Minimum Hiring Requirements
General Information
Minimum Hiring Standards (or MHSs) are intended to help ensure comparable basic hiring standards for comparable positions across campus. An MHS is the minimum threshold of education and experience required to perform a given job. An individual with an education level and/or experience below the stated MHS for a job title is not considered minimally "qualified" for the position, and is not referred by the HR Employment Office to a hiring department.
A hiring department may not independently require education or experience beyond the standard campus MHS for a given job title. So, for example, a department may not require a Ph.D. for a plumber position, or a master's degree plus 20 years of management experience for a secretarial position. Campus MHS guidelines are based on standardized assumptions and practices regarding education and experience levels that might reasonably be needed to successfully perform the general duties of a given position. The HR Classification & Compensation Office establishes the MHS when the position is created.
That's not to say that all individuals who DO meet the MHS for a given position will be well qualified. Many additional factors, including the applicability and overall quality of a candidate's prior work history, as well as the competitiveness of the applicant pool, generally play important roles in determining who will be successful finalist candidates.
Many hiring departments do desire specific skills and experience beyond the minimum hiring requirements for a generic position. Hiring departments may express preferences beyond the MHS to help identify the characteristics of the "ideal" candidate for their position. So, for example, the Math department may prefer candidates for its secretarial position who have demonstrable experience preparing documents using complex mathematical symbols, and may choose not to hire a candidate unless the individual possesses that experience in addition to the general secretarial MHS.