be used as a qualification for other position vacancies if the test(s) correlate well with the responsibilities of the job, e.g., for accountant and accounting technician positions to determine proficiency in math and primary skills. Applicants for a position may take the test once, and the tests results are valid for 90 days. However, in the event that no suitable applicants for a position are found, all applicants may be offered one additional opportunity to retake the test. XII. Justification of Personnel ActionIn the online employment system, the change in applicant statuses and the Appointment Form tab together become the justification of personnel action for each vacancy filled. The hiring supervisor changes each applicant’s status in the system to reflect the interview and hiring decisions and then selects from the reasons provided to indicate the basis for those decisions. XIII. Verbal and Written OfferOnce the selected candidate has been approved by Administration and AA/EEO through the online employment system, the hiring supervisor contacts the candidate and makes a verbal offer. A written offer must follow the verbal offer and should adhere to the standard non-classified offer letter or classified offer letter format, as appropriate. XIV. Appointment• Prior to Appointment Date • Employee’s First Day of Work The supervisor will provide an orientation to the employee which will include an overview of the job description, supervisor’s expectations, and performance review process and also the date of the employee’s probationary period review meeting (see item XV. Probationary Period for New Employees below). The employee will receive a demonstration and instructions on accessing the policy guide, and the policy guide index will be reviewed with the employee, with particular emphasis on the Civil Rights section and CESP 2-7, Sexual Harassment. Human Resources will provide benefited employees with a benefits packet. New employees must return completed enrollment forms to the Human Resources Office within thirty-one days from date of hire. Coverage for most benefits begins on the first day of the month following the date paperwork is received in the Human Resources Office. In addition to benefit enrollment forms, the new hire benefits packet also contains a number of other forms which the employee must complete: the EHIRE-107: Policy Guide Acknowledgment form, Drug Free Workplace Acknowledgment form, EHIRE-122: Arkansas Statement of Selective Service Status form, the EHIRE-206: Certificate of Liability Insurance and Designation of Beneficiary form, the EHIRE-199: University of Arkansas Vehicle Safety Program Authorization (if applicable), and the EHIRE-102: Executive Order 98-04 disclosure forms (not required of temporary employees). When completed, these forms are forwarded to the Human Resources Office. XV. Probationary Period for New Employees(This does not apply to Academic Faculty, Temporary and WOWN employees.) A new employee (new hire, rehire or transfer from another state agency/institution), will be placed in probationary employment status for three (3) months for classified employees or six (6) months for all non-classified employees except academic faculty (C.E.S.P. 1-11, Introductory Period for New Employees). At the end of the 3 or 6 month period, the supervisor must evaluate the employee and either place the employee on regular status, extend the probationary period (not to exceed an additional three (3) months), or terminate employment. If the supervisor recommends termination, the employee will be given a written notice of termination. A newly hired employee should receive counseling from his/her supervisor regarding any job performance problems/deficiencies during the probationary period. XVI. Ineligible for Promotion/TransferDuring the first nine (9) months of employment, a new employee (new hire, rehire, transfer from another state agency/institution) will not be eligible to apply for any advertised positions within Extension. This applies to new hires on regular appointment only; temporary employees may apply for appointed positions during the first nine months. XVII. Required New Hire DocumentsThe hiring supervisor prepares the EHIRE-100, Request for Personnel Action (or EHIRE-100T for temp positions) and sends it immediately for department head and Administration approval. The Associate Vice President for Agriculture-Extension forwards the approved EHIRE-100 form to Financial Services for processing and returns a copy of the approved form to the hiring supervisor. The hiring supervisor obtains the documents below from the new hire and takes the following actions: No later than five (5) working days before the start date, the hiring supervisor sends these documents to the Assistant Director/District Director/Associate Director’s office for Banner entry and forwarding to Financial Services. The Financial Services Office needs at least five working days to enter the new hire into the system for payroll purposes.
Within the first three (3) days of work, the hiring supervisor sends these documents to the Human Resources Office:
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University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture |
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