Hiring Proposal

Negotiating and Making an Offer

How a department handles the negotiation process can have a lasting impact on the immediate hiring outcome as well as the retention and career of the newly-recruited candidate. Each department will need to determine how best to move through the negotiation process. Recommendations to consider in the timely handling of faculty appointment negotiations include:

Negotiate in an honest and open manner. Provide your faculty candidates with all of the necessary information to facilitate a fair and equitable negotiation (including negotiations for compensation, space, teaching loads, staff, travel, and moving expenses).
Identify a list of potential items that may be negotiable and consider providing this to the candidates up front.
Consider asking the candidate to provide a list of their needs (e.g., equipment, lab requirements, administrative support, course releases, moving expenses, dual-career hiring issues, childcare, etc.).
Ensure that any potential recruitment incentives are in compliance with University regulations and practices. For specific questions about recruitment incentives, please contact the appropriate faculty affairs representative. For a list of recruitment incentives available through University Regulations please see Table 6.
Negotiate separately each element specified within the offer contract (e.g., teaching releases, research support, moving expenses, housing assistance, etc.).
Conduct an open and honest search to ensure that faculty candidates come in to the department satisfied with the search and negotiation process. This in turn aids in the successful long-term retention of highly talented faculty.[1]
Include full title of position and specific reporting relationships and responsibilities when appropriate.
Outline any tenure funding implications in the offer letter.
Define any administrative appointment roles in the governance structure of the department, college, or university.
Include financial compensation and overview of benefits.
Specify expectations of performance as well as percentage of effort that has been set aside for each expectation as appropriate.
Research continues to suggest that faculty remain unclear about expectations and how these expectations translate into the formal retention, promotion, and tenure processes. These tensions have the potential to result in lack of satisfaction and may potentially result in attrition. To ensure that we are retaining our highly talented faculty, we highly recommend that departments provide as much information regarding expectations and the relevance to the retention, promotion and tenure processes as early as possible.
Develop career development and mentoring opportunities and resources for new faculty recruitments, regardless of rank and outline them in the offer letter.
Consider adding language about conditions of resignations or termination if appropriate. For more information, see University Regulations: Policy 6-307: Resignations:

Some best practices for drafting an offer letter include:

Include full title of position and specific reporting relationships and responsibilities when appropriate.
Outline any tenure funding implications in the offer letter.
Define any administrative appointment roles in the governance structure of the department, college, or university.
Include financial compensation and overview of benefits.
Specify expectations of performance as well as percentage of effort that has been set aside for each expectation as appropriate. Research continues to suggest that faculty remain unclear about expectations and how these expectations translate into the formal retention, promotion, and tenure processes. These tensions have the potential to result in lack of satisfaction and may potentially result in attrition. To ensure that we are retaining our highly talented faculty, we highly recommend that departments provide as much information regarding expectations and the relevance to the retention, promotion and tenure processes as early as possible.
Develop career development and mentoring opportunities and resources for new faculty recruitments, regardless of rank and outline them in the offer letter.
Consider adding language about conditions of resignations or termination if appropriate. For more information, see University Regulations: Policy 6-307: Resignations: