Supervised Recruitment
By: Jeff Wunsch and Angela Ladisla
The Department of Labor periodically requests job ads to be posted using specific media outlets, typically a series of online job boards and trade journals. These cases are referred to as ‘supervised recruitment.’ The DOL provides specific instructions regarding the ad text, the media outlets to be used, and the duration/length of the ads.
Supervised recruitment is more thorough and requires more attention/monitoring than the standard recruitment process. This requires a draft advertisement of the job opportunity submitted to the DOL within 30 days of posting. We say it is crucial that you must be attentive to every detail (especially the requested start date/posting period) and work closely with the Park Project Manager handling the case.
Park will need a copy of the DOL’s instructions to ensure complete compliance can been met. Park can accommodate preferences if the advertisements should start on a specific date or if you need to start the ad postings as soon as possible. Generally speaking, we schedule ads so all screenshots are captured during business/weekdays and so corrections can be made promptly if needed.
Park has experience with a variety of online job boards/trade journals, and we do everything possible to ensure we can set up posts in compliance with the DOL’s instructions. Day 1 screenshots are provided as soon as each post is set up on the day that it goes live to applicants. It is critical that your firm reviews the screenshots the same day to help ensure all details are correct and allow Park to make immediate adjustments when needed. All online posts must have a 30-day duration for supervised recruitment and that includes the first day of posting. Middle screenshots will be taken on the 15th day, and final screenshots will be taken on the 30th day. All screenshots will be provided at the end of the post terms.
Some examples of sites Park has seen the DOL require ads to be posted in are CareerBuilder, Dice, iHireEngineering, Monster, NASPA, and even some job boards hosted by large newspapers such as the Boston Globe. One of the biggest challenges Park has overcome is that some job boards/trade journals are not user friendly, and Park needed to develop a relationship with the vendor to do what was required to comply with the DOL’s instructions.
Some sites we have posted on do not allow online applications to be disabled, even though the text specifies candidates should apply directly to the company through mail or email. When that happened, Park collected all the resumes received after the posting period and sent them to the company contact. Other sites had problems with pulling resumes received, and Park corrected the situation by obtaining an affidavit from the boards/journals attesting to the ad text and the length of time it was posted.
Supervised Recruitment can be challenging for many of our clients, but Park is experienced and professional in handling anything that comes our way.
