This information is meant to promote understanding among staff and faculty who work with student workers. As we continue to learn about the needs of student workers and those who employ them, we will update this information to meet those needs. Please feel free to reach out to the Student Employment Office with any suggestions or clarifications.
Hiring for Faculty Members
An Academic Department Coordinator will have the most control if they choose to initiate a job requisition under their own supervisory organization. Once all hiring processes have been completed, students can be transferred to the appropriate faculty member, who will be able to approve the hours students submit.
Job Description Details
In order to encourage applicants and remain in legal compliance, job descriptions should include at minimum the following information: the purpose of the position, job duties, required and desired qualifications, length of employment, and the wage rate. Feel free to use the template below as you begin creating your own job descriptions.
Job Requisition Name Customization
If left unchanged, the job title (which will appear on the requisition when it is posted to the job board) will match the job profile name exactly. You may easily customize the title at this stage to something specific. (ex: Gregory S. Call Academic Intern vs. Gregory S. Call Academic Intern for Professor Jon Snow).
Reusing Job Requisitions
When inputting the amount of openings available in the job requisition, feel free to put in a larger number of openings than is actually available so that the requisition can be used in the future. Once a requisition is filled, it is closed and inaccessible, and another requisition will need to be created. If you no longer want students to apply to the position, ask the Student Employment Team to take down the posting.
Already Identified Candidates
For the purpose of remaining equitable, it is best to avoid language such as “candidate already identified” in the job description. This may dissuade students from applying to similar positions in the future. If there is a case where this seems to be the best option for your department, please reach out to seo@amherst.edu to discuss alternatives that meet your department’s needs.
As of December 2023, the Student Employment Office requires job descriptions to include full details of qualifications and responsibilities to be approved and posted in Workday. For more information on this change, click here.
Job Postings
All new vacancies should be posted for at least a week before a “permanent” hire is made. This procedure is aimed at fair treatment of all students – especially those with financial need that must be met by student employment assigned as part of their financial aid awards. It is based on a recommendation of the Faculty Committee on Admission and Financial Aid.
Hiring Through “Add a Job” Task
It is always best to hire students through a job requisition through Workday. Hiring students through the “add a job” task* creates limitations for students not previously identified by managers. It is encouraged to create a job requisition to make all jobs on campus known to students and to maintain accurate reporting and transparency.
Exemptions to this practice may include:
Hiring a student who already began working in their position but wasn’t originally hired through a requisition for one reason or another.
Having the job requisition close due to it being filled, but wanting to hire an additional student that would’ve otherwise been hired through that closed requisition.
Should hiring through the "add a job" task be appropriate for your situation, we recommend connecting the hire to a job requisition. This ensures that a job description can be traced to each student's position. This benefits future employers who may later supervise student employees who previously reported to someone else. This also benefits students, as they can directly speak to their job duties and responsibilities when pursuing opportunities outside Amherst College.
*The "add a job" feature can only be executed for students who have an active job, so you should contact seo@amherst.edu to hire students who don't have a job or are in a terminated status under one of these circumstances.
Start Date/Hire Date/Effective Date
It is best to be accurate when inputting a date for a student’s first day of work. This is to ensure that the deadline to provide work authorization documentation is fair (federal authorities require employees provide documentation within their first 3 days of work), and to avoid having hours inputted before students have started working. Students will not appear under the supervisory organization they’ve been hired under until this date.
Prioritizing Students with Work-Study Eligibility
To ensure that students who need to earn money for college costs are able to do so, offerings should be prioritized to students with work-study eligibility during the first two weeks of each semester. This information can be checked on the application’s screening questions. If a position remains vacant after that time, it becomes open to all applicants, although students on financial aid should be given priority if candidates are equal in all other respects. The following exceptions are made:
Job Title Name Customization
Managers may customize position titles to reflect the specific professor or program the student is working under. This can be done by changing the “business title” during the normal hiring stage, and gets approved by the student employment office. Customizing the job title will help to better identify positions for students with multiple jobs.
Posting and Unposting a Job
Ask the student employment team to take down a job posting or not to post a certain job if that applies to your department. This will keep the job active and allow changes and hires to be made without the job being visible to students. This is preferred over freezing a job requisition and unfreezing it when you need to use it again. A job requisition will become inactive after being frozen, which means that applicants will be automatically rejected.
Declining Student Applications
When making hiring decisions, it is best to inform students whether they’ve been selected to move on to the next stage or have been made an offer. Declining students from the job requisition makes it clear to students that they should not expect to be offered a position. Declining students doesn’t remove them from the requisition, they will be moved to “inactive candidates” instead.
Ending Student Jobs
If a student is no longer working for you, either use the “terminate employee” task (if the student only holds one job) or the “end job” task (if the student holds multiple jobs). If you are ending the primary job (for multiple job holders), you must first complete the “switch primary job” task.
Student Employment and Remote Work
Amherst College permits College employees to work remotely from Massachusetts or Connecticut and is the same guidance for student employees. Rare exceptions can be made for working outside of these states case-by-case by contacting the Student Employment Office.