References and Offer Letter

Before an offer is extended, references should be checked. Reference requests are handled outside of Talent@VCU. Once you have reference documents, navigate to the requisition the candidate applied to and add them as attachments. Requisition owners will be able to complete this action.

Once you identify the candidate you want to hire, change their status to Reference Requests and Offer Letter.

Reference requests will be handled outside of Cornerstone. Once you have reference documents, navigate to the requisition the candidate applied to (Recruit → Manage Requisition) and add them as attachments to the requisition. Requisition owners will be able to complete this action.

After you click Save to change the applicant status, you will see a button that says Create Offer Letter on the same “Manage Candidates” screen and on the Statuses tab. Click on that button to start the process.

View from Manage Candidates:

View from the Applicant Profile:

You will need to name the Offer Letter and complete the below sections. This includes selecting an Offer Letter template from the dropdown.

Location and Template : Confirm location, template, then click “Next”
Add Sections

This part of the offer letter contains sections of boilerplate language on a range of items including probationary period, ORP Eligibility and more. These sections are not automatically included in the General Offer Letter Template, but can be manually added by clicking on the “Add Existing” option and selecting the section that applies. The order in which a section appears in the offer letter can be changed by clicking the arrow (carrot) icons on the section itself.

You can preview the offer letter by clicking Preview Letter in the upper right corner of the screen.

3. Complete Fields

Click the pencil icon above each section to Edit and work through each section and fill out all fields relevant to the position and anywhere you see “<INSERT TEXT>”. As a note, the only required fields are those that say “<Insert text>”. Talent will only pull in certain fields using tags (e.g., PROFILE.USER.NAME.FIRST).

Not every field is required and some field types are only for specific position types. For instance, you should not complete rank, months or tenure eligibility for a staff position.

4. Generate Offer Letter. After all information is entered, click Generate Offer Letter.

You will be redirected to the applicant profile where you will need to scroll down and click Refresh.

Offer Letter Approvals

Offer Letter Approvals

Click View/Edit Approval to add an approval workflow. (If no approval workflow is added, the offer letter will be moved directly to an approved state and can be sent directly to the candidate.)

Select the number of Users you need to approve the Offer Letter and click Add. Then, search and select the individuals who need to approve the letter. Click Save when finished.

Once the approval workflow is entered and saved, click Submit for Approval. To approve an offer letter, please see the Recruiting Approvals tab and follow the process outlined.

Once the offer letter is approved, you can select how it is delivered to the candidate.

If an offer letter is created and needs to be changed, then you will need to create a new offer letter incorporating the change.

When you click "send offer", a pop-up window appears with several delivery options. One of them is Candidate Profile. Selecting the Candidate Profile will notify the candidate via email that they have an offer letter to sign in Talent@VCU, and the system will collect an electronic signature. Selecting Email will send the offer letter in a PDF format to the email address the candidate has in the system. If you want to send the offer letter outside the system, select Other from the options and record the date you send it. The system will prompt you to Record a Response from the candidate and you should upload the signed offer letter to the applicant’s Documents tab.

You have the option to add additional attachments to the offer letter before it is sent.

Workflow Overview

Talent@VCU offer letter

Put the applicant in offer letter status
Navigate to the candidate and select create offer letter.
Edit the body of the sections as needed and save the offer letter
Follow any departmental request for approval
Submit to the candidate

Offer Letters in DocuSign

If you’re using DocuSign to generate and send your offer letters, please follow the below steps:

Put the applicant in offer letter status
Fill out your departmental offer letters in Docusign and submit to the candidate.
Once the candidate has accepted, upload that offer letter to the documents section of the applicant.

Once the candidate has signed and accepted the offer letter, the next step is to complete the Background Check

Background Checks

Background Checks

Once the offer letter is signed, move the candidate to the Background Check status. Once they are in this status, you can launch the background check from Cornerstone. We implemented a background check integration that allows us to assign background checks in HireRight from Cornerstone. Do not assign a background check until the system is live and you have someone who is being hired. The integration is live now, so we do not want to assign any background checks before we need them.

You then need to click Assign to Applicant. Make sure you don't have any pop-up blockers enabled because they will prevent you from seeing the pop-up where you select the appropriate background check.

If you experience any errors in Talent with launching the background check, you can login to HireRight and launch it there.

Clicking Assign to Applicant will take you to the Applicant Profile where you will need to select the correct background check package to launch.

Note: The I-9 is still done outside of the system, so that process is not changing. You will be notified as you are today when the background check process is complete.

Common Errors

Sometimes users receive an error when trying to launch the background check in Talent. The first error will mention a "reference ID." If you receive that error, please contact John McCann (jmccann@vcu.edu) in HRIS. The other error will mention the background check package being "invalid." If you experience that error, then login to HireRight directly and launch the background check in HireRight. That "invalid" error will not prevent the background check from being launched.

The next step is to complete the Application Custom Fields and move the candidate to a Hired status via Manage Candidates.

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