Employer Recruitment Policies & Guidelines

These policies and guidelines ensure the quality of our services and to limit the risk to San Francisco State University students, alumni and other users of our services, San Francisco State University Career & Leadership Development establishes these policies and guidelines for all recruiting activities.  

CLD supports employers in maximizing their recruiting results and assisting our students in making informed career decisions. Striving to establish a fair and balanced process to meet both employers’ and students’ needs, we created the following recruitment policies that adhere to our professional principles.

We expect employers who recruit at SF State (i.e., post jobs/internships, attend a career fair, host an information session/presentation) to work within the framework of the NACE Principles for Employment Professionals, The Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy, and the CLD's policies and guidelines on this page. To ensure an equitable recruitment process for all parties, we rely upon employers to actively communicate with the Events & Employer Engagement Team at recruit@sfsu.edu given any potential concerns, conflicts and/or difficulties.

Recruiting activities include, but are not limited to: career fairs; on-campus interviews; information sessions; campus tabling; and advertising opportunities on bulletin boards, in job binders, or through our associated online services. 

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.

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, the employer is unable or unwilling to provide written documentation of registration with a Better Business Bureau. 

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 Services & 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. 
• 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 Services & Leadership Development does no screening of candidates in Handshake based upon employment eligibility.  Therefore, Career Services & 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 Services & 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. 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.