Recruiting for Research Staff

Owned by
Ann Kelble
Dec 05, 2023
5 min read

Purpose:

To provide college-specific guidance for units that wish to recruit and hire research staff. (See also Hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow for details about that job profile.)

Relevant Definitions:

Research Staff: a broad term that includes all Classified or Administrative and Professional (A&P) employees who are hired, most commonly, using external grant and/or sponsored research funds to work for/with PIs to carry out research.

  • Effective December 19, 2022, the COLA Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies has established a series of standard titles, requirements, responsibilities, and related expectations for research staff working within COLA. Please refer to this Guide for details on which job profiles (titles) to use for given scenarios.

PI: Primary Investigator; a term related to grants—the person to whom the grant has been awarded, who is responsible for conducting the proposed research (as outlined in the award proposal) in compliance with the requirements of the award/awarding agency and providing report(s) of project results.

            Less formally: an individual (usually a faculty member) who conducts research and leads one or more research teams and has one or more grants/projects active at any given time; i.e., a faculty member with money to hire staff/buy things to carry out their research.

Research A&P: refers to job profiles belonging to the "Academic-Administrative & Professional-Research" and "Academic-Administrative & Professional-Research Fellows" job families in Workday; and as detailed in the VPR Research Titles Guide  [See also Academic Job Families WPO]

  • The main difference between these two job families is that the “Fellows” are temporary (fixed-term) employees and have distinct procedures as a result. (See VPR Research Titles for details)

VPR: The Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Endeavors; this office has primary authority over research hiring policies and procedures for the university.

Research Faculty: 12-month non-tenured faculty who primarily conduct research; The research professor titles (Assistant, Associate, and Professor of Research) are not included in this article because they are professional track faculty titles rather than research staff titles.  Such full-time or part-time positions are devoted to research activities, externally funded, and can be continuing with varying contract terms, but they are faculty positions, with broader expectations for their contributions to the academic mission of the university.  These titles follow faculty recruitment and hiring processes.  For more information, please see Hiring Research Faculty. 

HR Contact: the staff member in a unit who is responsible for HR processes for their unit, including recruiting, hiring and onboarding, payroll and timekeeping, evaluations, and related tasks

  • usually holds “HR Partner” role in Workday for unit; occasionally might hold “HR Assistant” (or Associate) role instead
  • It may also be that some of the above-referenced tasks are shared or delegated to other staff members of a unit, so the assumption is that, for this article, “HR Contact” means “person or persons who are assigned this job responsibility for the unit along with the Department Manager (or equivalent senior staff role) who holds ultimate responsibility for knowledge of HR policies (unit/COLA/UT) and ensuring compliant implementation of HR processes for their unit.”

Process:

  1. When a PI expresses a desire to hire a research staff member, HR Contact [hereafter “you”] should work with PI to collect and confirm the following information [at a minimum]: (See also Staff Recruitment; if hiring a postdoc, please refer to the Hiring a Postdoc wiki page.)
    1. Is this a new position or existing position?
      1. If existing: follow Staff Recruitment steps, as well as ensuring proper handling of the incumbent’s Transfer or Termination in Workday.
    2. Does the PI have a job profile in mind already?
    3. List of job responsibilities?
    4. Required and preferred qualifications?
    5. Salary amount/range?
    6. Available funding source(s)?
    7. Any other limitations or expectations? (i.e., is funding only available until a certain date? does it involve weekend or evening work? travel? driving? specific lab working conditions? work site location?)
  2. Once you have information about the job from the PI, you will want to refer to the COLA Guide to Selecting Common Titles for Research, Support, and Administration to determine which job title seems to be the best fit for the requirements of the PI.
    1. It is your responsibility to work with the PI to find the most appropriate job profile to use given the proposed duties, salary, and required qualifications.
      1. TIP: Use the Job Profile Catalog-RPT0286 report in Workday to search for different titles, compare pay ranges, qualifications, etc. 
    2. Specifically, you are expected to assist your unit head (Director or Chair) in ensuring your unit’s compliance with the university’s Classified Pay Plan (HOP 5-3020), and VPR Research Titles policies.

    3. If you need assistance with determining the appropriate job profile for your position, please send your targeted questions to COLA HR prior to committing to a title and/or drafting a job posting. 

      1. By "targeted questions", we mean that we expect you to have done the initial work of exploring different titles that might work for the situation, given the information from the PI and the tools available within Workday, and to share your findings within the email to COLA HR, along with your points of uncertainty, rather than approaching with generic or vague inquiries that might not get you the answers you need. (Thanks in advance!)
  3. Once you have worked out the basic job details with the PI, please follow the steps on the Staff Recruitment wiki page, beginning with completion and submission of the COLA Request to Hire DocuSign Powerform.
  4. The following Research A&P titles will require additional steps:
    1. Senior Research Scientist (0701)
    2. Senior Research Engineer (0703)
    3. Research Scientist (0702)
    4. Research Engineer (0704)
    5. Research Associate (0708)
    6. Senior Engineering Scientist (0707),
  5. Additional/Alternate steps for these Research A&P titles : Note: the step numbers refer to Process section of Staff Recruitment wiki; the expectation is that all steps on the Staff Recruitment process will be followed, along with these additions (or variations, as in "b" below).
    1. Step #3 (added requirement): In the Workday job requisition "Job Description" section (where you copy/paste the required template), you will want to make sure the “Required Materials” include:
      1. CV; and
      2. “3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor; please note that finalists for this position will be required to have three letters from professional references—minimum of 2 external to UT Austin--attesting to candidate's record of independent research”
        1. The “3 references, including 1 supervisor” is standard for most postings, but we're drawing your attention to the fact that certain research position hires require professional reference letters, so this is suggested verbiage for the posting, modifying the ‘standard’ language.
    2. Step #8 (alternate requirement): Instead of the typical step of calling/emailing references prior to hire, you will need to request at least 3 professional reference letters (at least 2 from outside of UT) attesting to “an established record of independent research.”
    3. Additional step (#8.5, essentially): Dean Approval Process:
      1. Assemble packet:
        1. CV
        2. Reference letters (at least 3)
        3. Unit Head statement of support
        4. Draft offer letter, on letterhead, signed by PI/hiring manager
          1. Modify the COLA postdoc offer letter template, as appropriate
      2. Send the packet to COLA HR (cola_hr@austin.utexas.edu); include the job requisition number (R_###########)/link to posting.
      3. COLA will review packet and send to Associate Dean for Research (Rob Crosnoe) for review and approval.
      4. Once packet is signed and approved by the dean, the approved packet will be sent back to you.
      5. You/PI may now extend the offer to the finalist.
      6. IMPORTANT: You will need to upload the approved hire packet—as well as the countersigned offer letter—to the Hire BP in Workday.

Related Policies:

Research Positions Info (VPR Research Titles Guide)

VPR Research Policies Page

EVPP Research Jobs at a Glance

COLA Research Staff Guide (COLA Office of Research)

Staff Recruitment (COLA wiki page)

Hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow (COLA wiki page)

Workday at UT (Workday WIGS, Tools, and Resources for UT)


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