Employer Recruitment Policies & Guidelines

Career & Leadership Development (CLD) is committed to maintaining a fair, ethical, and equitable recruiting environment for students, alumni, and employer partners. Employers utilizing CLD services, including Handshake, career fairs, employer events, information sessions, and campus recruiting activities, are expected to comply with applicable employment laws, NACE Principles for Ethical Professional Practice, and the policies outlined below.

CLD reserves the right to deny, suspend, or terminate employer access to Handshake, career fairs, recruiting events, and other services if these policies are violated or if opportunities are determined to be inconsistent with the best interests of SF State students and alumni.

Recruiting activities include, but are not limited to, career fairs, on-campus interviews, employer information sessions, employer tabling, Handshake job postings, and virtual recruiting events.

A third party agent or recruiter represents a candidate or an employer, and is not the principal employer. This includes, but is not limited to, organizations such as contract recruiters, career development consultants, career marketing firms, and temporary or contract agencies.

Employer Expectations:

• Interact professionally and respectfully with students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
• Maintain equitable and inclusive recruiting practices.
• Provide accurate information regarding positions, compensation, and hiring timelines.
• Comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Career & Leadership Development will sponsor recruiting activities for opportunities that meet with the following conditions:

Career & Leadership Development will not sponsor recruiting activities for opportunities if:

• The opportunity involves on-campus solicitation, posting of materials, or sale of products or services.
•  Compensation is exclusively commission, or fees/percentage of sales from others under their sponsorship in the organization.
• The organization is sponsoring an individual to establish their own business for the purpose of selling products or services and/or recruiting other individuals to establish their own businesses.
• The organization requires an initial payment or investment, or account balance or similar, fiscal requirements with the organization itself serving as an umbrella or parent corporation.
• The initial investment may include, but is not limited to, such things as: requirement to attend unpaid orientation or training sessions; direct payment of a fixed fee; payment to attend orientation or training sessions; and/or purchase or rent of a starter kit, sales kit, or presentation supplies.
• The work assignment negatively affects the academic progress of a student, or encourages a student to discontinue their studies.
• The organization fails, for any reason, to provide essential information concerning the nature of the position or compensation, including, but not limited to: commission only, job responsibilities, salary, and applicant requirements.
• Upon request, employers must provide documentation verifying the legitimacy of their organization and employment opportunities.
• Career & Leadership Development reserves the right to reject or remove opportunities that appear fraudulent, misleading, exploitative, unsafe, or otherwise inconsistent with the best interests of SF State students and alumni.

Career & Leadership Development will sponsor third party recruiting activities if the third party agent agrees to: 

• Reveal the identity of the employer(s) being represented and the nature of the relationship between the agent and the employer(s), and permit career services to verify this information by contacting the client. (In return, Career & Leadership Development agrees not to solicit the third party’s clients.) 
• Identify, on all announcements, the name of the employer(s) being represented. If requested, provide a position description for valid openings. In accord with FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), release candidate information only with the written permission of the employment candidate and only to the identified employer. Re- disclosure of candidate information is not permitted.

Community members may use Handshake to post tutoring, childcare/eldercare, manual labor and other household type positions. The following instructions must be followed in order to get your account approved:

• In the company name field, enter your full name or your last name and Family or Household, e.g., Smith Household In the website field, enter Disclaimer for Students link. 
• In the description field, enter a description of who you are, e.g., individual or household/family. Do not enter the job here. You will have a chance to do that once your account has been approved.
• After you have finished creating a "company" profile, your account will be approved within 3-5 business days. Once your account has been approved, you will be able to log in to Handshake and post a job. In your job posting, you must enter CLD Disclaimer for Students link in the Job Description. If you do not enter this into the job description, we reserve the right to reject your posting. 
• As a Household Employer, Career & Leadership Development asks that you provide a disclaimer to safeguard your interests and protect against fraud.

Establish a system for reporting incidents of discrimination or harassment and hold individuals and teams accountable for maintaining a safe and inclusive workplace.

Career & Leadership Development has determined these criteria for identifying appropriate entrepreneurial employment opportunities for promotion through its services. Start-ups must have progressed sufficiently in their business development process so that they can: 

• Provide a company name, business address, website and email address, and identify a principal as the key contact. 
• Verify that they are not seeking potential partners or investors. 
• Confirm that they have obtained the necessary business licenses and Tax ID’s as well as sufficient funding, including identifying their funding model and investors, if requested. 
• CLD may request additional documentation to verify the organization's legitimacy, funding, and ability to support employment opportunities.
• Offer positions for pay, not just for equity; see Compensation and Fees.
• Provide clearly defined organization and position descriptions in Handshake. 
• Those ventures who cannot meet these guidelines may re-contact the Career & Leadership Development at a later stage to discuss access to services.

The Principles for Professional Conduct established by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) state that "Employment professionals will refrain from any practice that improperly influences and affects acceptances. Such practices may include undue time pressure for acceptance of offers and encouragement of revocation of another offer. Employment professionals will strive to communicate decisions to candidates within the agreed upon time frame." 

By completing the Handshake registration form and submitting resumes and other application materials for opportunities posted on Handshake, students provide Career & Leadership Development authorization to release employment materials to those selected prospective employers. Employment professionals must maintain the confidentiality of all student information released to them, regardless of the source, including personal documents, written records/reports, and computer databases.

This means that there should be no disclosure of student information to another organization without the prior written consent of the student, unless necessitated by health and/or safety considerations, in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

In compliance with the Department of Justice's rulings regarding citizenship discrimination and best practices for online job postings, Career & Leadership Development does no screening of candidates in Handshake based upon employment eligibility.  Therefore, Career & Leadership Development does not allow students to indicate their work authorization status in their Handshake profiles.  Employers may include employment eligibility information in their Handshake job descriptions as a point of information for potential candidates so that the candidates may self-screen. 

Employers are encouraged to consult with their legal counsel and establish legally permissible internal screening procedures before posting jobs or recruiting on campus.  Career & Leadership Development reserves the right to modify or remove any statements or job postings that include any potentially illegal or discriminatory language. 

More information re: the DOJ's decisions can be found at: 

• http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/htm/best_practices.php 
• http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/May/11-crt-705.html 

Career & Leadership Development (CLD) staff will investigate all complaints by users of our services about job postings, employers, or work assignments. Depending on the nature of the complaint, CLD may temporarily suspend recruiting activities while an investigation is conducted. If CLD determines that a complaint is justified, we may choose not to sponsor recruiting for the employer involved. Career & Leadership Development will notify the employer in writing of the decision.