Larry L. Sautter Award Application

Project Title:

HireOnline

Submitted By:

Tom Leet AVC Human Resources, 858-534-0286

Project leader(s) and team members:

Michael Yates Director of StaffingJoe Longfellow Lead DeveloperChaozi Chen Developer

Project Summary:

HireOnline is a comprehensive hiring system that was designed to allow campus and medical center staff to easily navigate and manage the entire hiring process. The system provides a complete online workflow with enhanced features that dramatically increase productivity while reducing complexity and waste. In addition to providing tools and features that support Recruiters and Managers, the system provides the unique ability to manage and collect Screening and Interview Committee input. The many capabilities and features of HireOnline greatly enhance our ability to quickly identify and interview top qualified candidates, giving UC San Diego a competitive edge in hiring top talent.

Technology Utilized:

ASP.NET, C#, MS SQL, AJAX, JavaScript, jQuery, XML, HTML, CSS, SAML and other related internet technologies.

Implementation Timeframe:

March 2010 – February 2011

About HireOnline

The HireOnline system is implemented as two secure web applications at UC San Diego:

https://jobs.ucsd.edu (Applicant Interface)

https://hireonline.ucsd.edu (Committee, Manager, and Recruiter Interfaces)

The Applicant Interface

Currently processing over 16,000 applications per month, the UCSD Jobs Site features:

A new Job Bulletin with advanced search features and The ability to save searches, bookmark positions, and subscribe to RSS feeds A new Profile Wizard that greatly simplifies the process of applying The ability to upload customized resumes and cover letters for each position A new Resume Builder that helps create a resume from information in your profile Branded Postings that allow for positions to have distinct identities

The new Profile Wizard greatly simplifies the application process by utilizing conditional questions. By only showing those questions that are relevant to the applicant based on prior answers, what was once a 16 page long form can now be completed in as little as a three screens. What once took up to 45 minutes to complete can now be completed in less than 15 minutes. Once completed, the profile can be updated at any time and is presented for review before every application. Snapshots of profile answers for each application are maintained for auditing purposes.

The new application system allows for customized resumes to be uploaded on a per application basis. All resumes are extracted for future searching and converted to PDF format for consistent usability. In addition, applicants can use the Resume Builder to create a preformatted resume that is based on their work history. Similarly, a customized Cover Letter can be uploaded or created online with each application. A dynamic PDF Application is also generated, allowing the applicant to see a “paper version” of what they have submitted.

The Committee Interface

Accessed via Single Sign-On (SSO), the Committee Interface allows UC San Diego employees who have been assigned to a Screening or Interview Committee the ability to:

Review all candidate application documents and questionnaire answers Score candidates while reviewing them online using a dynamic scoreboard Share comments with the Hiring Department about a candidate Print resumes and worksheets to score candidates offline View and search for Key Terms in candidate resumes

The Committee interface reduces the amount of time it takes for committee members to receive information about candidates as well as the amount of paper that needs to be printed for large committees, and facilitates a collaborative approach to the recruitment process at the UC San Diego campus and health system.

The Manager Interface

In addition to the features that Committee members use, HireOnline Managers are provided with an enhanced interface via SSO that enables them to:

Manage their open job vacancy requisitions with a “My Requisitions” area Create job vacancy requisitions from job descriptions or previous requisitions Review Committee Scoring Results to help in hiring decisions Record Preliminary Decisions on candidates while viewing the Candidate Overview Send emails to a list of candidates using pre-defined templates Submit Interview Decisions and complete a Final Selection Report Create Offers and route them for approval Determine and submit any required hiring forms Extend Offers and record candidate decisions Confirm Hires and initiate onboarding activities Generate scoring reports and worksheets

One of the most beneficial features for applicants and managers is the ability to attach and complete a “pre-screening” questionnaire, providing an opportunity for candidates to be rated based on a common vocabulary. This tool has greatly improved the quality of referral pools, and has provided a better sense to candidates of the qualifications that a hiring department is seeking.

HireOnline greatly improves communication with candidates by providing an enhanced ability to create customized emails to candidate lists. A different list of email templates is available for each applicant pool that the manager sees, and ensures consistency of contact. Rejection letters are also available to ensure that candidates are informed promptly of their status for specific job openings.

Hiring managers are also provided with access to all hiring tools and policy information from the UC San Diego Blink business portal site along with access to the Title and Pay Plan information for determining salary. Other advances in functionality include the ability to quickly establish selection criteria using UC San Diego job descriptions and use that information to score candidates, a text and video help center for new hiring managers, and the ability to use offer letter templates for quicker onboarding as new hire forms are automatically populated.

An important aspect of any campus-wide system is its usability. HireOnline has many special features that enhance the user experience by leveraging “web 2.0” technologies including:

Quick Lookup fields that automatically look up departments, employees, and titles Dynamic interfaces that expand and collapse to save screen real estate Improved form field completion and error displays Online “mail merge” to allow for partial template completion Model forms that allow for quick edits without disrupting workflow Integrated image viewing for iPad or iPhone review of PDF documents

The Recruiter Interface

HireOnline Human Resources Department recruiters are provided an enhanced interface that allows them to:

Create questionnaires leveraging Templates and a Question Library Create postings using Branding and Posting Templates Search for prospects to invite their applications Review the applicant pool to identify candidates to refer Send emails to a list of candidates using pre-defined templates Generate job vacancy requisition auditing reports Make final approvals and send notifications Request and manage Background Checks Request and manage Reference Checks Maintain internal notes, manage and tag candidate profiles

A new ‘Post-It-Up’ publishing process simplifies job bulletin posting procedures for recruiters and improves the consistency of job posting content. Better defined job categories and subcategories make the new bulletin and search results easier to navigate. The format of each posting is customizable using branding and posting templates that improve search results and readability. The old posting process required separate applications and took over 15 minutes to post a position, while the new process is completely integrated and takes about 2 minutes.

Recruiters have a “Heads Up Display” (HUD) that allows them to quickly and efficiently cross reference requisitions, candidates, and applications. The HUD also allows for seamless switching between reviewing one candidate at a time or entire pools of candidates. An important feature of the manager and recruiter interfaces is the ability to make preliminary screening decisions, which allows those decisions to be placed in a holding pattern and then modified at the end of the review of an entire applicant pool. This feature reduces the effort of editing decisions to increase or decrease the size of a referral pool.

The Candidate Overview is an essential component of all of the HireOnline interfaces. Since the new applicant system provides many more details about the applicant, a more sophisticated interface is required that allows for viewing many details in one place. HireOnline recruiters can access all of the following elements, summarized and easily accessible via a tabbed interface:

Red flagging of a potential area of concern in a candidate’s application Current and previous applications with highlighted changes Work timelines based on a profile work history Resumes and key terms with search capabilities Cover letters and questionnaire answers/scores Tracking and application history Eligibility flags, “under consideration” flags, and applicant tags Shared comments Candidate notes

As a custom built solution, HireOnline was able to utilize and integrate with existing data sources and services including SSO, the Employee Database, the Title and Pay Plan, the Job Description system, as well as third party integrations (Background Checks, etc.).

HireOnline Home Page

HireOnline Requisition Overview Page

Recruiter/Manager/Committee Scoring

Committee Review Interface

Customer Satisfaction

UC San Diego conducts a confidential annual customer satisfaction service survey. The survey is distributed to employees who are asked if they have utilized services from divisions in the External and Business Affairs Vice Chancellor area. Attached are the survey results for Staff Employment and Community Outreach Services, the division responsible for the launch of HireOnline. For the survey period occurring when HireOnline was launched, the overall satisfaction for this division increased from 4.1 to 4.2 (out of a possible 5.0) for the academic population and from 4.1 to 4.3 (out of a possible 5.0) for the administrative population. The results for this year’s survey show further increases to 4.3 for the administrative population and 4.4 for the academic population. Staff Employment and Community Outreach now ranks only behind the Campus Employee Assistance Program (4.4) with over 40 business divisions measured by the survey.

The following are direct quotes from the Faculty and Staff Customer Satisfaction Survey Verbatim Comments:

- “HireOnline is terrific! This is a very well-managed cutting edge department.” - “Hey, great job on the HireOnline.”- “HireOnline is the best hiring system anywhere-be it higher education or any employment

sector. This staff and the leadership of HR are geniuses for providing us with this wonderful system and services.”

- “The on-line tools are fantastic.”- “This area does a great job of outreach to units and using technology to improve processes.”- “The hiring process went great, the on-line hiring system made the application review,

screening, and hiring fairly easy and kept me on track.”

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