Hiring and Personnel

• Covered Funds: Applies to positions supported in whole or part by operating budget funds (e.g., Fund 001 State Allocation, Fund 149 Tuition, Fund 146 Running Start/International).

• Covered Positions: Covers all regular and non-permanent hiring including permanent, temporary, interim assignment/appointment, acting, project-based, and other limited-duration appointments.

  It applies whether an individual is hired into an established or budgeted position, temporarily performs the duties of an existing position, or is hired to perform services without being assigned to a specific established or budgeted position.

• Other Personnel Costs: Freezes stipends, sabbaticals (beyond faculty stipends required under the collective bargaining agreement), exempt non-represented salary reevaluations, and reassigned time.
• Mandatory Internal Recruitment: Any approved hiring action must be posted internally for a minimum of 10 days before external recruitment can be authorized by executive leadership.

An “active search” is defined as a position or other hiring action that:

• Has been approved through ctcLink and posted for recruitment.
• Is currently accepting applicants or under committee review but an offer has not yet been accepted.

All active, unaccepted searches funded by operating budgets are suspended. 

Note: All positions currently in the recruitment or hiring phase are being reviewed by budget directors to determine if the exemption criteria applies. If exemption criteria applies the process will proceed without further delay. If they don't meet an automatic exemption, the Budget office will log and send positions to the chancellor and presidents for further determination.

If approval is granted to post and fill a position or make another covered hire, the opportunity must first be posted as an internal-only recruitment for 10 days; regardless of its funding source, appointment type, or whether it qualifies for an exception described below. 

If the internal-only recruitment does not produce any finalists, the chancellor and presidents may approve external recruitment/posting. 

If filling a position or making another covered hire affects the operating budget, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will track the associated commitment against the reduction targets established by the Board of Trustees.

Exempt Positions 

Positions exempt from the hiring freeze are those funded exclusively by profitable self-support or revenue-backed sources. 

Please verify with your budget director in advance whether your expenditure falls under an exception. Examples of a fund or funding sources that may be exempt from the hiring freeze include:

• Fund 145/146 (Grants and contracts)
• Fund 148 (Lab/Student fees)
• Fund 522 (Student activity fees)
• Fund 570 (Auxiliary services)

Positions explicitly required by a collective bargaining agreement or necessary to protect life or public safety are also exempt.

Faculty/Student Exemption: Temporary part-time faculty, student, and work-study hires are exempt from the exception approval process. This exemption applies only to the requirement to obtain approval for an exception to the hiring freeze and does not create an exemption from any otherwise applicable collective bargaining agreement, college, district, budget availability, Human Resources, student employment, financial aid, or instructional hiring requirements.

Requesting an Exception

Exception Approval: Requires review by all three college presidents and final approval by the chancellor (internal-only posting still applies). Approved positions (or other covered hires) remain subject to the internal-only posting requirements.

If filling a position or making another covered hire affects the operating budget, the Chief Financial Officer will track the associated commitment against the reduction targets established by the Board of Trustees.

Please note that hiring and other personnel costs are processed at an internal level by human resources and budget directors. Please work with your assigned human resources director regarding stipend and hiring requests.

Exception Process

Follow the steps below to request an exception to the hiring freeze (see flowchart).

1. Human Resources Directors (HRDs) confirm a new vacancy or a new request
2. HRD logs the change or request with Budget Directors
3. Budget Directors review budget availability per Board of Trustees approved levels
4. Budget Directors update MS Forms spreadsheet with budget information
5. Vice Chancellor of Finance/Vice Chancellor of Human Resources bring budget validated personnel changes to the College Presidents and Seattle Colleges Chancellor.
6. HRDs alert supervisors of President/Chancellor decisions and update status in HCM