Before you make a verbal offer:

Please make sure that the search committee has held a debriefing meeting to compare all finalists and that each finalist has been properly discussed. 

Please make sure that you have carefully read through all reference reports or letters of recommendation and that you have discussed or addressed potential areas of concern. 

Reach out to your Recruiter and schedule a time to discuss the “offer etiquette”

Offer etiquette:

Please contact the top finalist ahead of time and schedule a time to meet over video or to hold a phone call. Please do not present an offer over email. 

Start the conversation by summarizing the impressions of the hiring committee about their candidacy. 

Tell the candidate that they have been selected as the top applicant and that you are calling them to make an offer. 

Inform them of the career track level and annual salary. Please also mention CIRES's internal promotion cycle and answer their questions. If you need help from CIRES HR, please contact us after your conversation and let us know what information you need. 

Please highlight our top benefits, including:

Tuition reimbursement for the employee and immediate dependents 

22 days of vacation per year 

15 days of sick time per year 

11 paid holidays per year 

10% employer contribution of annual salary to the employee's 401a account (unless they are already enrolled in PERA). 

If so, they should contact the benefits office to learn about their options. 

You should also let them know that our Onboarding Coordinator will contact them with additional information on benefits following this phone call/ conversation. 

You should discuss their availability to start with CIRES. If they are currently part of CU or CIRES, we want to make sure that we are good partners to our units and support a longer transition. 

If they will be working at the DSRC building, please inform them of the clearance process and how it may take 4-6 weeks for green card holders and citizens and up to 120 days for employees working on visas or work permits. 

If you still have any doubts that the employee will be working through a work permit or a visa, or may need sponsorship, please ask the following question:

“Will you be working in the U.S through a visa or work permit or is it possible that you may need visa sponsorship or assistance now or in the future” (Avoid asking “Are you a citizen of the U.S?” (Citizenship is a protected category, so we are asking tangentially. 

Ask the finalist if they have any questions that you can answer and let them know that you will remain available to answer those. 

Do not make promises of remote work modality/ arrangements even for a temporary period of time, unless this posting was announced from the beginning as a fully remote position. 

Before you end your video or phone call, please make sure that you give the candidate a clear due date by which to answer (accept or decline your offer): A week is a reasonable timeline (if your second finalist is outstanding and you fear losing them, you may want to offer a shorter period of time). 

Please reach out to cireshr@colorado.edu if you have any questions.