Career Service Interim Appointment Process

Purpose

To establish a full-time interim appointment process for career service positions when there is a need to fill a budgeted career service position on a temporary basis for a specific extended period of time to provide continuity of operation, rapid response for critical needs, and greater flexibility in regard to situational assessments. 

Justification

  • We often get requests to fill a position on a temporary basis full time. Currently Spherion is our only option.
  • TF isn’t always a reasonable option based on the duties of the positions and TF restrictions related to travel and interacting with certain populations. There are also budget concerns because the money to cover the vacancy is not budgeted in expense and needs to come from the lapse dollars, which are different GLC’s. 
  • Using this model would not create budget concerns because the funding is already budgeted and in the appropriate GLC .
  • This would address the concern brought forward by the College Senate for the last two years about staffing positions on a full-time basis through Spherion without benefit.
  • During periods of financial uncertainty this will be a useful tool to the fill positions on a temporary basis without making a long term employment commitment.
  • Staffing positions is more challenging now due to the low unemployment rate (<4% locally) and this would make us more competitive in that market because it is more favorable to offer full time positions that have access to health insurance.
  • When departments experience unexpected vacancies or multiple vacancies at this same time this would provide a quick solution for staffing to ensure continuity of service to students. (For example:  critical student contact positions like Financial Aid occur within the same time period with former employees giving 2 weeks’ notice leaves those positions vacant for at least 6-8 weeks while a search and hiring process is complete.  This is taxing to other staff, detrimental to morale and doesn’t provide the optimum level of service and availability to students.)
  • Vacancies often occur during peak service times and this would allow departments that are already strapped for resources to provide maximum service without adding the burden of vacant positions and more workload to complete search processes. (year-end or beginning semester rush)
  • This allows us to time our searches more strategically with hiring seasons as opposed to when the vacancy occurs to ensure that we are recruiting the best candidates instead of being forced to complete searches at the time the vacancy occurs.
  • In situations where employees have extended leave and we anticipate their return to work it allows us to hold their position while not negatively impacting services or other staff because we could appoint someone on an interim basis. Some of these include military leave, extended FMLA and leave of absence.
  • This could be used for temporary solutions when someone needs to “work out of class” for an extended period of time and avoid providing supplements.

Terms

  • Must be a currently budgeted full time position.
  • Initial appointment must be for a minimum at least 6 months and for no more than 12 months.
  • Extensions can be submitted for periods of at least one month and for no more than 12 months.
  • Interim employees receive all the same benefits as non-interim employees.
  • Although not required, evaluations may be completed on interim employees if applicable.
  • Interim appointments may be used to appoint existing employees into a different position on a temporary basis.
  • Interim appointments do not require a search process.
  • Interim appointees must meet the minimum qualifications of the position they are appointed to.
  • Interim appointments are made subject to the initial and/or promotional placement guidelines in the salary schedule.
  • Interim appointments automatically expire upon their end date with no expectancy for re-employment/re-appointment.
  • Interim appointments cannot be used to forgo normal hiring processes but can be used to post-pone a hiring process.
  • Internal interim appointees, meaning those that have other full-time jobs within the college, would return their prior positions at the salary they were making in that position when they left but would receive adjustments for any college increase that occurred during the appointment time to ensure that their salary remained whole as if they had never left the position.